The Academic Career…

Conor O’Mahony & Frederic Adam *Department of Law

* Department of Accounting, Finance and Information Systems

University College CorkIreland

ForewordThe academic (borrowed from R. Hirschheim)

• Historically, a balance of research, teaching and service• Jack of all trades, master of none?• Different cultures, different schools have different

views on the appropriate mix• Over time, research has taken ‘center stage’, at least in

certain areas.• In Business and Law, uncertain what the right balance

is – research is important, but funding models rely primarily on teaching and other key elements of the academic “profile”

Elements of the Academic ProfileYou can enhance your profile through:

• “Excellent” or “novel” Teaching• Curriculum development – new courses / new degrees• Research supervision• Contribution to your institution (eg: committees, course direction)• Seeking research funding / lead projects (eg: PI)

• Published work• Conference / research presentations• Journal, reviewing, editing and production• Conference and seminar organisation• Participation / leadership in international forums• Lead international projects (eg: FP7)• Engage with industry• Public profile events

• Blogs and websites

Internal

ExternalCovered together

Teaching Duties and Experience

• Try to gain experience of and think carefully about:

• Lectures and tutorials• Course design and curriculum development• Teaching aids• Examining• Student contact – formal and informal• Reflective practice and self-improvement• Formal qualifications

• Doing well is not the same as spending loads of time• Necessary but not sufficient in 2011

Postgraduate Supervision• Can take a variety of forms• Taught Masters dissertation• Masters by Research• PhD

Even if you have little or no experience of supervising, have some thoughts on your experience of being supervised and on what makes a good supervisor

Begin with co-supervision Seek to move towards the “3 year PhD”

Pick the topics Pick the candidates Keep the pressure on

Don’t neglect the essentials – in time, you will NEED completed PhDs

Administration

• Universities are a case of “death by committee”…so think about how you can show:

• Organisational skills• Team-work• Past experience• Responsibility• Initiative

• Sometimes, learn to say “No”…

Practical example - UCC• Faculty meetings• Research committee• Mentoring of students• School visits• Board of studies• Interview / promotion boards• Programme direction• Industrial placement opportunity seeker• Objectives:

– Go with your strengths and interests– Understand “value for time”– Don’t neglect the essentials – you need your institution

Seeking Research Funding

• Why? What kind of projects? What kind of projects?• Funding your research

– Assemble a team– Collect PhDs and post-Docs

• Becoming a PI– Understanding that the PI does not do the work– Become an experts on schemes, deadlines and application– Become an expert on FP7 or EI accounting rules– Get to know everyone who matters in the VP for research

office and in the Finance office

Research Publishing? What is it?

• Contributing to Scientific Progress• Participating in the emergence of the New Ideas that will

Shape the Future• Writing papers / reports about research one has carried

out• Send them to a variety of forums• Build the profile of your lab so it gets richly funded• Build up a profile for yourself so you can get a job,

tenure and timely promotion• Boost your ego and line up trophies on your mantelpiece

Science!

Personal Interest {These factors are not always correlated }

Notion of Publication Profile

• Right balance of publications – where and what• Types: journal papers, book chapters, conferences,

edited books and authored books• Topics and methods• Which ones are the most important? The “best”

ones?• How do you decide where you send your stuff?• How much does the shape of the outcome matters

in terms of profile? Mintzberg’s “intended” versus “realised” strategy

Appearances can be deceiving• Dissertations are not always dissertations

– Thesis by publication• Journals are not always journals

– Electronic journals– “A”, “B” and even “C” (!) journals [or grade 4, 3, 2, 1 journals]

• Conferences are not always conferences– Peer reviewed– Selection rate– Published proceedings

• Books are not always books:– Publisher– Reading committee– Distribution

• Need to SPEAK THE THRUTH! [at least to yourself!]• Have a clear strategy dedicated to a specific rating scheme

– WHOSE SCHEME?!?!?!??!• Understand the importance of timing is also very important

What are rankings?• With so many rankings, pick the one most favourable!

– Aston (RAE) - http://www.abs.aston.ac.uk/newweb/research/documents/mar08.pdf – Association of Business Schools– Specialised rankings

• ACPHIS (Australian Council of Professors and Heads of Information Systems) or “Basket of IS journals”

– Other rankings / bibliometric analyses• Eg: ISI listings

• In practice rankings may mean little – see where the best researchers publish! But you are not a leading researcher yet…

• If it were about the Truth, we would be discussing the methodologies used by these rating schemes– Do you know how the RAE works?– Do you know how ISI select their publications?

• But they are critical when it comes to rating publications and therefore when it comes to rating your record. SO KNOW THEM

Impact factor

A = the number of times articles published in 2008-9 were cited in indexed journals during 2010

B = the number of articles, reviews, proceedings or notes published in 2008-9

impact factor 2010 = A/B

(note that the impact factor for a year is actually published in the following year, because it cannot be calculated until all of the 2010 publications had been received. Impact factor 2010 will be published in 2011)

ExamplesRank 2007 Impact Factor Impact 2003-07 Impact 1981-2007

1 Acad. Manage. Journal(5.02)

Admin. Science Quart.(9.80)

Admin. Science Quart.(81.86)

2 Acad. Manage. Rev.(4.37)

Journal of Marketing(7.0)

Acad. Manage. Rev.(59.93)

3 Marketing Science(3.96)

Acad. Manage. Journal(7.43)

Journal of Marketing(49.41)

4 Journal of Marketing(3.75)

Acad. Manage. Rev.(6.90)

Acad. Manage. Journal(45.66)

5 Admin. Science Quart.(2.91)

Marketing Science(6.22)

Strategic Manage. J.(40.52)

6 Strategic Manage. J.(2.83)

Strategic Manage. J.(5.90)

J. Consumer Research(37.97)

MISQ (4.731)

Feed back

• Publishing is only one side of the coin• In future years feed back will be what matters– Number of citations– Where– How many papers– scHolar Index (

http://insitu.lri.fr/~roussel/projects/scholarindex/index.cgi)

Finding homes for yourself• A good working group – tightly focused

– Specialised topic / smaller group / more dynamic / easier to prove yourself• A large international conference

– Big payback / harder to get in / even harder to get up top• A journal where you have contacts

– Become a reviewer, then an AE, then…• Forums where everyone wants to publish

– If you are that good!• A “friendly” publishing house

– IGI never says “NO”!

• The criteria for selection are: how much time do you want to invest in maintaining these relationships / how many horses do you want to back / how much funding can you invest…

What it means

• Publishing is messy and erratic• Success rate is variable• Two (3)prong

– Need material -> doing research [or supervise]– Need papers -> writing publications– Need luck ?????

• If you don’t submit you won’t be accepted of course• If at first you don’t succeed, recycle...• If you want to play the citation game, go for:

– Methodology papers– Active forums– Faddish / hot domains where there is interest but little research

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Key Lessons (borrowed from Hirschheim)

• Work with others … coauthoring rules• Start early… takes a long time to publish• Keep up a pipeline of work• Have multiple research areas but focus on

becoming a true leader in one area• Stay visible … give talks, be a reviewer, write

papers, be on program committees• Learn the value system of your institution (school)

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Lesson learnt over 20 years as an editor, author and reviewer (Hirschheim)

• What often makes or brakes the case for a paper– notoriously vague or missing purpose of the paper:

what is the contribution to knowledge of the paper? What are the research questions?

– the likely community interest of the paper’s point– literature positioning and bridge building– believability and intelligibility of the paper’s arguments

• the problem of breaking new ground vs. incremental point

– conclusions are not mere summaries: the need to address the ‘so what’ issue

Leading international research projects

• Don’t try this at home• Cannot do without institutional backing• Cannot do without very substantial record• Need deep pockets to travel in and out of information

days (eg: Brussels)• Your goal can / should be to become a partner –

small, then bigger:– Participant– Task leader– Work package leader

Engage with Industry

• Because we are Business and Law• But different from the “Sciences”• Critical to think about what we can do for them• But be convinced that:

– We have much to offer– We can do it is an economically viable way– We can have a very tangible impact– We can generate good will and surplus ($)

• Need to know what you are talking about before you go and try– Contract for services– IP– NDA– Co-fund initiatives

Community Outreach

• Have you, or do you intend to, use(d) your expertise to make an impact outside of the academic environment?

• Submissions to Government consultations• Working with NGOs• Media analysis

Conclusion

• Prima facia, it cannot be done so the approach needs to be professionalised

• Devise a strategy and be receptive to its impact• Learn and revise on a regular basis• But be persistent• Understand the trade offs between your personal

interest and what your record will look like on paper

• Learn speed and right-sizing