Social Science Space

“Why you or other researchers need a literature review is rarely discussed, or when it is, it is quickly glossed […]

Publishing research that can be accessed as widely as possible is clearly crucial, but ensuring that research is accessible to similarly large groups of people is an altogether different challenge. Lucy Lambe explains how the LSE Library has worked with a comics creator and illustrator to create illustrated abstracts of articles that were funded to publish open access last year.

A good academic conference poster serves a dual purpose: it is both an effective networking tool and a way to communicate your research. But many academics fail to produce a truly visually arresting conference poster which make connections are lost. Tullio Rossi offers guidance on how to produce an outstanding conference poster.

Professor of sociology and criminal justice, Ronet D. Bachman uses statistics and research methods to investigate topics in the fields of criminology and criminal justice. The knowledge gained can be applied to everyday life to help us become better students, citizens, critical thinkers, job applicants and decision makers.

Drawing on their new SAGE book for students and academics “How to be a Happy Academic,” Alex Clark and Bailey Sousa share strategies for successful student-supervisor meetings.

College professors are always looking for ways to help their students feel more engaged and invested in course material. Storytelling gives context to facts and complex concepts that could otherwise be difficult to grasp. This in turn engages students in the curriculum and improves their retention of the material.

For Academic Book Week, SAGE Publishing, the parent of Social Science Space, asked some of its authors and editors for their top tips for women in academia:

Going to an academic conference is an exciting opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals and exchange stimulating ideas. However, to make the most of a conference requires a lot of hard work before, during, and after the meeting itself. Marta Teperek provides a checklist of things to do at each of these stages.

The appeal of collaborating with a government agency, or an organization funded by one, seems obvious. In practice, however, it’s not always easy to make collaborative research work well. Susan Dodsworth and Nic Cheeseman outline some simple lessons for those looking to collaborate while avoiding the common pitfalls.

Storify is dead The service, which let you take social media content like Twitter and Facebook posts and aggregate them together into stories, announced that they’ll be shutting down and deleting all content as of March 16th, 2018. It’s not as bad as some platform shutdowns – there is notice and at least you can export your own content (one story at a time) – but it’s still a reminder of how vulnerable user-generated content can be online.

How can researchers provide information about their studies in ways that would be useful and interesting to prospective and current research participants? With that question in my mind, MethodSpace’s Janet Salmons began to explore the potential for blogs to recruit and inform participants. As with almost any online exploration, she discovered a much broader potential for blogs in the academic world.

It’s not easy being an early career researcher! Establishing your professional identity, developing your independence as a researcher, teaching, competing for grants, coping with increasing levels of administration and – oh yes – developing your ‘output’ – that dreadful word so often used to describe the writing born of your research.