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September 2019

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Just to clarify: I _did_ know about contention around "developing nations" and other terms, but not "Global South". In any case, extensive note on this now added!

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Anyway, two problems this morning: 1. I only learned today that some of our authors from, say, Latin America use the term "Global South", while others find this stigmatizing and prefer "developing countries". I had not realised this contention existed.

2. Different contributors have used their institutional and/or degree titles in different ways. Some, who are US Profs, style themselves Dr. X is Prof of Y. Others do Prof X is Prof of Y, and holds a Ph.D. from Z. Others just do X is Prof of Y, and holds a Ph.D from Z.

To standardise this comes with some nice hierarchical flattening -- especially for contributors without Ph.D.s -- but then hides the not-insubstantial achievement of gaining the Ph.D. for those who have it.

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I survived the cyclophosphamide with surprising ease this month. I mean, Friday + Saturday were still grim, but feeling much much better this morning! Far quicker than usual. Hurrah!

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In fairness, I think the hospital "fish and chips" might also be cytotoxic. Always a highlight.

It's like somebody who has never seen fish and chips before tried to come up with "fish and chips" based on a loose textual description.

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I really hate these badly designed surveys at hospitals.

Them: "How likely are you to recommend this hospital ward?"

Me: "if you need medical care, I would recommend you get it. I do not have enough comparative experience to say whether this ward is better than elsewhere."

"I would recommend you stay away from this hospital ward if you don't need treatment"

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Early planning on this edited collection in 2016 has really paid off in gender terms. By my count we have 16 male authors, 21 female authors, and 2 who identify otherwise (though I intend to check all pronouns individually with authors to make sure I have this right).

We have a good international balance, too, although still perhaps more Anglo-American than it might have been. Reviewers helped us with this and we commissioned extra pieces. Taking conscious efforts to militate against your own editorial subject position seems ever crucial.

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What do you reckon? "In this book, we spell the phrasal noun and postpositive compound adjective ‘open access’, the prepositive compound adjective ‘open-access’, and the heterogeneous movement devoted to the advancement of open access, ‘the Open Access Movement’."

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Had a terrible, painful flare of the Crohn's disease for all of last night and came up with the worst film idea ever. Star Wars: Attack of the Crohn's.

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An expensive but possible way to do Society OA

A Learned Society spoke to me last week about what they could do to move to an open-access model. They currently receive about 100,000 EUR per year from their subscription/hybrid-OA publisher but were willing to jettison this (!) if they could go OA with no author fees.

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And... Our new editorial officer at @openlibhums is Dr @RoseHarrisB ! So pleased to be working with her!

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So, if Google really has got a quantum computer running that can perform its claimed calculations within the reported timescales, should we presume that SSL and other asymmetric encryption is broken?

I mean we should always assume that all encryption is pre-broken, but...

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Off to London today to get started with our new @openlibhums Editorial Officer... More on which/the big reveal later!

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Whenever it is reported that "the Prime Minister refuses to rule out X" it means "the Prime Minister is about to do X".

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This book is now over 400 pages and the Zotero bibliography takes more than 5 minutes to regenerate on a pretty powerful i9 7980XE.

"Don't hurt me, no more."

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Three chapters in and the list of abbreviations and glossary entries in this edited collection is near 2,000 words... Academics love their TLAs.

There are twenty five chapters.

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As a researcher, is there a cool piece of technology that you wish someone would make that would improve your processes?

Remind me never to ask Twitter for any sensible suggestions ever again :P

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Went for a pub lunch where I live -- on the coast in Kent -- and someone had a @BirkbeckLibrary tote bag!

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Funding for science research in universities in jeopardy, warns Lords Committee - News from Parliament - UK Parliament
https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/lords-select/science-and-technology-committee/news-parliament-2017/science-research-funding-report-published/

Augar focused on just one element of the university finance system. The report states that commenting on research was “outside the scope of this review”; however, the ToR say that recommendations should support universities in delivering the Government’s objectives for science.

See point 65 for full details.

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I have been cleaning up the mix on a track I'm doing. Due to my neurological hearing loss the whole process is quite involved and uses multiple reference systems: 1x nearfield monitors; 1x mono "horrorbox"; 2x sets of hifi speakers; 3x sets of headphones.

It's an interesting situation to be in: having music as a hobby that you wish to continue even while your hearing degrades or is damaged. Mixing is a difficult enough task for those with really good ears.

In fact, I can actually class myself as a professional musician, as I'm signed to a label who pay me (not retiring any time soon, for info). But what's remarkable is how you can learn what you can't hear and adjust using different reproduction systems.

For instance, I know that my bass frequency perception is bad in the right ear. Cannot hear often even a whole tone of difference. Had a 303 mistuned to 441.5 instead of A440 recently and mastering engineer spotted it. Have to take a lot of care.

Visual aides such as spectrum analyzers are helpful, but my perception of masking is definitely different to others (impaired) and EQing stuff can be a total pain.

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This morning's reading is totally just for fun - Mike Senior's Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio. It's really good!

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Reading a document at the moment that has reminded me of the brilliance of DeLillo's _Ratner's Star_. My favourite of his novels.

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On clinicians' advice, ever since the horrible chemo drugs have started working and I've felt a bit better, I've been stepping up the exercise, taking a proper hour's break in the day. Smashed a HIIT session on the bike today.

Also, ya know what's awesome* for weight loss? Cyclophosphamide.

* not awesome in any way.

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This morning I am reading the controversial Stanley Fish. “No Bias, No Merit: The Case against Blind Submission.” PMLA, vol. 103, no. 5, 1988, pp. 739–48. https://www.jstor.org/stable/462513 and one of the best things is the JSTOR URL... "Stanley Fish's Academic Clickbait" 😂

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The Problems of Unit Costs Per Article

Every five minutes or so, someone tries to come up with a cost-per-article figure for academic publishing. In the past, I've tried to do it too. But more and more I find myself wanting to resist the temptation. Not only because the data collection takes forever, but because the figures that I would…

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I often think of the "contact hours" arguments: behind every hour of lecture, there's 8+ hours of prep. Then there are criticisms of "Profs giving the same lecture year after year". But that's the only way to keep the labour down.

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Just finished recording a video lecture for our MA Reading the Contemporary at @BirkbeckUoL - being done remotely to protect me from infection while on chemo drugs but also because I think this could be a valuable form. Further, I tracked time on it: 8 hours to write + deliver.

@BirkbeckUoL (and this is on a subject well known to me and directly within my purview)

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So frustrating. With less than 24 hours notice, the hospital reschedules my cyclophosphamide drip. New date involves rescheduling work commitments (including things with deadlines, like marking), cancelling social engagements, shunting todo list items around). Mightily tedious.

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Until our new @openlibhums Editorial Officer is in post -- and more on that VERY SOON -- I am managing editorial oversight on the OLHJ. And I have to say, it is incredible seeing the quality and depth of some of the reports that we're receiving.

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Learned Societies, Open Access and Budgetary Cross-Subsidy

There's an article out in The Times Higher Education Science Magazine (edit 11:38am) about Learned Societies and open access. As usual, it points out the thorny problem that Learned Societies derive revenue from subscriptions that they fear will be lost under an OA model. A few points spring to…

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After reading the whole Oryx & Crake trilogy and wishing Atwood had just written one of the novels, I'm thinking of steering clear of The Testaments. I mean, is this really necessary, to supplement such a brilliant novel?

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*Plays remix of one of my tracks*
But it's not your version is it?

*Plays remix of someone else's track that I've done*
But it's their track right?

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Further work on our peer-review book this AM... "We speculated that reviewers might adopt such an approach – colloquially referred to as a ‘shit sandwich’ – based on previous studies in the field (Fortanet 2008; Samraj 2016, 79–80)."

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But hey! I just had someone give me a cup of tea on the house for the first time ever. This is surprisingly cheering!

At Pret that is

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Discharged. I had severe, sudden pain down my sides, which can be indicative, with my health problems, of a range of serious issues. They're putting it down to rheumatoid inflammation. Blood markers substantially up. No kidney or liver or pancreatic problems in blood results.

I should note, I still have the debilitating pain... But "they're not worried about this" as it won't kill me. 🤔

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Had scrupulously lined up today as a research day but developed some symptoms overnight that I thought a GP should check. They've sent me to hospital :(

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Astonishing if true. Research Professional 8am Playbook reporting that "Dominic Cummings is believed to want to double the UK science and research budget" for a "jaw-dropping" announcement at the Conservative Party conference. Classic Dom?

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"The court will accordingly make an order declaring that the prime minister’s advice to HM the Queen and the prorogation which followed thereon was unlawful and is thus null and of no effect."

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I actually had quite a good day in the end. Sure I got up at 4.30am and spent all day on an iron drip in hospital, but I made amazing admin progress today, clearing everything I'd rescheduled to the weekend and then went for a pint with a friend. Music and writing now beckons.

Hard to describe how pleasing it feels to have cleared some writing space. I try not to let it become the last thing to go amid health challenges - and admin always seems to displace writing - but, yeah, looking forward to this.

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Yesterday I finally purchased a @BirkbeckUoL flask with our lovely owl logo. Wanted one for ages and took the plunge. #OnBrand

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Tomorrow, it's a 4.30am start for me for the iron infusion. Apparently 33% of people react badly to this. Hoping for the 66% and to get the anti-anaemic buzz!

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I am now at my sister in law's, where we are spending the night. She is not here. I also note that her snake vivarium, usually populated by a serpent, worryingly, appears empty.

We found the snake, in the tank, this morning. Phew.

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We arrive at the mother-in-law's. Pretty much the first sentence she uttered, after jumping out on us having cued up Herb Alpert on the turntable, was: "be careful! There's a bat in the bathroom".