Latest activity → Feed

September 2018

Short thought

If I could buy one thing, I would buy more time. I have so many (I think, good) ideas for book projects and not enough time in which to write them all.

#capitalisttime

Short thought

Shingles update: the worst part is having to come off my immunosuppression, which basically means the rheumatoid arthritis is in full flare up, yielding astonishing joint pain already and that I can only hobble along.

I mean, the shingles aren't great either and I feel ill, but the joint pain is the worst.

Short thought

"May your viva be as easy as Stephen Hawking's was made out to be in The Theory of Everything" will be my new expression of good wishes to PhD students.

Short thought

My verdict so far on shingles: "it's a bit hurty".

more painful than reading the REF guidance. Less painful than rheumatoid arthritis and a stroke.

Short thought

I like that these outputs cannot be submitted to REF: "The outputs of staff who have been made redundant (except where the staff member has taken voluntary redundancy)"

Short thought

Awoke at 5.30am today and nailed a first draft of an article. The rest of today is backbreaking labour of kitchen disassembly and loading heavy boxes into the loft :O

Short thought

I had such a fantastic evening, due to the warmth and love of friends and colleagues at my inaugural lecture. Thank you all so much.

Short thought

I do technically have a shirt to change into for my inaugural tonight, but I'm considering keeping the bear t-shirt instead...

Short thought

Was thinking more about the arguments yesterday at #OAmonographs re. risks for ECRs. Argument was: ECRs should play it safe to get a job. Problem is, this just homogenises candidates to look exactly like the other 100+ applicants, rather than making them stand out.

Short thought

Likewise, Brexit, tuition fees, the Augar review, institutional failure, all impinge on the viability of #OAmonographs in the UK as institutional revenue streams are mixed.

Short thought

A point that struck me forcefully at #OAmonographs today was that if the #oer movement succeeds, cross subsidy for research monographs from textbooks will collapse. That's not necessarily a bad thing but has economic implications for OA monographs.

Short thought

My view on carrots and sticks in the UK funding environment is that QR is the carrot with which they hit us. #OAmonographs

Short thought

I'm a bit worried by the call for a hub about information on OA for Hums researchers. 1. This stuff is already out there; 2. Someone on the panel said that they didn't want to read complex/long documents... But OA is complex. #OAmonographs

Short thought

Sorry for a self-centred tweet, but when the question of OA and ECRs comes up... It didn't work out badly for me. #OAmonographs

I'm still an ECR for another two years by AHRC "8-years of PhD" standard. #OAmonographs

Short thought

"Only" 20x more downloads of open-access book chapters on JSTOR, though downloads is a blunt measure. #OAmonographs

Short thought

We should remember that #OAmonographs don't mean the eradication of print. Both of my OA monographs are available in print.

Short thought

Great intervention from @geoffcrossick at #OAmonographs. Treat creative writing as a practice-based discipline and thereby exempt. Third party rights remain among the most challenging parts of a shift to OA monographs.

Short thought

Important report out for higher education (and society more generally) today from the Migration Advisory Committee. Due around 10am.

Short thought

Up bright and early for a day at the British Academy discussing the practical implementation of open-access books.

Short thought

A day of kitchen disassembly, a disastrous afternoon of unsuccessful music making, but ended with a stroll by the sea.

Short thought

My other half expressed no interest whatsoever in the piece of climbing training equipment that arrived today, but I have christened it "The Painmaster 5000".

Short thought

Just went to login to an old Instagram account associated with my email. Language changed to Arabic. Password changed. But I can't login because Instagram appears to be the worst designed piece of software I've ever seen. And their "my account has been hacked" form doesn't work.

Short thought

Just took the "heart age test" thing that's going around. "On average, someone like you can expect to live to the age of 71 without having a heart attack or stroke." That last statement doesn't do much to convince me of the personal applicability of this test.

Short thought

I suppose a repository could be considered a "compliant platform". That would get around rewriting green policies.

Short thought

Another Plan S gem: "The above principles shall apply to all types of scholarly publications, but it is understood that the timeline to achieve Open Access for monographs and books may be longer than 1 January 2020"

Short thought

Since RE is part of UKRI and the Plan seems to apply to green, theoretically Plan S will also apply to a future REF policy.