Anthony Vance

I am enjoying a book called “What They Didn’t Teach you in Graduate School”, by Paul Gray and David Drew. The book is about how to have a successful career in academia as a professor. It is written in the form of short pieces of advice that recommend or warn against something.

Paul Gray is one of the pioneers of the field of Information Systems and he has a lot of great insights and suggestions to share about academia in general. You can read an excerpt of the book here.

Here’s an excerpt on the value of reviewing:

Do, however, serve as a reviewer for journals, particularly top journals. Treat this job seriously. You will see much junk being submitted and appreciate why some journals reject 80 percent or more of their submissions. You will develop an aesthetic for what is good and what is not. You will correspond with some powerful people. When you do get a good paper to review, you will receive much earlier knowledge of an important new development. And the information gained is worth more than the time you take reviewing.