Free guidelines, checklists, worksheets and a lot of hands-on advice for PhD students, Postdocs, Researchers and everybody interested in boosting their performance in academia.
All related to publishing, getting a PhD and a job, presenting and becoming an efficient researcher.
You open your paper, make a few small edits, and close it again — unsure what to do next. You’re not avoiding the work. You’re already in it. But the writing does not move forward. This article shows why this happens — and how to move...
You can work hard on your PhD — and still feel stuck. Not because you lack discipline, but because something more fundamental is missing. This article shows why progress in a PhD is not only a question of effort, and how the right kind...
Finishing a research paper is rarely a purely technical process. Many manuscripts reach a stage where the remaining revisions are small, yet the decision to submit still feels uncertain. This hesitation often has less to do with...
Academic leaders often want their PhD candidates and postdocs to become independent researchers. Yet independence rarely develops under constant supervision. When leaders step in to secure quality, solve problems, and guide every step,...
Academic overload is often framed as a personal time-management problem. In reality, it frequently reflects a structural shift in academic work: from producing knowledge to managing its conditions. This post explores when and why...
Supervising a PhD student is not simply an extension of being a successful researcher. It requires a shift from solving problems yourself to guiding someone else’s intellectual development. This post explores why content expertise...
There was a moment when your research felt meaningful — perhaps even quietly transformative. Then deadlines, revisions, and administrative pressure took centre stage. This post invites you to pause and reconnect with what is genuinely...
If you are stuck despite reading, planning, and trying hard, the problem may not be a lack of insight or effort. This post explains why advice alone rarely changes PhD outcomes — and how structured support reduces uncertainty, decision...
Working hard is not the same as making progress in a PhD. When structure, feedback, and orientation are missing, effort alone often leads to exhaustion rather than advancement. This post explains why feeling stuck is rarely a...
The hardest part of writing a paper is often not the research or the drafting, but deciding when to submit. Finished manuscripts can stall at this point — not because essential work is missing, but because authors are unsure when a...
Across academic careers, writing is often treated as something that must wait until conditions are ideal. This post explains why those ideal conditions rarely materialise, how postponing writing can quietly delay publication for years,...
Many academics feel overwhelmed not because they lack discipline or motivation, but because everything appears important at the same time. This post introduces a simple, evidence-informed priority filter that helps researchers decide...
January often arrives with pressure to plan, optimise, and commit — even before we’ve fully returned to ourselves. In this post, we invite you to pause and reset differently. Instead of building a new plan, we guide you through a...
As the year draws to a close, many academics feel they have not achieved “enough” and head into the holidays with a sense of unfinished business. But from years of working closely with PhD candidates, postdocs, and early-career...
Are you struggling with the pressure of academic life? Do you find it challenging to maintain your mental health and well-being at work? In this blog post, we share five practical strategies for improving mental health and well-being...
Are you struggling to receive timely and constructive feedback on your research work? This common issue can lead to frustration, uncertainty, and a lack of direction. However, there are steps you can take to improve the feedback you...
As a PhD candidate or post-doc, you might think that your research achievements, expertise and specialisation speak for themselves when applying for an academic position. Not quite. Aside from sound academic credentials, you need to...
Virtual research presentations are becoming increasingly common as more and more conferences are held partially or fully online. You might assume that you should prepare a virtual presentation the same way you would for an in-person...
Do you have a good relationship with your supervisor? Are they supporting you with your PhD project and all the nitty-gritty issues that arise? Good for you, but this is not everyone’s situation. While the majority of PhD candidates...
If you want to get your research published but struggle to find time to write a journal paper, you need to consider the habits of effective academic authors. When time is short due to other commitments, the time you spend on writing...
Do you find yourself working non-stop? Feeling like you can’t allow yourself to pause? It’s a hectic time right now for most of us, and canceling breaks might be a normal response if you feel pressured to catch up or increase...
Are you considering a career in the non-profit sector? Do you know which skills are the most sought after by employers? Building up the respective skills early in your career can be a huge strategic advantage in your job search after...
Are you planning to write a PhD dissertation that is based on peer-reviewed publications? If so, consider these 5 tips to help you to avoid common pitfalls. An article-based dissertation can gives you the opportunity to make your...
Taking notes from meetings, conversations or presentations is a very effective way to benefit from what you’ve heard and commit it to memory and practice. You may think it is not necessary because you will remember what’s being said...
In this post, arctic researcher Arttu Jutila tells his story about conducting his PhD study, taking him from Finland to Canada and finally to Germany. Driven by his fascination with snow cover and sea ice, he followed persistently his...
Teaching expertise is necessary when applying for a professorship or any other permanent staff position. Yet how are you going to pick up teaching skills if your current appointment does not include teaching or supervision duties?...
Do you have difficulty getting started writing a paper? For days, if not weeks, you run around with the intention of starting a new paper, but you don’t ever start. Most likely, your expectations are too high at the beginning, you...
Good scientific presentations are the result of preparation and rehearsal. Even if you carefully prepare, you won’t automatically deliver a good talk: You need to rehearse it. But how? What is the best way to rehearse a presentation?...
Have you been invited to give an academic job talk online? Do you have to give a presentation on your research and experiences as part of an application process? There are a few rules you need to follow in order to make your virtual...
Do you want to become a peer-reviewer for an academic journal? Do you want to help journals assess papers but have not been asked yet and have no idea what you need to do to be invited? Here are 10 tips to help you become a reviewer...
Are you near the end of your PhD or a postdoc position? Then thinking about the next career move is a crucial, yet often daunting task. Being in the final phase of one academic career stage and about to enter the next is typically a...
If you have completed your PhD with a monograph, AKA a thesis, you might wonder if you can convert your thesis into journal papers. Are you allowed to do this, and what is the best way to do it? Here, we describe the steps you should...
Publishing a paper in a good journal is not about being lucky or knowing the right people, and it doesn’t require magic either. Getting published in a good journal requires solid scholarship that is presented in an excellent way to the...
Whether you’re a newbie or a more experienced writer, rejections can happen to everyone, and the fear of receiving a negative response from the journal is omnipresent. But you can do quite a lot to prevent your paper from rejection and...
Collaborative writing is the preferred mode of authoring papers with multiple contributors. When writing with co-authors, you may soon realise that not all authors work and write the same way. It’s easier and more fun with some than...
Have you presented at a conference and found yourself wanting more useful feedback from the audience? Were you hoping the audience would recognise the hard work you put into your talk? We all need feedback to learn what we could...
We have all had our experiences with administrative hurdles and likely been driven up the walls more than once in failed attempts and wasted hours trying to figure out how exactly we’re supposed to complete a particular admin task. In...
Is chairing a conference session new to you? Have you always wondered what the responsibilities of a chairperson are? Have you been asked to chair a session at an in-person or a virtual conference and want to do it well? In our...
Is chairing a conference session new to you? Have you always wondered what the responsibilities of a chairperson are? Have you been asked to chair a session at an in-person or a virtual conference and want to do it well? In our...
Are you a PhD candidate and occasionally ask yourself whether what you are doing is good enough? Do you sometimes have doubts about the quality of your research? That’s nothing to be ashamed of. Questioning the standards of your...
In this special post, Dr. Amandine Colson shares her PhD Success story. Her PhD was anything but easy, but she’s here to tell you what helped her persist, and what motivated her not to give up in spite of considering this as a very...
If we asked what your top priority is in your PhD, what would you say? Do you have one priority? Or, for that matter, do you know what is important? Can you single out what really matters from the overwhelming amount of things you...
Let’s get straight to the point: Many PhD candidates work hard — and still feel that their project is not moving forward. Progress is slow, unclear, or inconsistent. There are many ideas, tasks, and expectations — but no clear...
Often, we’ve been asked “What can I do to increase the chances of my paper getting accepted?” Many might think you should add more references from important people, present a super-cool new method, or be in the lucky position to base...
If you wonder whether joining an online writing community is for you, we are here to help you understand what you can expect from such a community. If you cannot find a suitable writing group and want to create your own community that...
Have you considered looking for a writing buddy for your next paper? Are you wondering about the potential benefit of having someone to talk to when crafting your manuscript? Here, we provide four reasons why it can be...
Just before the festive season, we wonder: what if Santa started a PhD position in your department? What kind of experience would he have? Why would he want to do it, and would there be anything we can learn from Santa as a fellow PhD...
Are you among those who tend to postpone career planning until later? Until you have only a few months or weeks till your current contract ends? We know that it’s not easy to map out the unknown path after your PhD completion, or once...
Take a moment and think about the following: What kind of contracts have you been working under in the past as a Doctoral Candidate, Junior Researcher, or Postdoc? How long have you been funded at a time, and how often were you...
Do you want to know how to write a perfect paper? What does a perfect paper look like? What is it doing differently? How is it written? And what topics should such a paper cover? Is it written by a genius? In this post, we will shed...
