your academic FYP 30th January, 2025

Academia essentials hand-picked fortnightly for the informed scholar

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Hey Scholar, here's what we have for you this week:

• Postdoc and PhD opportunities 🇳🇴 🇦🇺 🇺🇸 🇬🇧

• Take your brain to the gym with this podcast

• How long would it take to read all the articles published last year?

• An interview guaranteed to change how you see ChatGPT for academic work

and much more.

OPPORTUNITIES

💼Funded PhDs, Postdocs and academic job openings

• Funded PhDs @ University of Stavangar, Norway: click here

• Funded PhD Positions @ Monash University, Australia: click here

• Postdocs @ University of New South Wales, Australia: click here

• Postdocs @ Scripps Research Institute, USA: click here

• Funded PhDs @ University College London, UK: click here

If the idea of making your PhD application is daunting, here's a detailed guide to help you through the entire process👇

NEWS

🧠The (mass) production of scientific genius

Normal people take around 36 years to reach the status of “most cited” (i.e the top 2%) in their field, but recently the number of researchers achieving the feat in 8 years or less has increased rapidly. If you're a glass-half-full type then this is great news, there are more genius scientists being produced. If you're John Ioannidis (a meta-researcher who conducts research on, well, research) then you might take a closer look at whether some of these rising stars are gaming the system (spoiler: some might be).

🎣Rage-bait: PhD students have nothing useful to say

Using the standardized Flesch reading-ease test (no doubt a very sophisticated tool), 347,000 PhD abstracts from a variety of disciplines published between 1812 and 2023 were analyzed by The Economist. Results show that outputs produced by PhD students in the humanities and social sciences have become more challenging to understand. Could the increase in the complexity of writing be down to the increasing complexity of our intellectual challenges? Certainly not, its far more likely that PhD students need to “disguise the fact that they have nothing useful to say”.

💲One Nation One Subscription

More than 18 million students at universities in India gained access to 13,000 journals that were previously behind a paywall on January 1st 2025, courtesy of the Indian Government. What is a big win for scholars who have long been frustrated by paywalls is an even bigger win for publishers: 30 publishers (including global heavyweights Elsevier, Springer-Nature, Taylor & Francis and Wiley) are expected to make a collective $723 million over the next 3 years from the One Nation, One Subscription initiative. 

BRAIN FOOD

🎲Mistaking probability for reliability: I'm 90% sure it's probably correct

The only guidance you'll ever need to use ChatGPT effectively in academia is not on YouTube or the Harvard University's library website. It's in this interview. When you view ChatGPT as a general model of language generating output based on probability, as Dr Jörg Pohle does, then the question of whether the output is completely correct or accurate becomes irrelevant. You can't be hurt by bias or hallucinations when you're not using ChatGPT to look for “the truth”. It's a really fascinating insight into how a real life academic uses AI responsibly and 100% guaranteed to change your perspective. 

🎭The case for the expert (generalist)

The overarching goal of a modern academic is to develop deep, narrow, specialist knowledge. But is specialism worth it if one loses sight of the bigger picture? This Reel says… maybe. Specialist knowledge has its place, but it's time for generalists to get some institutional respect.

RESOURCES

🎧A podcast that's a workout for your brain

Do you know what philosophy really is? It's exercise for your brain muscles. So if you're feeling intellectually rusty or simply uninspired, you might want to check out 'Philosophize This!'. It's a podcast series that explores the ideas and thinkers that have shaped our world in an unpretentious (and accessible) way. It's a perfect intellectual refreshment for anyone looking to reinvigorate their mind.

🤖Generative AI in Education: What Are Your Students Up To?

Save-the-date: 29th of January 2025, 5:00 pm (GMT)

It's no longer surprising that students are (ab)using Gen AI in their education. But this reality shifts the onus onto educators to engage more meaningfully with the implications of AI in our teaching practices. This workshop provides a platform for educators to discuss how students are utilizing AI and offers practical insights into how AI can be integrated responsibly into our teaching strategies.

KEEPING IT REAL

👋Not waving, but drowning (in literature)

If you're finding it hard to keep up with all the literature in your field, cut yourself some slack. Assuming you spent 15 minutes per article (okay, so more like skimming than reading) and read 24 hours a day without taking a single break, you'd need 157 years to read all of the 5.5 million journal articles published in 2024. 

*We know that ‘apples' don't capture the full spectrum of human expression, so let us know what you didn't like about it by replying to this email or dropping a comment. We’d love to hear from!