Here is one that many academics would recognise...
Once you have published a couple of times your name goes into a massive database of evil which does several things. Firstly if you are researching SALTM then your Big Pharma shill cheques get activated. Secondly there is peer review.
Most do not realise that peer review is something scientists do for free. It isn't done by a Secret College of guardians it is done by workers in the field, in their imaginary spare time. Well actually it is often done by the Igors of the workers in the field. Its dreadful, that ping in your inbox which means at least 4 hrs work just dropped in your lap. If you are being honest and diligent that is. And if you are not then blame yourself for the crappy reviews you get. That video, by the way, is practically a documentary.
But on top of this is the requests for conferences. Conferences are a bit like opiates. being accepted for a talk is a warm, fluffy, addictive experience. Iin my field, for example, one conference has a 90% failure rate on talk submissions. Invited lectures are even better. That goes on your CV.
But...last few years there has been a plague of invites from China. They offer invited lectures in Qingdao or wherever. They don't offer to defray expenses.
I got one this morning from someone with the delightful name Vantasy Wang.
I have never knwonw anyone who ever took them up on these invites. I have also no idea if this is real or a scam. If it is real I really wonder what is going on in China to give sooo many conferrences.
For many academics the Chinese conference invite is displacing the Nigerian royalty email as the spam du jour.
RantingScienceZebra The rantings of a bitter, twisted, sometimes crippled and rather mad scientist
Very funny. I do the odd peer review. Usually it is fun to pick apart someone else's work. In the old old days, I could recognise from the font who had written a particular comment - Manchester dental school was quite distinctive. No longer of course!
ReplyDeleteThe video had me screeching with unladylike laughter. Thanks for that.
Its so real. Lost count of the times reviewer no 3 has shagged me over. And the more experiments thing. Often its like asking Eddington to nip back and get another eclipse photo.
DeleteRecently had reviewer 3 ask me to include units...for a ratio...
That...was very very funny. Even for me, a non-scientist.
ReplyDeleteTwo short questions:
who or what is N.I.H.?
do I take it that "Scientific American" isn't a highly respected journal?
You take care, now.
Lx
Scientific american is like new scientist. No one oldr than high school gets it for anything other than job adverts.
ReplyDeleteNIH national institutes of health. Immortalised as NIMH in the mrs frisbee book.