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
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: Only £5.95... |
Nov 2022: Only £5.95... |
Feb 2023: Only £5.95... |
May 2023: Only £5.95... |
August 2023: Only £9.99... |
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.
Other posts in this series
- Why I offered resources from early on in my career
- When and why did you create your website?
- Why did you create the JQL and the PoP software?
- What is CYGNA and how did it start?
- Why I love blogging and creating videos
- How do I practice #PositiveAcademia?
- My top-3 career tips
- What are mistakes ECRs could avoid?
- How do you find the time to do all of this?
Related pages
- Writing effective promotion applications
- Publishing in academic journals
- Creating social media profiles
- Measuring and improving research impact
- Using the Publish or Perish software
- Research Impact 101
- The art of academic writing
Copyright © 2024 Anne-Wil Harzing. All rights reserved. Page last modified on Wed 18 Sep 2024 07:05
Anne-Wil Harzing is Emerita Professor of International Management at Middlesex University, London and visiting professor of International Management at Tilburg University. She is a Fellow of the Academy of International Business, a select group of distinguished AIB members who are recognized for their outstanding contributions to the scholarly development of the field of international business. In addition to her academic duties, she also maintains the Journal Quality List and is the driving force behind the popular Publish or Perish software program.