The Academic Career… Frederic Adam Head, Graduate School, College of Business and Law Department of Accounting, Finance and Information Systems University College Cork Ireland Foreword The academic (borrowed from R. Hirschheim) • Historically, a balance of research, teaching and service • Jack of all trades, master of none? • Different cultures, different schools have different views on the appropriate mix • Over time, research has taken ‘center stage’, at least in certain areas. • In Business and Law, uncertain what the right balance is – research is important, but funding models rely primarily on teaching and other key elements of the academic “profile” [This is changing fast!!!] Elements of the Academic Profile You can enhance your profile through: Internal External • • • • • “Excellent” or “novel” Teaching Curriculum development – new courses / new degrees Research supervision Contribution to the institution (eg: committees, course direction) Seeking research funding / lead projects (eg: PI, collaborator) • • • • • • • • Published work Conference / research presentations Journal, reviewing, editing and production Conference and seminar organisation Participation / leadership in international forums Lead international projects (eg: FP7) Engage with industry Public profile events – media events • Blogs and websites Covered together Teaching Duties and Experience • • • • • • • Lectures and tutorials Course design and curriculum development Teaching aids / technology Examining Student contact – formal and informal Reflective practice and self-improvement (portfolio) Formal qualifications • Doing well is not the same as spending loads of time • Necessary but not sufficient in 2013 Postgraduate Supervision • Can take a variety of forms (and we are different here) – – – – (final year projects) Taught Masters dissertation Masters by Research PhD Even if you have little or no experience of supervising, have some thoughts on your experience of being supervised and on what makes a good supervisor Begin with co-supervision Seek to move towards the “3 year PhD” Pick the topics Pick the candidates Keep the pressure on Don’t neglect the essentials – in time, you will NEED completed PhDs to do anything Administration • Universities are a case of “death by committee”…so think about how you can show: • • • • • Organisational skills Team-work Past experience Responsibility Initiative • Sometimes, learn to say “No”…in any case be ultra efficient (or stay out of it) Practical example - UCC • • • • • • • • • • • Faculty meetings Research committee Mentoring of students School visits Board of studies Interview / promotion boards Programme direction Industrial placement opportunity seeker Academic council Governing body…. Objectives: – Go with your strengths and interests – Understand “value for time” – Don’t neglect the essentials – you need your institution Seeking Research Funding • Why? What kind of projects? What kind of projects? • Funding your research – Assemble a team – Recruit PhDs and post-Docs • Becoming a PI – – – – Understand that the PI does not do the work Become an expert on schemes, deadlines and application Become an expert on FP7 or EI accounting rules Get to know everyone in the VP for research office and in Research Finance (and in HR!) Research Publishing? What is it? Science! • Contributing to Scientific Progress • Participating in the emergence of the New Ideas that will Shape the Future • Writing papers / reports about research one has carried out • Send them to a variety of forums • Build the profile of your lab so it gets richly funded • Build up a profile for yourself so you can get a job, tenure and timely promotion • Boost your ego and line up trophies on your mantelpiece Personal Interest {These factors are not always correlated } Notion of Publication Profile • Right balance of publications – where and what • Types: journal papers, book chapters, conferences, edited books and authored books • Topics and methods • Which ones are the most important? The “best” ones? • How do you decide where you send your stuff? • How much does the shape of the outcome matters in terms of profile? Mintzberg’s “intended” versus “realised” strategy A profile...1994-2010 = 17 years total per year 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 A closer look at the “realised” Strategy 9 conferences 8 journals Book chapters 7 books short publications 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Appearances can be deceiving • Dissertations are not always dissertations – Thesis by publication • Journals are not always journals – Electronic journals – “A”, “B” and even “C” (!) journals [or grade 4, 3, 2, 1 journals] • Conferences are not always conferences – Peer reviewed – Selection rate – Published proceedings • Books are not always books: – Publisher – Reading committee – Distribution • Need to SPEAK THE THRUTH! [at least to yourself!] • Have a clear strategy dedicated to a specific rating scheme – WHOSE SCHEME?!?!?!??! • Understand the importance of “fashion” What are rankings? • With so many rankings, pick the one most favourable! – Aston (RAE) http://www.abs.aston.ac.uk/newweb/research/documents/mar08.pdf – Association of Business Schools – Specialised rankings • ACPHIS (Australian Council of Professors and Heads of Information Systems) or “Basket of IS journals” – Other rankings / bibliometric analyses • Eg: ISI listings • In practice rankings may mean little – see where the best researchers publish! But you are not a leading researcher yet… • If it were about the Truth, we would be discussing the methodologies used by these rating schemes – Do you know how the RAE works? – Do you know how ISI select their publications? • But they are critical when it comes to rating publications and therefore when it comes to rating your record. SO KNOW THEM Impact factor A = the number of times articles published in 2008-9 were cited in indexed journals during 2010 B = the number of articles, reviews, proceedings or notes published in 2008-9 impact factor 2010 = A/B (note that the impact factor for a year is actually published in the following year, because it cannot be calculated until all of the 2010 publications had been received. Impact factor 2010 will be published in 2011) Examples Rank 2007 Impact Factor Impact 2003-07 Impact 1981-2007 1 Acad. Manage. Journal (5.02) Admin. Science Quart. (9.80) Admin. Science Quart. (81.86) 2 Acad. Manage. Rev. (4.37) Journal of Marketing (7.0) Acad. Manage. Rev. (59.93) 3 Marketing Science (3.96) Acad. Manage. Journal (7.43) Journal of Marketing (49.41) 4 Journal of Marketing (3.75) Acad. Manage. Rev. (6.90) Acad. Manage. Journal (45.66) 5 Admin. Science Quart. (2.91) Marketing Science (6.22) Strategic Manage. J. (40.52) 6 Strategic Manage. J. (2.83) Strategic Manage. J. (5.90) J. Consumer Research (37.97) MISQ (4.731) Feed back • Publishing is only one side of the coin • In future years feed back will be what matters – Number of citations – Where – With whom – How quickly? – scHolar Index (http://insitu.lri.fr/~roussel/projects/scholarindex /index.cgi) A scHolar Index analysis (in Google Scholar) Papers:150, Citations:822, Years:20, h-index:17, I10: 23 Title / Author Lessons from enterprise resource planning implementations in Ireland–towards smaller and shorter ERP projects F Adam, P O'doherty Journal of information technology 15 (4), 305-316 The enterprise resource planning decade: lessons learned and issues for the future F Adam, D Sammon Igi Global The status of the IS field: historical perspective and practical orientation F Adam, B Fitzgerald, Information Research 5 (4), 5-4 Benefit realisation through ERP: The re-emergence of data warehousing D Sammon, F Adam, F Carton, Electronic Journal of Information Systems Evaluation 6 (2), 155-164 11 ERP Projects: Good or Bad for SMEs? F Adam, P O'Doherty, Second-Wave Enterprise Resource Planning Systems: Implementing for Effectiveness A framework for the classification of DSS usage across organizations F Adam, M Fahy, C Murphy, Decision Support Systems 22 (1), 1-13 Project preparedness and the emergence of implementation problems in ERP projects D Sammon, F Adam, Information & management 47 (1), 1-8 Developing practical decision support tools using dashboards of information F Adam, JC Pomerol, Handbook on Decision Support Systems 2, 151-173 Mentoring Distance Learners: An Action Research Study. K Neville, F Adam, C McCormack, ECIS, 1410-1421 Understanding the impact of enterprise systems on management decision making: an agenda for future research F Carton, F Adam, The Electronic Journal of Information Systems Evaluation 8 (2), 99-106 On the legacy of Herbert Simon and his contribution to decision-making support systems and artificial intelligence JC Pomerol, F Adam, Intelligent Decision-making Support Systems, 25-43 Encyclopedia of decision making and decision support technologies F Adam, P Humphreys, Information Science Reference Towards a model of organisational prerequisites for enterprise-wide systems integration: Examining ERP and data warehousing D Sammon, F Adam, Journal of Enterprise Information Management 18 (4), 458-470 Cited by Year 164 2000 59∗ 2004 43∗ 2000 35∗ 2003 34∗ 2003 30 1998 26 2010 26∗ 2008 25∗ 2002 23 2005 21∗ 2006 19 2008 19 2005 Finding homes for yourself • A good working group – tightly focused – Specialised topic / smaller group / more dynamic / easier to prove yourself • A large international conference – Big payback / harder to get in / even harder to get up top • A journal where you have contacts – Become a reviewer, then an AE, then… • Forums where everyone wants to publish – If you are that good! • A “friendly” publishing house – IGI never says “NO”! • Prestigious co-authors • The criteria for selection are: how much time do you want to invest in maintaining these relationships / how many horses do you want to back / how much funding can you invest… What it means • Publishing is messy and erratic • Success rate is variable • Two (3)prong – – – – Need material -> doing research [or supervise] Need papers -> writing publications Need great co-authors Need luck ????? • If you don’t submit you won’t be accepted of course • If at first you don’t succeed, recycle... • If you want to play the citation game, go for: – Methodology papers – Active forums – Faddish / hot domains where there is interest but little research Key Lessons (borrowed from Hirschheim) • • • • Work with others … coauthoring rules Start early… takes a long time to publish Keep up a pipeline of work Have multiple research areas but focus on becoming a true leader in one area • Stay visible … give talks, be a reviewer, write papers, be on program committees • Learn the value system of your institution (school) 21 Lesson learnt over 20 years as an editor, author and reviewer (Hirschheim) • What often makes or brakes the case for a paper – notoriously vague or missing purpose of the paper: what is the contribution to knowledge of the paper? What are the research questions? – the likely community interest of the paper’s point – literature positioning and bridge building – believability and intelligibility of the paper’s arguments • the problem of breaking new ground vs. incremental point – conclusions are not mere summaries: the need to address the ‘so what’ issue 22 Leading international research projects • • • • Don’t try this at home Cannot do without institutional backing Cannot do without very substantial record Need deep pockets to travel in and out of information days (eg: Brussels) • Your goal can / should be to become a partner – small, then bigger: – Participant – Task leader – Work package leader Engage with Industry • • • • Because we are Business and Law But different from the “Sciences” Critical to think about what we can do for them But be convinced that: – – – – We have much to offer We can do it is an economically viable way We can have a very tangible impact We can generate good will and surplus ($) • Need to know what you are talking about before you go and try – – – – – Contract for services IP NDA Co-fund initiatives VAT!!! Community Outreach • Have you, or do you intend to, use(d) your expertise to make an impact outside of the academic environment? • Submissions to Government consultations • Working with NGOs • Media analysis Conclusion • Prima facia, it cannot be done so the approach needs to be professionalised • Devise a strategy and be receptive to its impact • Learn and revise on a regular basis • But be persistent • Understand the trade offs between your personal interest and what your record will look like on paper • Learn speed and right-sizing