Margaret Kosmala

Author's details

Date registered: October 2, 2015
URL: http://margaretkosmala.com

Latest posts

First steps — February 16, 2017
A missing voice — February 8, 2017
On requesting letters of recommendation — January 11, 2017
First year retrospective — January 4, 2017
How NOT to get a postdoc position — December 14, 2016

Author's posts listings

First steps

February 16, 2017

by Margaret Kosmala

February 16, 2017

I wrote last week about feeling like I wanted to be more active, politically, socially, but not having the wherewithal to actually do much. I have friends, fired up and passionate, doing their 5 phone calls a day and still wishing they could do more. But I’ve just felt overwhelmed by everything as it coincides …

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Permanent link to this article: https://ecologybits.com/index.php/2017/02/16/first-steps/

A missing voice

February 8, 2017

by Margaret Kosmala

February 8, 2017

This post is about why I haven’t been writing more blog posts lately. They say you should take care of yourself first and foremost — put on your oxygen mask before helping others — and that’s what I’ve been doing. There are several things going on in my life right now, but I’ll tell you …

7 comments

Permanent link to this article: https://ecologybits.com/index.php/2017/02/08/a-missing-voice/

On requesting letters of recommendation

January 11, 2017

by Margaret Kosmala

January 11, 2017

Letters of rec have been on my mind a lot recently because I have both requested them (poorly) and read my first ones in the past month. This post is aimed at grad students and postdocs who will be requesting letters of recommendations from people who know them fairly well. The letters I requested were …

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Permanent link to this article: https://ecologybits.com/index.php/2017/01/11/on-requesting-letters-of-recommendation/

First year retrospective

January 4, 2017

by Margaret Kosmala

January 4, 2017

This is that mandatory post that blog writers write once they’ve been blogging for a year. I started Ecology Bits about a year ago (I’m not a stickler for exact dates) and here’s my take on what it’s been like to be writing in the ecology blogosphere. (Yes, it does, too, exist.) One thing that …

10 comments

Permanent link to this article: https://ecologybits.com/index.php/2017/01/04/first-year-retrospective/

How NOT to get a postdoc position

December 14, 2016

by Margaret Kosmala

December 14, 2016

The other day I was talking to a last-year PhD student about finding a postdoc position. I’ve written before about the various ways I’m aware of to get a postdoc position, but in this conversation, I was recalling all the things I tried that were utter failures. My situation at the time was a tricky …

5 comments

Permanent link to this article: https://ecologybits.com/index.php/2016/12/14/how-not-to-get-a-postdoc-position/

How to run an online academic book club

November 30, 2016

by Margaret Kosmala

November 30, 2016

Back in August, the first copies of Mark Vellend’s book The Theory of Ecological Communities were released. I got one of them and found out from the publisher and from the Twitter-sphere that the books were in high demand. A couple people on Twitter suggested forming a book club, and being a compulsive organizer, I …

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Permanent link to this article: https://ecologybits.com/index.php/2016/11/30/how-to-run-an-online-academic-book-club/

Thoughts on preregistering my research

November 16, 2016

by Margaret Kosmala

November 16, 2016

Last week, I submitted the methods for the project I’ve recently started to the Center for Open Science’s Preregistration Challenge. Briefly, the goal of the challenge is to get more scientists to preregister their research, and it’s got a monetary incentive. The goals of preregistration itself are to increase transparency and reproducibility in scientific research. …

9 comments

Permanent link to this article: https://ecologybits.com/index.php/2016/11/16/thoughts-on-preregistering-my-research/

Some advice on applying for faculty jobs, according to six Harvard assistant professors

October 26, 2016

by Margaret Kosmala

October 26, 2016

This is the year — the first year I’d be applying for faculty jobs, if I wasn’t so adamant about not relocating. I finally have first-author papers, the last checkbox to check on an otherwise pretty decent CV. [1] The trouble with doing too many things is not finishing any of them. I had too …

4 comments

Permanent link to this article: https://ecologybits.com/index.php/2016/10/26/some-advice-on-applying-for-faculty-jobs-according-to-six-harvard-assistant-professors/

Making science products Open: an informal guide to copyright and licensing

October 19, 2016

by Margaret Kosmala

October 19, 2016

I grew up a hacker (in the original sense) and thus a True Believer in open knowledge. And so, when it came time to start publishing science, I figured I’d make all my products Open. But it turns out that there’s a bewildering array of things to think about if you want to do so. …

6 comments

Permanent link to this article: https://ecologybits.com/index.php/2016/10/19/making-science-products-open-an-informal-guide-to-copyright-and-licensing/

Demands for 48-hour proof turnarounds are unacceptable

October 12, 2016

by Margaret Kosmala

October 12, 2016

Perhaps this sounds familiar… You wrote a manuscript and it got sent out for review. It got generally good reviews, and so you revised the manuscript once or twice. Then it was accepted. Hurrah! Break out the milkshakes. [1] or other beverage of choice Then … crickets … nothing. After a few months, you email …

8 comments

Permanent link to this article: https://ecologybits.com/index.php/2016/10/12/demands-for-48-hour-proof-turnarounds-are-unacceptable/