Why I love blogging and creating videos

Fifth of nine posts based on my webinar for Georgia State University's CIBER - Interview by Tamer Cavusgil

Anne-Wil Harzing - Wed 18 Sep 2024 07:01 (updated Wed 18 Sep 2024 07:05)

I started my blog on “all things academia” in March 2016, posting mainly in the areas: academia behind the scenes, academic etiquette, conference reports, classic papers or books, my own research, publish or perish tips, and positive academia. I generally blog weekly, and my blog now has nearly 450 posts, more than I ever imagined when I started eight years ago. I had a few key reasons for starting a blog.

First, I felt it would be a good way to share the experience that I had built up in academia with a wider audience than just my colleagues and my own network.
Second, I found that I really enjoyed blogging as it allows you to write something with real impact for a large audience in just a few hours.
Third, it really helps me in my job as Staff Development Lead at Middlesex, and as a research mentor more widely. Whenever I receive a question from a mentee that reflects a wider concern, I simply write it up as a blogpost. That way I can refer other mentees to it, rather than having to reinvent the wheel every time.

In 2018 I also started to write up multi-part blogpost series on for instance:

Internal vs. external promotion,
Creating social media profiles, also available as 8-part video series,
Publishing in academic journals, also available as 7-part video series,
Writing effective promotion applications, also available as a video,
Improving your research profile, also available as 8-part video series.

And remember, anyone can start a blog or blog as a guest blogger on an existing blog. I have had about three dozen of my colleagues, co-authors, mentees and CYGNA members blogging on my blog. You can blog about your own research too; it is a great way to reach a broader audience, and it may even increase citations to your work. It is ideal to reach out to a non-academic audience, but even academics like research blogposts as it allows them to get an overview of someone’s research quickly.

Why did you self-publish your career guides?

Well back in 2009, when I was looking for a way to make guidance for using the Publish or Perish software more accessible, I stumbled upon CreateSpace (now Amazon Kindle Direct publishing). This offered the opportunity to self-publish books and make them available for a reasonable price, whilst maintaining the flexibility of updating the books on a regular basis.

I therefore published two books providing guidance for the Publish or Perish software in 2010 and 2016. In August 2023, I published what I think will be the last and definitive guide for the Publish or Perish software.

In 2022, I also adapted my four multi-part blogpost series and self-published them as paperback, hardcover, and Kindle books in the series Crafting your career in academia. I designed my own covers by converting relevant pictures through PowerPoint’s artistic effects. I am quite proud of the result 😊.

Books are reasonably priced to make them accessible for individual academics, as well as universities who would like to bulk-buy books for their staff members. However, for those for whom this price is still a barrier, similar information can always be accessed for free from my blog. Here is a flyer with details for all five of the books that you can send to your Research Deans or University librarian.

Aug 2022:

Nov 2022:

Feb 2023:

May 2023:

August 2023:

YouTube channel

During the first year of the pandemic, I discovered I loved video recording and editing. So, I did a lot of that and opened my own YouTube channel Harzing Academic Resources. It now includes more than 200 videos on topics such as:

Publishing: publishing in top journals, chosing your target journal, writing boot-camp series on how to avoid a desk-reject, persistence in publishing
Research impact: how to get cited, measuring research impact, Q&A on research impact, seven steps to impact, creating impact in little time
Research profiles: Linkedin, ResearchGate and Twitter, Google Scholar Profiles, blogging, engaging with social media
Research skills: doing a literature review, research strategies & trade-offs, using the publish or perish software, publish or perish for literature reviews
Academic life: navigate academia as a PhD student, the UK REF, building a sustainable academic career, Q&A on working in academia and preparing effective promotion applications.
Improve your research profile: 8-part series on how to improve your research profile
WAIB interview, 7 questions on my early work, publishing, and creating impact
Frontline IB interview, all sections of the interview: personal, scholar and mentor
Academic Woman interview, dealing with my career history, resesarch interests, research culture and research mentorship.
Irish academy of management interview in two sections: inclusive academia and proactive academia.

Opening a YouTube channel couldn't be easier. So if you think you might enjoy sharing videos too, give it a go. If you don't like or are not satisfied with the results, you can always stop. But I can really recommend you to try.

Why I love blogging and creating videos

Why did you self-publish your career guides?

YouTube channel

Other posts in this series

Related pages