Fiction Writer with question for research physicists - Looking for opinions and experiences with peer-reviewed publishing

[randodude]

TL;DR Summary

Sci-Fi writer doing research, looking for opinions on your experiencing publishing research.

Hello. Im a Sci-Fi writer doing research, looking for opinions and comments from grad students or post-doc faculty/researchers on your experience publishing and opinions on the relationship between scientists and scientific journals. As well as personal experience, thoughts or any opinions on the modern peer review process, or whatever else like: your experiences from research internships, what was the thing you were most surprised to find out with a job or scientific career, what was most annoying or a pet peeve for you, etc.

Its just for notes that I can reference when writing some dialog in my book when I have scenes with rambling/ranting scientist characters.

 

[jedishrfu]

Sometimes it is good to check out old sci-fi movies that get into this like:

- Clara an indie sci-fi movie about a troubled PhD seeking an exoplanet for discovery in an international competition. The movie shows briefly the way real astronomers work using visualization and analytic tools like Matlab.
- 2012 a campy apocalyptic movie with every disaster known to man showcased
- Contact where the scientists and engineers debate the alien contact and instruction book.
- Cosmos indie movie where three engineers get a signal from outer space while working on a satellite problem

Another source would be YouTube videos of grad students chronicling their efforts to get their degree. Here's one from Univ of Idaho about the steps to a degree:



My brother went through the grad student mill where he was assigned a prof to work with who gave him a problem to work for a thesis. After a year or so, the professor became disinterested in the problem and he had trouble meeting with him but continued to plod onward.

It wasn't until a more senior professor questioned why this professor hadn't graduated any of his students in recent years. They then proceeded to get these students prepped and through the dissertation process and out the door. One of my brother's fellow students left in disgust after being sidelined by this same professor. This is what can happen.

In another case, I heard that a prolific grad student who was pumping out a lot of papers coauthored with his advisor was held back from getting his degree so he could continue to pump out more papers.

In a more famous case, a grad student came late to class and thought that the professor had written a homework problem on the board to be solved. He did it and handed it in a few months later the professor contacted him to say he had solved two previously unsolvable problems in statistics. The student was George Dantzig who went on to become a prominent PhD who developed the simplex algorithm.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Dantzig

and of course Snopes investigated the urban version of the story as well:

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-unsolvable-math-problem/

 

[jedishrfu]

Calling @randodude where are you?

 

[Hornbein]

I have never been a PhD candidate but have talked with a few. One her advisor got schizophrenia. That was the end of his career. She wasn't sure what to do.

The next let the advisor that recruited her push her around. "Temporarily" reduced her pay, stuff like that. She got sick of academia and left it entirely.

Some were doing automated theorem proving when their advisors lost interest and started pursuing something else. They didn't much know what to do either. (Automated theorm proving was basically a failure.)

I also read an account by a new professor which was eye opening. Basically its poverty, scrounging, and constantly selling yourself. Her invaluable research assisstant was living in his car.

All and all the for-profit businessman have taken over the institutions. Even the President of Harvard does their bidding. The professors have lost their power and are now exploited peons unless they gain some sort of fame. A lot of them lie and cheat on their research. It's totally different from when my Dad became a professor in the 50's. He became a department chairman at the University of Oklahoma at age about thirty. That would never happen now.

I figure the professors are under so much pressure and so screwed over they pass it on to their graduate students. I am very glad I didn't get involved. I tried.

Sabine Hossenfelder has a video call "I'm A Failure" or something like that where she explicates why academia is a bad deal. She says it sucked even though she was "successful." In short : it's all about money now.