Resources for Graduate Students and Post-Docs

Resources for Graduate Students and Post-Docs: A compilation

email: sprhall (at) indiana (dot) edu

Request: If you find this webpage useful, or have suggestions/feedback on its content (e.g., certain resources are great/not so great), I would love to hear from you.

Note: I am compiling a library of published and unpublished resources for graduate students, particularly geared around those in Ecology-Evolution-Behavior style departments. These resources are meant to offer advice, but they should be considered as food for thought rather than a recipe for success. With that caveat in mind, I hope that you find these documents useful. If you find anything yourself which might be useful to others, please send it along and I will post it.

Again, you may not agree with all of the advice in these documents, or you may not find some articles helpful. Please view everyone’s advice with a healthy dose of skepticism.

1. Advice on being a graduate student and becoming a professional

2. NSF DDIGs and grant writing

3. Advice on getting a faculty job

4. Advice on good writing

5. Advice on giving good talks and posters

6. Guides/thoughts on authorship and reviewing

7. Teaching

8. Other people’s webpages for graduate students

ADVICE ON BEING A GRADUATE STUDENT

John Thompson’s “On being a successful student in the sciences” – REQUIRED READING (PDF)

Martin Schwartz’s “The importance of stupidity in scientific research” – REQUIRED READING (PDF)

Steve Stearns classic “Modest Advice” article (PDF)

Ray Huey’s reply to the Stearns article (PDF)

Phil Acre’s “Networking on the Network: a guide to professional skills for PhD students” (HTML)

Isaak and Hubert’s BioScience article, “Catalyzing the transition from student to scientist” (PDF)

Carmen Wong’s “Preparing for the field season” in BESA (PDF)

Benjamin Zuckerberg’s “Overcoming analysis paralysis” in Frontiers in Ecology (PDF)

An orals survival kit, by the Chronicle of Higher Ed (HTML)

NSF DDIGS AND GRANT WRITING

David Skelly’s 2003 Bull. Ecol. Soc. Amer article on writing a successful DDIG (PDF)

Spencer and Leonie’s observations of successful and unsuccessful DDIGs (PDF)

Eva Allen’s guide to logistics of DDIG submission (mainly for Indiana students) (HTML)

Link to advice on “Broader Impacts” from NSF itself (PDF)

Deneb Karentz's 2006 “Tips for proposal writing” (PDF)

Marissa Baskett’s list of funding agencies for ecologists (HTML)

List of grants and fellowships to which Indiana University EEB students have applied (HTML)

ADVICE ON GETTING A FACULTY JOB OR OTHER KINDS OF JOBS

Faculty jobs:

Anurag Agrawal’s excellent guide (PDF)

Armin Moczek’s equally excellent guide (PDF)

Brian Inouye et al.’s interview guide (2006 BESA), mostly questions to ask during interviews (PDF)

Alan Tessier’s thoughts on the socio-intellectual side of interviewing (PDF)

Advice on keeping your faculty job from Phil Stoddard at FIU (PDF)

Spencer and Leonie’s advice on “Making the shortlist” (PDF)

Bradbury et al.’s “B&B Primer on first job haggling (PDF)

HHMI’s Making the right moves: a practical guide for scientific management for post-docs and new faculty (PDF)

An NCEAS compilation on early career advice (PDF)

Wohl and Brown’s Negotiating a faculty salary (PDF)

So many others on Marissa Baskett’s fantastic page – you must visit it (HMTL)

Postdocs:

Bourne and Friedberg’s “10 Simple rules for selecting a post-doc” (PDF)

HHMI’s “Making the right moves: a practical guide for scientific management for post-docs and new faculty” (PDF)

Other kinds of jobs

Slides from a talk by John Shuey, Indiana Nature Conservancy – traits and characteristics of TNC hires (PDF)

General:

Thoughts on academic vs. other types of jobs for PhDs (PDF)

Phil Acre’s “Networking on the Network: a guide to professional skills for PhD students” (HTML)

HHMI’s “Making the right moves: a practical guide for scientific management for post-docs and new faculty” (PDF)

ADVICE ON GOOD WRITING

Ken Lertzman’s “Notes on writing papers and theses” (PDF)

Chris Harley et al.'s 2004 “Scientific writing and publishing -- a guide for students” in Bull. Ecol. Soc. Amer. (PDF)

A how-to guide on scientific writing from Bates College (HTML)

L.B. Railsback's “Comments on good writing and editing”, from a geological perspective (HTML)

Good writing from William Wells in JCB (PDF)

Steve Ellner’s “Notes on successful theory papers” (PDF)

Greg Demas’ “Elements of style in science” (PDF)

Kaj Sand-Jensen’s “How to write consistently boring scientific literature” in Oikos (PDF)

George Orwell’s classic on politics and the English language (PDF)

ADVICE ON GOOD TALKS AND POSTERS

Talks

Lynda Delph and Curt Lively’s (Indiana U) “Notes for giving good talks” (PDF)

Jamie Smith, Judith Myers, and Isla Myer Smith's 2007 “Tips for effective communication in Ecology”, in Bull. Ecol. Soc. Amer. (PDF)

Lawrences Bragg's 1966 “The art of talking about science” in Science (PDF)

Martin Köchy's 2004 “Things that can go wrong with Powerpoint presentations” in Bull. Ecol. Soc. Amer. (PDF)

John Cairns Jr.'s 1989 “Speaking at length” in BioScience (PDF)

Simon L. Peyton Jones et al.'s 1993 “How to give a good research talk” (PDF)

Mike Dahlin's 2006 “Giving a conference talk” (PDF)

Simon Pickett et al.'s 1991 “Strategy and checklist for effective scientific talks” in Bull. Ecol. Soc. Amer. (PDF)

Thomas Wolcott's “Mortal sins in oral presentations or How to give a talk if you never want to talk again” (HTML)

The Oceanographic Society’s 2005 "Scientifically speaking - tips for preparing and delivering scientific talks and using visual aids" (HTML)

Melissa Hine’s “Scientific presentation skills” (PDF)

A list of more resources selected by the DIALOG group (HTML)

And even more resources on Marissa Baskett’s page (HTML)

Posters

Thomas Wolcott's “Mortal sins in poster presentations or How to give a poster no one remembers” (HTML)

Steven Block's 1996 “Do's and dont's of poster presentation” in Biophysical Journal (PDF)

Collin Purrington's “Advice on designing scientific posters” (HTML)

GUIDES/THOUGHTS ON AUTHORSHIP

Authorship

Carlos Galindo-Leal’s article in the Bulletin of the ESA (PDF)

Jake Weltzin et al.’s 2006 article on authorship in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (PDF)

Kathy Barker’s 2002 “Accountability and authorship” in Science (HMTL)

Reviewing

Waser et al. “How to write an effective review” in BioScience (PDF)

Moher and Jahad “How to review a manuscript” (PDF)

Wager et al. “How to survive peer review” (PDF)

TEACHING

Karen Wilson and Stephanie Hampton's 2004 “Ecology teaching tips for first-year professors” in Bull. Ecol. Soc. Amer. (PDF)

OTHER PEOPLE’S PAGES FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS

Marissa Baskett’s (UCSD) fabulous resource page – you must visit this page (HTML)

Dan Horn’s warehouse of general advice from Ann Arbor – some targeted more for Michigan students (HTML)

Ronald T. Azuma’s guide for computer science grads (still great stuff for Biologists) (HTML)

Last Updated: 13 November 2009