Academic Scientists at Work guides the scientist on the journey from the end of a postdoctoral career to the point of promotion to Associate Professor.

This book focuses on the three aspects of promotion in an academic setting: Scholarship, Teaching, and Service. Valuable advice is provided on the following topics:

- Choosing and landing your ideal academic job

- Setting up and effectively managing the lab

- Obtaining funds

- Organizing, writing, and publishing your science

- Teaching and mentoring

- Organizing and performing academic service

- The promotion and tenure process

Templates and worksheets designed to help you navigate your career with point-by-point instructions on how to complete them are provided. All downloadable blank worksheets are contained on the accompanying CD-ROM. Included are six database program files that can be used to help the reader organize his or her laboratory specific reagents.

In addition to updating the contents of the previous version, this second edition includes a dozen articles written by the authors on managing your career that first appeared in Science's Next Wave.

Academic Scientists at Work is a valuable resource for the career scientist who demands and expects the best.

On the other hand, given the rapid nature of change in funding (and this book considers only the USA) and research practices, it would be wrong to imagine that it would be able to provide up to date and accurate information on every issue with which a researcher is likely to be concerned. It should be seen as a general guide rather than a specific one. It will be useful for my students here in Thailand since the career of researcher is not so well documented or even developed here and many aspire to study and work in western countries without much idea of what it would entail.

John Walsh, Mahidol University International College


Excerpt of a review   January 24, 2004
"[T]he book takes the guesswork out of an academic life and environment. ... I highly recommend this book to every graduate student so that they are prepared for the academic calling and can make the most of it. I would further recommend this book to all established academicians so that they could have a better perspective on a graduate student, fellow, and a starting assistant professor and encourage them to become good members of the academic society. The book is priced such that a graduate student can afford to buy one, or perhaps their mentor may be generous enough to gift one."

Kailash Gupta, NIAID, NIH


Little help here   January 19, 2004
 4 out of 6 found this review helpful

Well, what can I say. It took a lot of deliberation before I decided to buy this book. I did get a recommendation from a colleague, but after reading some of the reviews, I was not so sure. Much of what the authors say is not just common sense, but almost trivial. I think the topic is also too general, trying to cover everything from a postdoc looking for a job, to an associate professor trying to get promoted to a full professor level.

What was particularly disappointing was the extremely abbreviated section on the process of getting a job. Granted that every university varies, but negotiating a position with good (access to) resources and support, good students and enough time to do research is probably the most critical stage of the whole process. Everything else is a direct result of this process. Yet disproportionately little time is spent on this subject. It is as if the authors assume everyone gets a job in one of the top ten universities, but at the same time they are still too confused about how to publish a paper, write/get a grant or interact with colleagues (junior and senior).

Focusing on NIH R01 as the only source of funding (granted this is intended for biomedical researchers), is also misguided. There are alternatives that researchers can explore, but many of them do not give as generous indirect costs as NIH or simply are smaller than your average NIH grant. So from your institution's point of view these grants do not really help you to get tenure, so maybe that is why the authors left them out.

Over all, this book really is not that helpful unless you are a complete beginner in this game. And then it is probably too early for you to worry about getting your R01 in Research Utopia U. I can think of better things to spend $40 on.


Will be useful for years to come   October 19, 2003
Finally, a book full of advice on the art of being an academic scientist! As a postdoc, I have already benefited from many of the sections, including the advice on grant writing, giving talks, and writing manuscripts. Also, the section on mentoring has helped me to be more efficient in directing the undergraduates working with me. I am sure I will consult this book many times in the future as I begin my job search and start my own lab. The book was fun to read as well as very practical. Definitely recommended.


Will prove ineffective   October 4, 2003
 2 out of 9 found this review helpful

I was generous with just one star. In the real world of the stressful biomedical grant mill (Emory University being one such mill), this book will prove profoundly ineffective. And for several reasons. First, it is poorly conceived and written. Second, to my knowledge, Eckert has never been funded for a biomedical grant (in other words, her expertise is wishful thinking). Presently, she holds a staff position at the Emory School of Nursing.