Harzing.com blog 4 years old!

Celebrating my blog's fourth anniversary with the top-15 most read blogs

4-year anniversary

I started blogging on the 18th of March 2016. So this week I am celebrating my blog's fourth anniversary. The fourth year saw 54 postings, more than one a week, a little less than the first year, but more than the second year and nearly exactly as much as the third year. Not bad! It is unlikely that I can keep up this schedule, but I will certainly try to keep posting regularly.

Top-15 most popular blogposts

What were the most popular posts? In first place, with head and shoulders above the rest, was a post introducing Publish or Perish version 7, which now also features a native Mac version of the software. You no longer need a virtual machine with Windows inside as you did for previous versions of Publish and Perish. If you haven't updated your PoP version 4, 5 or 6 yet, please do so as soon as possible.

Other posts in the top-15 most popular blogposts mainly fell in four categories: Research write-ups, Key academic worries, Academic Etiquette, Publish or Perish usage and Research Impact.

Research write-ups: Language-sensitive research in IB

One of the blogposts discussing my own research made it into the top-15 for the 2nd year in a row. This year it was joined by Helene Tenzer's guest post about her language research. It is clear that Language in IB research is here to stay as it is also my most viewed research program. The write-up of the language panel at the 2019 Academy of International Business meeting in Copenhagen also did well.

Language barriers in multinational companies
Reviews my research on the role of language in MNCs between 2003 and 2013

How to manage multi-lingual teams?
Discusses Helene Tenzer's exciting research about the challenges of multi-lingual teamwork

Untwisting tongues: Language research in International Management
Reports on a panel session at the Academy of International Business in Copenhagen

What are academics worried about?

One of the most read posts in the last two years - staying sane in academia - again made it to the top-15. This year it was joined by Steffi Siegert's powerful guest post. The last two: how to keep up to date with the literature and internal vs. external promotions - were also republished on the LSE blog Impact of the Social Sciences

How to prevent burn-out? About staying sane in academia
Provides twelve suggestions on how to prevent burn-out and keep your sanity

How to hold on to your sanity in academia
Steffi Siegert's powerful contribution that sums up everything that women can be facing in academia

Internal versus external promotion [1 of 4]
Part 1 of a 4-part post which explains why internal promotion in academia might be harder to achieve than external promotion and gives tips for successful applications

How to keep up-to-date with the literature, but avoid information overload?
Provides tips on how to keep up-to-date without getting lost in social media overload

Academic Etiquette

Two older blogposts that deal with ways to address academics, either as a student or as a fellow academic also maintained their popularity. However, the other Academic Etiquette posts such as Would you ask a male academic the same question?, Thank You: The most underused words in academia? and Please be polite and considerate are also worth a read. While on the topic, let me also point out that our CYGNA network - a London-based network for female academics - is still going strong.

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How to address other academics by email?
Provides suggestions on the best way to address academics by email

How to address your lecturer?
Shows how countries differ in their expected way of address for teachers

Google Scholar & Web of Science, using Publish or Perish

Just like last year a blogpost about using Google Scholar as an alternative to commercial databases such as Scopus and the Web of Science was very popular. A post documenting how even commercial databases such as the Web of Science have their flaws also remained popular. Please note that Publish or Perish version 7 includes a wide range of new data sources, thus allowing you to triangulate citations. Two other posts that were popular this year documented two important functions of Publish or Perish: journal targeting and literature reviews.

Google Scholar is a serious alternative to Web of Science
Argues that Google Scholar needs to be treated as a serious alternative data source for citation analysis

Web of Science: How to be robbed of 10 years of citations in one week!
Shows how I was "robbed" of citations through inaccurate publication matching in the Web of Science

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Where to submit your paper? Which journals publish on your topic
Shows how to use Publish or Perish to find out which journals publish on your topic

Using Publish or Perish to do a literature review
Shows you how to do a comprehensive literature review with Publish or Perish

Ensure your research achieves the impact it deserves

In one way or another, the three final popular posts all deal with research diffusion. If you are interested in knowing more about this, my 2018 recorded presentation on this topic at Middlesex University, where I have worked for a happy 6 years now, might be useful as might be the brand-new 8-part series on using social media in academia. This series started in January and after comparing the options, discusses Google Scholar Profiles, LinkedIn, ResearchGate, Twitter, and Blogging, as well as using the various platforms to reinforce each other when sharing information.

Making your case for impact if you have few citations
Provides advice on strategies to demonstrate impact with a very low citation level

How to promote your research achievements without being obnoxious?
Provides some quick and easy to implement tips on how to promote your academic work

Google Scholar Citation Profiles: the good, the bad, and the better
Provides a detailed discussion of how to use Google Scholar Profiles most effectively