Considerations for Posterity in Scholarship
Attention All Scholars: Stop what you are doing this instant and redirect a fraction of your attention to the following career-saving recommendations. Do this EVERY DAY OF YOUR PROFESSIONAL LIFE by carving 15, 20, 60 minutes per day for your own documentation and a minimum of 1 hour per week per student to review their documentation and progress:
- RECORD--Record the scope, hypothesis, experimental design and conclusions for the day. If your scholarship is in a field not conducive to bound lab notebooks, update your journal on your academic pursuits and endeavors.
- REVIEW--Review your entries for the past several days and ensure they are complete.
- INSTRUCT--Document instructions given to subordinates or received from supervisors of your work.
- COUNSEL--Counsel your subordinate scholars on how to maintain lab notebooks and journals.
- THINK--Stop and think about what you and your subordinate scholars are doing, how you are ensuring objectivity, your place in the world of exploration and knowledge transfer. Are you satisfied or are you overwhelmed? If the latter, fix your problems NOW.
- DOUBLE CHECK--Check, double check and seriously, triple check your literature searches, references lists and other bibliographical materials and assure yourself that you've properly referenced others.
- HEAL--Shore up adversarial relationships, especially professional ones.
Go Back to Science Management Home Page
