Club Admiralty

v7.2 - moving along, a point increase at a time

Multilitteratus Incognitus

Pondering what to learn next 🤔

Hidden Scholarship: reported achievements of academics

It seems like forever ago since I've read this article by Maha Bali on ProfHacker on Hidden Scholarship†. It's actually been on my radar for a while, but between work and class the mind space for this was not available.

In any case, if you haven't read this brief post on ProfHacker it's worthwhile reading. Maha writes about things that go under-reported, or not reported at all when it comes to scholarship by academics.  I think that a lot of things go under-reported, and I think part of it is that they aren't valued as much by our peers out there. One of the things that Maha mentions is peer review.  I am actually pretty happy that an academic social media platform (Publons) is working on this and their social network is based on creating some sort of record of peer review. You can see my profile here as an example. That said, it's really up to the peer reviewer to submit/forward their receipts from peer review systems and then the Publons system will work out whatever they need to work out to verify that you did indeed do the peer review for that article and list it on your profile.  That still leaves a lot of hidden scholarship (if you've been peer reviewing for a while anyway). Luckily (in a sense) I haven't peer reviewed much so I didn't have to think TOO hard about everything I was asked to peer review‡ so it was fairly easy to remember most things I did.

I agree with Maha as well that collaboration isn't always valued by peers at the same level (at least in my own contexts).  It seems to me that co-authored works tend to get fewer "points" in faculty reviews as compared to single authored works.  On a similar note, I find - again in my own contexts - that conference presentations are given fewer points than published papers. It seems to me that some works that might be more ephemeral in nature (like some conference presentations) should not be given short shrift because of their medium.  I think that those are just as valuable as a paper published in a peer reviewed journal.

Blog posts were something mentioned in the comments to the article as well.  Blog posts in general don't have the cache that other, more established forms, of scholarly work have - especially if you only post on your own blog! I've been asked several times in the past to contribute blog posts for different organizations and sitesâ™ .  One thing that comes to mind - for me - is why drive traffic to your blog with my blog post, when I can just as easily post it on my blog.  I don't receive any peer review for it, so might as well keep it on my own playing ground.  In the past I had submitted blog posts to - now defunct - sites and those blog posts are lost for the most part (luckily some I had the foresight to keep the text for).  Some of those sites may argue that it could drive readers to this blog, but I don't have any aspiration of aggressively growing my readership.  I blog as a way of sharing what I know, to process new knowledge, and to engage with people¤. I think organic rather than forced readership is much more valuable. That said, I wouldn't mind having a byline on ProfHacker one of these days ;-)

One of my own contributions to this list of hidden scholarship is student advising. I don't think that academics get much credit for this.  Most academics stay up to date with their field. They read the contributions of their field, and they in turn incorporate that into any research they do, and they help guide students toward it that may not be at the right spot yet to be able to navigate there on their own, but for whom the research is important nevertheless.  I think that student mentorship (real mentorship, not just the quick 10 minute advising session each semester) is something that academics need to be recognized for as scholarship. Relating to this academic mentoring is helping/mentoring students to grow as professionals and researchers in the field.

What are items that would go on your list of hidden scholarship?



NOTES:
† just a quick date comparison indicates that it's been over two months at this point in time! Wow! Took a long time to respond to this :-)
‡ I am open for peer review gigs if you need a peer reviewer - just saying ;-)
â™  I prefer to not name them, fwiw.
¤ engage through twitter, facebook, google+, and on comments - generally speaking
 Comments
Stacks Image 20

Archive

 Nov 2023 (1)
 Aug 2023 (1)
 Jul 2023 (1)
 May 2023 (1)
 Apr 2023 (4)
 Mar 2023 (5)
 Feb 2023 (2)
 Dec 2022 (6)
 Nov 2022 (1)
 Sep 2022 (1)
 Aug 2022 (2)
 Jul 2022 (3)
 Jun 2022 (1)
 May 2022 (1)
 Apr 2022 (2)
 Feb 2022 (2)
 Nov 2021 (2)
 Sep 2021 (1)
 Aug 2021 (1)
 Jul 2021 (2)
 Jun 2021 (1)
 May 2021 (1)
 Oct 2020 (1)
 Sep 2020 (1)
 Aug 2020 (1)
 May 2020 (2)
 Apr 2020 (2)
 Feb 2020 (1)
 Dec 2019 (3)
 Oct 2019 (2)
 Aug 2019 (1)
 Jul 2019 (1)
 May 2019 (1)
 Apr 2019 (1)
 Mar 2019 (1)
 Dec 2018 (5)
 Nov 2018 (1)
 Oct 2018 (2)
 Sep 2018 (2)
 Jun 2018 (1)
 Apr 2018 (1)
 Mar 2018 (2)
 Feb 2018 (2)
 Jan 2018 (1)
 Dec 2017 (1)
 Nov 2017 (2)
 Oct 2017 (1)
 Sep 2017 (2)
 Aug 2017 (2)
 Jul 2017 (2)
 Jun 2017 (4)
 May 2017 (7)
 Apr 2017 (3)
 Feb 2017 (4)
 Jan 2017 (5)
 Dec 2016 (5)
 Nov 2016 (9)
 Oct 2016 (1)
 Sep 2016 (6)
 Aug 2016 (4)
 Jul 2016 (7)
 Jun 2016 (8)
 May 2016 (9)
 Apr 2016 (10)
 Mar 2016 (12)
 Feb 2016 (13)
 Jan 2016 (7)
 Dec 2015 (11)
 Nov 2015 (10)
 Oct 2015 (7)
 Sep 2015 (5)
 Aug 2015 (8)
 Jul 2015 (9)
 Jun 2015 (7)
 May 2015 (7)
 Apr 2015 (15)
 Mar 2015 (2)
 Feb 2015 (10)
 Jan 2015 (4)
 Dec 2014 (7)
 Nov 2014 (5)
 Oct 2014 (13)
 Sep 2014 (10)
 Aug 2014 (8)
 Jul 2014 (8)
 Jun 2014 (5)
 May 2014 (5)
 Apr 2014 (3)
 Mar 2014 (4)
 Feb 2014 (8)
 Jan 2014 (10)
 Dec 2013 (10)
 Nov 2013 (4)
 Oct 2013 (8)
 Sep 2013 (6)
 Aug 2013 (10)
 Jul 2013 (6)
 Jun 2013 (4)
 May 2013 (3)
 Apr 2013 (2)
 Mar 2013 (8)
 Feb 2013 (4)
 Jan 2013 (10)
 Dec 2012 (11)
 Nov 2012 (3)
 Oct 2012 (8)
 Sep 2012 (17)
 Aug 2012 (15)
 Jul 2012 (16)
 Jun 2012 (19)
 May 2012 (12)
 Apr 2012 (12)
 Mar 2012 (12)
 Feb 2012 (12)
 Jan 2012 (13)
 Dec 2011 (14)
 Nov 2011 (19)
 Oct 2011 (21)
 Sep 2011 (31)
 Aug 2011 (12)
 Jul 2011 (8)
 Jun 2011 (7)
 May 2011 (3)
 Apr 2011 (2)
 Mar 2011 (8)
 Feb 2011 (5)
 Jan 2011 (6)
 Dec 2010 (6)
 Nov 2010 (3)
 Oct 2010 (2)
 Sep 2010 (2)
 Aug 2010 (4)
 Jul 2010 (9)
 Jun 2010 (8)
 May 2010 (5)
 Apr 2010 (4)
 Mar 2010 (2)
 Feb 2010 (3)
 Jan 2010 (7)
 Dec 2009 (9)
 Nov 2009 (5)
 Oct 2009 (9)
 Sep 2009 (13)
 Aug 2009 (13)
 Jul 2009 (13)
 Jun 2009 (13)
 May 2009 (15)
 Apr 2009 (15)
 Mar 2009 (14)
 Feb 2009 (13)
 Jan 2009 (10)
 Dec 2008 (12)
 Nov 2008 (6)
 Oct 2008 (8)
 Sep 2008 (2)
 Jun 2008 (1)
 May 2008 (6)
 Apr 2008 (1)
Stacks Image 18