cput nrf assessment talk 2015
TRANSCRIPT
The Dreaded Rating
Give the best account of your career that you can –
EMPHASISING YOUR LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION
eg:In this evaluation cycle, then, I have established both an excellent infrastructure and
solid expertise in a variety of vaccine protein expression systems as well as in crop plant biotechnology, which has recently enabled us to source funding from the
European Union (FP6 and FP7 awards), as well as from international companies (Era Biotech, Spain; Pannar Ltd).
Publications:
Put EVERYTHING in, and
EMPHASISE YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS CLEARLY AND SUCCINCTLY:
• GRANT OWNERSHIP• STUDENT SUPERVISION
• OWN RESEARCH• WRITING
• SUBMISSION –• AND PUT CITATIONS IN AND IMPACT FACTOR OF JOURNAL!
Conferences / Invited Talks
This where you show local / international recognition:
Plenary lecturesInvited talks
Published abstractsConference talks / posters
Best outputs: a chance to shine
Make sure you use the space given TO REALLY SAY WHY THIS WAS GOOD: eg
This article established that, unlike previous investigations, it was possible to get high-level expression of HPV-16 L1 protein via
transient expression in plants, that it assembled into VLPs, and that it elicited neutralising antibodies in mice. It has been cited 34
times, but also formed the basis for a patent application which is being licenced to a major international company.
Completed Research
SAY WHAT IT IS YOU’VE DONE:
SUCCINCTLY explain your researchEMPHASISE your contribution
HIGHLIGHT collaborationsPut in too-late-for-assessment publications
Self Assessment: BYOD
BE HONEST BUT NOT MODEST:
TELL people why you’re goodESPECIALLY highlight local and/or
international impactSummarise YOUR advancement of your field
Ongoing / Planned Research
• Briefly detail what it is you’re doing right now• Go into more detail on what you concretely plan to do:• Eg: Thus, in the next six years we will start working on producing reagent-
and diagnostically- important proteins for immediate commercialisation, aswell as continuing work on emerging and pandemic flu vaccines as emergencyresponse candidates. Both endeavours are contingent upon support presentlybeing negotiated (one from an international funder); however, if successful,both activities are guaranteed for at least two years. Reagent production is thesubject of a pending application to the Tech & Innov Agency (TIA); successwould allow stability for 5 years.
• An exciting new project possibility is working on fish diseases, and vaccinesand reagents for prophylaxis and diagnosis and therapy of these: a pendingfunding proposal for this is based on metagenomic analysis of farmed fishstocks and their environment for potential and actual pathogens, trawlingantibody libraries for reagents, and making vaccines in plants and algae.
Reviewers
DON’T USE:- Friends or colleagues
- Exclusively local people
DO USE:- Respected international authorities
- Appropriate international peers- Good (ie: respected) locals
Autogoogling 2
To start with:• Need a Gmail address for sign-in• Need to train GSC as to which are your papersWhat you can do:• Immediately see your Hirsch or h-index* (which is
usually significantly higher than the Scopus or ISI measure)
• See your 5-year h-index&, which is a good measure or your (or other person's) recent impact
*h-index is the largest number h such that h publications have at least h citations& largest number h such that h publications have at least h new citations in the last 5 years.
Harzing’s P or PPublish or Perish is a software program that retrieves and analyzes academic citations. It uses Google Scholar to obtain the raw citations, then analyzes these for:• Total number of papers• Total number of citations• Average number of citations per paper• Average number of citations per author• Average number of papers per author• Average number of citations per year• Hirsch's h-index and related parameters• Egghe's g-index• The contemporary h-index• The age-weighted citation rate• Two variations of individual h-indices• An analysis of the number of authors per paper.The results are available on-screen and can also be copied to the Windows clipboard (for pasting into other applications) or saved Training resourcesA 15-minute audio & slide presentation on citation analysis and Publish or Perish can be found on Slideshare.
Google Scholar / H or H might be best for:• Business, Administration,
Finance & Economics;• Engineering, Computer
Science & Mathematics;• Social Sciences, Arts &
Humanities.
Why would you want to use social media?
Online Visibility Helps Track and Improve Scientific Metrics
• Evidence suggests that an active online presencemay directly impact a researcher's credentials asmeasured through traditional metrics.
• One UK researcher observed that tweeting andblogging about her own papers led to spikes inthe number of article downloads, even for olderliterature.
• For articles deposited in the preprint server arXiv,Twitter mentions were positively correlatedwith rapid article downloads and citationsappearing only months after deposition
Why would you want to use social media?
Social Media Enhances Professional Networking
• Online discussions can lead to tangible, real-world social interactions.
• Conversations on Twitter can serve as anicebreaker once two people finally meet in aconference or workshop setting.
• Tweeting from conferences can introduce otherscientists to valuable content, and consequentlyprovide networking opportunities for users whoactively post during meetings.
Advice for New Users
In academia, there is often a particular stigmaattached to online activities: actively maintainingan online profile and participating in social mediadiscussions can be seen as a waste of time and adistraction from research and teaching duties.
However, when used in a targeted and streamlinedmanner, social media tools can complement andenhance a researcher's career.
When exploring online tools for the first time, newusers can maximize their reach by considering thefollowing points
Advice for New Users - 1
Explore online guides to social media
• The Superfund program at Oregon StateUniversity maintains an exhaustive list ofresources (blog articles, videos, how-toguides) focused on science and social media:http://bit.ly/WkdN0G.
Advice for New Users - 2Establish a professional-looking website• To establish an online presence, set up a personal
website that lays out specific research projects andareas of expertise, searchable by colleagues,journalists, and the public alike.
• Although professional websites can be establishedthrough UCT, external hosts (eg: wordpress.com) offermore flexibility and are easier to access and maintain –and can be linked out to from UCT.
• A website can be supplemented with social mediaaccounts (e.g., Twitter and Google+ profiles), whichwill also appear high in Google search results.
• Eg: Scoop.it allows you to create a magazine-like sitefor daily updates
Advice for New Users - 3
Locate pertinent online conversations• Find people with common interests; follow the social
media that they link to and that links to them.
• Use established social networks (e.g., a base ofTwitter or LinkedIn or ResearchGate contacts) or ameans of notification (RSS feeds etc) to get started.
• It can be beneficial to read first without contributing(“lurking”) to learn logistics and basic etiquette ofdifferent social media platforms.
Advice for New Users - 4
Establish a LinkedIn, Academia.edu and/orResearchGate profile: this
• Increases your global findability
• Increases your professional exposure
• Allows you to upload material for others to read