PhD Talk

I'm back with a quick bonus episode on the small university journals that are publish open access without any article processing charge.
Please check out 
AmeliCA
Redalyc
Open Journal Systems
ACI Avances en Ciencias e Ingenierias
Latindex

A few grumblings on why it does not make sense to try to speed up our literature review using ChatGPT - a little nugget of Opinions while we prepare for the next season of the podcast.

In today's episode we do a Q&A. We start with a general update on what we are working on, what is going well, and what is not going well. 

Then, we address the following questions that came in through the PhD Talk blog:

What does your work setup look like? What does your setup look like at home and in the office, and how do you divide your time between both
How do you take care of your mental health in academia
Advice for transitioning in and out of academia (between academia and industry)?
How can I get accepted into a PhD position?
Finally, we discuss what we've enjoyed reading in this year so far, what we are listening to currently (in terms of music and podcasts), and what we particularly enjoy at the moment.

References:

Citavi 
The Making of Pro-life Activists: How Social Movement Mobilization Works - Ziad W. Munson (Chicago University Press)
Kadril - La Jolie Flamande
Fellowship - The Saberlight Chronicles
Haken - Fauna
The Ezra Klein Podcast
Why is this happening? - Chris Hayes
Self-compassionate professor
Adobe Audition
Goodway coffee

In today's episode, we interview Dr. Kalin Kiesling. She is a nuclear engineer at the Department of Energy's Argonne National Lab where she develops the software that other engineers use to design and analyze new nuclear reactor concepts. She earned her PhD in Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2022, from which she also holds a bachelors and masters in nuclear engineering. We learn about her background and career path, and how she choose to get all her degrees at the same university. We also learn about her research and the methods she used during her PhD and the programming she carries out in her job, as well as about the timeline of the PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the various milestones in the program. We also learn about how she landed her position at Argonne, and how the pandemic influenced her life values and career aspirations.

Outside of her technical area in nuclear engineering, Kalin is passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the nuclear industry, broader STEM field, and academia in general. At Argonne National Lab she is on a DEI council where she advocates for her colleagues and works with leadership to make impactful changes. We learn about the state of DEI in the nuclear industry and the changes occurring in the field, as well as Kalin's best advice on how to foster DEI in STEM and academia.

Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her family (husband and almost 4 year old daughter) and getting lost in one of her many hobbies (usually some form of crafting or gardening). As an academic parent of a baby, the pandemic certainly hit Kalin's research hard. We learn about Kalin's journey as an academic parent, the support provided by her university and advisor, and how her parenting journey coincided with the pandemic.

We round off the episode learning about Kalin's best advice for PhD students, how she sets boundaries around work, reflecting on the impact of COVID-19 and what a day in the life looks like for her.

References
Kalin on Twitter  
Kalin on  LinkedIn

In today's episode, we talk about special issues: what are they, what is the value of special issue, and why should you consider editing a special issue. We also discuss the caveats and increasing bad reputation on special issues related to the business model of some publishers. We look at the difference of special issues for journals directly, and those associated with events (mini symposia, session, etc). We also look at the joys and pitfalls of co-editing special issues. 

Next, we look at the various steps: how to propose a special issue, how to send around the call for papers, how to manage the review process, and how to wrap up everything in the end. 

Finally, we reflect on whether it is worth or not the time and effort of editing a special issue, and what the greatest joys are in this work.