Harzing.com blog 8 years old!

Celebrating my blog's eight anniversary with a recap of the most read posts

Anne-Wil Harzing - (updated Thu 5 Sep 2024 07:11)

In March 2024, I am celebrating my blog's 8th anniversary. The 8th year saw 45 postings, i.e. nearly one per week. My blog now has more than 420 postings. So for easier access, I created a Working in academia collator page.

I was joined by my guest bloggers Tatiana Andreeva, Sylwia Ciuk, Heejin Kim, Ciara O’Higgins, Sebastian Reiche, Christa Sathish, Martyna Śliwa, Sîan Stephens, and Bianca Stumbitz. Martyna Śliwa's post deserves a special mention as it was one of the top-5 most read this year.

Seven signs it’s time to get out: spotting toxic collaborations in academia
Advice on how to spot the signs that a collaborative relationship isn’t nourishing to us and is possibly not worth continuing

Multi-part blogposts 

In 2020 I started writing multi-part blogpost series, which all turned out to be quite popular. 

This year all six of the academic promotions series made it into the top-20 most visited posts, showing the strong need for information on this topic. A revised version of these posts also made it into my book: Writing effective promotion applications.

More on academic promotions

In the past year Middlesex University's revamped its promotion guidelines, moving to a narrative CV approach which centres around five key contributions: generation of knowledge, societal impact, success of learners, life of the university, and development of individuals. I therefore organised an information session for academics planning to apply in the 2023, with earlier successful applicants sharing their experience. My introductory presentation formed the basis for this blogpost series.

The Academic Woman interview

In the past year, I was also interviewed by Anatu Mahama, editor-in-chief of the The Academic Woman. She asked me some great questions on four key themes that I turned into four blogposts. 

Towards a more inclusive and proactive academia

Another interview took place in honour of my election as the 2022 Irish Academy of Management Distinguished International Scholar and centred around the need for an inclusive and proactive academia.

The things you never knew you could do with Publish or Perish

After publishing the new Publish or Perish Guide (Using the Publish or Perish software), I started a series of posts on the unexpected things you can do with the software.

The most popular posts? #1: Publish or Perish turns 17

What were the most popular posts in my 8th blogging year? With head and shoulders above the rest, was a 2021 post introducing PoP version 8. If you haven't updated your PoP version 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 yet, please do so as soon as possible. As this version included so many new features, I also created a 15-part series in 2021 discussing them one by one. Support us to keep PoP free for everyone by providing a small donation here: Support Publish or Perish.

Two 2016 and 2017 postings about using Publish or Perish for journal submissions and literature reviews retained their popularity.

Where to submit your paper? Which journals publish on your topic
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

Tatiana Andreeva's guest posts about literature reviews

Tatiana Andreeva's 2021 postings about literature reviews also remained popular, clocking up nearly 10,000 views combined.

In 2023 they were joined by two more posts, that are already well-received

Academic Etiquette

Two 2016 and 2017 blogposts that deal with ways to address academics, either as a student or as a fellow academic seem to have turned into perennial favourites. Last year they were joined by a new post on Using Linkedin recommendations to support others.

However, the other Academic Etiquette posts such as Would you ask a male academic the same question?, Changing academic culture: one email at a time..., Thank You: The most underused words in academia? and Please be polite and considerate are also worth a read.

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.

Using LinkedIn recommendations to support others
Use LinkedIn's recommendation feature to write testimonials for others

6-year anniversary

CYGNA meetings

Since founding CYGNA in 2014 we have had 58 meetings and I have written a Cygna history. We also expanded the coordination team (see: Cygna videos: expanding the team) and created a page with Frequently asked questions and Conference meet-ups. During the year I wrote up posts on all of our meetings which received good visitors numbers from our network and beyond.

Ranking mania?

Academics seem to love rankings. My posts on the 2020, 2021, and 2022 Scopus top 2% most cited academics all made it to the top-25 most read. My post on the 2023 ranking only just appeared, but is already drawing lots of visitors. What I find particularly pleasing is the increased diversity shown in this ranking for more recent academic cohorts (see image).

Ensure your research achieves the impact it deserves

In one way or another, the last three most popular posts - originally published in 2017 and 2018, but on the "most popular list" for the 5th/6th year now - all deal with research diffusion. 

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

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

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

Find the resources on my website useful?

I cover all the expenses of operating my website privately. If you enjoyed this post and want to support me in maintaining my website, consider buying a copy of one of my books (see below) or supporting the Publish or Perish software.

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Copyright © 2024 Anne-Wil Harzing. All rights reserved. Page last modified on Thu 5 Sep 2024 07:11

Anne-Wil Harzing is Emerita Professor of International Management at Middlesex University, London. 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.

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