Networking
Learning objectives
At the end of this module, you will able to:
- assess the importance of academic networking in relation to your career
- locate other researchers in your field
- join an academic list
- contribute to discussions on an academic list
- assess the value of blogs and blogging for your research.
Why network?
Networking within the wider research community is an important part of postgraduate study. Many postgraduates feel the lack of a friend or colleague who can provide advice and assistance in their area of specialisation.
Networking also provides opportunities for
- career development
- increasing your awareness of your field
- access to the latest research
- socialising with other researchers.
 |
Becoming part of the research community Marie desJardins, Networking, How to be a Good Graduate Student, University of Indiana, March 1994. Take a few minutes to read this page: it provides some valuable advice. Consider how you might put these recommendations in practice. |
Finding other researchers
Contacting other researchers in your area is easier than many people think. Let's take an author at random. Imagine we wanted to contact the author of this article:
Douglas G Dalgleish (2005) "Food emulsions—their structure and structure forming properties ", Food Hydrocolloids, 20 (4), 415-422
How would it take to find the author's email? Less than 10 seconds, if you know how. An abstract of this article is available at the ScienceDirect site. Next to the author's name is a small envelope icon 
.Clicking on this icon will launch your email program. A new email will appear and Dr Dougleish's email address will be inserted in the To: field.
ScienceDirect is only one of the journal sites that include this feature with every recent abstract. SpringerLink is another. Not all journal sites do. However, most include the author's institution in the abstract or the text of the article, making it easy to find him or her.
|
Using Google to find people The article abstract at ScienceDirect included the information where Douglas Dalgleish worked in 2005, the University of Guelph in Canada. With this detail, we can easily find him in Google. Enter Douglas G Dalgleish University of Guelph (email OR e-mail) in the Google Search box. One of the first pages you find is a page on Douglas G Dalgleish from ISI's Highly Cited.com. This page contains a link which takes us to a list of other papers by Dr Dalgleish, giving full details for each paper. If we really had been interested in Dr Dalgleish and his work, this would be a very useful resource. But what if our search hadn't worked so well? An alternative approach would be to find the site of the University of Guelph and then search for a staff list on the University site. But what if we had no more than the author's name and no indication of where he or she was employed? In this case, we would need to search for Douglas G Dalgleish (email OR e-mail) If all else fails, contact the staff at the Library Service Desk on 02 6773 248 or email Ask a Librarian. |
Email lists
Another method of networking to become a member of an email discussion list.
There are thousands of email-based academic discussion lists, covering a wide range of disciplines. As a postgraduate student, you will probably find membership in an academic discussion list very rewarding. Membership gives you access to the latest research and ideas, and connects you to other experts in your field.
In addition, list members are usually happy to provide advice or answers to quick questions, and to point you towards the latest research. In most cases, academic lists also have online archives which contain the records of past discussions. These can be useful sources of ideas and information.
Most academic discussion groups are two-way lists. Each message you send to the discussion group is sent to every other member. You receive a copy of every message sent by every other subscriber. The best lists have a moderator, who manage the list and ensure that discussion remains on-topic.
Joining or subscribing to a discussion list is usually easy, involving no more than sending an email to a specified address, such as listserv@example.edu.au,with a command in the body of your email along the lines of subscribe <name of list> your name.
After sending this message, you typically receive an email message from the moderator confirming your membership. This message contains information on trouble-shooting, how to temporarily suspend your membership when you are away, and how to unsubscribe. Unsubscribing is usually as easy as subscribing.
|
Finding the right list
Why don't you start now by finding the right list for you. There are a number of Web sites which provide guidance regarding the range of academic discussion groups available. These include: If you can't find a relevant list at any of the sites above, try a Google search (eg lists medieval history), look for links to a relevant list at a discipline-specific portal site, or ask your supervisors. |
Netiquette
When joining an email discussion group it is usual to introduce yourself by giving your name, location and a short summary of your research interests. After introducing yourself, "lurk"on the list for a while until you become familiar with the list's "netiquette".
|
Netiquette for beginners Brian Edmonds, Mailing List Etiquette FAQ, 8 December 2004 |
Blogs and Blogging
A growing source of information are blogs maintained by researchers and students in different disciplines.
Blog is short for weblog and a blog is an online diary which contains ideas and opinions, as well as links. The value of such resources depends on the author. Some postgraduate bloggers would be better advised to spend more time on their research, whereas others have something to say.
To find a list of blogs on your topic, do a Google search using a broad heading, such as archaeology or biology, and the word blogs (eg tibetology blogs).
This will usually find a site or sites that collect links to blogs in your topic.
Google Blog Search
You can search the content of the expanding blogosphere using Google Blog Search. Not surprisingly, Google Blog uses the same search terms as Google. In addition, it supports special operators to allow you to narrow your search to particular blogs. These are:
- inblogtitle: finds blogs with your keywords in the name of the blog
- inposttitle: finds posts to blogs with your keywords in the title of the posting
- inpostauthor: finds posts by a the name of the individual author.
Should you become a blogger?
UNE has its own blog software. All you need is a UNE username/password. Commercial sites such as blogger also allow you to create your own blog in a few seconds.
Creation of a successful, widely read blog can raise your profile among other blog readers with an interest in your subject, but it will involve you in a tremendous amount of effort. Consider whether this effort is worthwhile.
Another consideration is that blogging is very public. You should never include in your blog anything that you would not want other students, a supervisor or a potential employer to read. Some postgraduates have found their career prospects damaged by ill-considered blogging.
Summary
This module covered the following:
- networking
- locating researchers in your field
- email and academic lists
- blogs and blogging.
 | Self-test Try these quick self-test questions to assess what you have learnt from this module. |