
There’s No Winter Break from ‘Publish or Perish’ - vo2maxer
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/18/science/scientists-holiday-work.html
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glitchc
The publication cycle is vicious. We hear a lot about the hard-working
academic, but it won’t change until researchers themselves decide it’s not
worth it. And please don’t tell me it’s about promotions. That’s a small part
of the story.

A typical tenure is far more secure than an industry position, yet many of my
colleagues work just as hard, if not harder, than the assistant profs hoping
to obtain tenure. To date, I haven’t heard a good reason for why they keep
working so hard. It’s never mother dying or bills to pay. Rather they are
always wishy-washy reasons that hide the real truth: They like it. They enjoy
it. It gives them meaning and purpose. Not to mention sabbaticals: I see
senior faculty frequently delaying sabbaticals too, for reasons as varied as
the individuals themselves and none of them ring true. I often ask, “Do you
really think committee A or initiative B would not survive without you?” They
hem and haw, but have no concrete statements to back up their reasoning. And
don’t get me started on academics who continue to practice into the 70s and
80s, well past their best before date. Most can’t even remember the names of
their grad students. It’s pure hubris. The norm should be retiring to
teaching-only roles, and hand the mantle of research over to the younger
faculty or stepping away from the lab they created by selecting a successor.
Rather, it’s the exception.

If all the senior faculty across academia collectively took a break in the
same timeframe, say one or two months every year, it would create
opportunities for the younger members to step in and shine in their own way
across the stratum of activities. Publications receiving fewer (and invited!)
papers from senior academics would accept more research from the juniors,
there would be more openings on committees. There would be greater career
growth at the early stages.

In short, the inmates are at least partly responsible for the rules of the
asylum.

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impendia
I am an academic mathematician, on winter break. I did some research this
morning. Why? No wishy-washy reasons here, the reason is as you said: I like
it. I will do more today.

I do not believe that my work comes at someone else's expense. My _position_
does -- there are only so many slots for tenured professors -- but not my
actual work.

Research is not a zero-sum game. There will always be open problems to
investigate.

~~~
motivic
Exactly. I used to be a mathematician and while I am no longer one, I can
completely empathize with wanting to work on math as much as possible. To me,
it's exactly the same as why some people want to run marathons, because it's
exciting and immensely rewarding, and makes me feel alive.

~~~
romwell
I graduated with a PhD in math, now working in software.

I went to two math conferences this year, and plan to work on an unfinished
paper next year - and hopefully start something new. The only thing stopping
me is the lack of time away from the day job (and attention span that it
allots). Switching between a software job and mathematics turns out to be
hard.

So on that note: why did you _use to be_ a mathematician? What would it take
to continue research for fun in any amount?

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el_cujo
I'm definitely not suggesting this is the norm (especially for new
investigators or those going up for tenure) but my time in academic research
has been kind of the opposite. Almost everyone in my lab would take at minimum
the week from christmas to new years off. There's a pretty big annual
conference in my field every late October/early November, so really every
year, not much gets done at all from November to mid-January unless you're a
student close to defending your dissertation. In fact a lot of people I knew
at the time outside my own lab cited non-strict hours as being one of the main
perks of the job along with being relatively easy to take time off for
holidays. Again, I get that it's not like that everywhere, but just thought
I'd share the "24/7/365 crunch time" isn't completely universal either.

~~~
ticmasta
Interesting experience. I also wonder if the comparison is made from the
perspective of someone working in non-academia who might get a few days at
Christmas, or undergrad students who get plenty of time off?

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analog31
I live in the shadow of a big university, so I know a lot of academics. The
college breaks are a great time to get stuff done that requires "flow" because
it's a little less busy and your time isn't chopped up by classes and other
stuff. I don't know an academic who doesn't have a list of things they want to
get done during the next break.

Holidays is when I take care of my side business.

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dekhn
I've often gotten my best/most interesting software projects done in the lull
from Dec 15 to Jan 5 (when almost nobody is working, meetings are cancelled,
etc). It's an opportunity cost- by paying it, you'll have more opportunties to
work on interesting things during the year, and it can be enjoyable to focus
on one "simple" thing (for example, this break I'm making code that generates
3D surfaces that I then carve into wood using CNC; it requires a fair amount
of fiddling, then waiting hours for the results, then some more tweaking,
while keeping all the state in your head).

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DanielleMolloy
I’ve felt more balanced working in AAA games (just Q/A, but still) with
several crunches and weekend night shift work, although the accounted work
time was much longer.

The main difference was that it was not possible to take any work home as
everything was under secrecy, i.e. there was a clear boundary between work
time and free time. Thus after going home there was no option but enjoying
something without feeling guilty.

Very liberal worktimes have their advantages though for night owls who
sometimes only get their brain running with an afternoon walk.

Research: Everyday is like Saturday, but you work on Saturdays. (c PhD comics)

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bonoboTP
Lots of academics are from different countries than where they work. I
couldn't imagine not visiting my family over the holidays. And what's with all
the wisdom we can read often, like good ideas come when doing something else,
having fun, being bored. Working all day every day is not necessarily the most
efficient, even if we care about nothing other than academic output. A clear
headed idea after a relaxing vacation may save more time than was lost with
the vacation. After some point keeping "working hard" will devolve to
busywork, procrastination.

Sure there are outliers who can work all the time, 12 hours every weekday,
throughout the whole year, but those are very rare.

In practice, I think a lot of what such "hard working" people do is busywork
or procrastination for a significant number of hours.

I've known successful PhD students who are very deliberate about their time.
In the lab they only work, and put away time for regular exercise, social life
and trips to interesting places to refresh the mind.

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jefft255
I’m going to have to come in a lot during the holidays to run experiments. Can
confirm. It’s good that this is gaining some attention.

~~~
lonelappde
Did you know that outside academia "winter break" doesn't exist at all?

~~~
mattkrause
Did you know that outside of academia, people get paid a lot more?

And many places do shut down-or at least slow down-between Christmas and New
Year’s....

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zwaps
Probably the biggest issue is pre tenure, as there isn't even a possible way
to do anything else.

On the plus side, my work as PhD is self directed and I can most often come in
whenever I like, and work whenever I like. Also, of course, my work is very
rewarding most of the time.

The downside is: I feel pressure to work always, also on weekends. I will not
be taking vacations, I will not visit family over holidays, I will be at
university.

I earn the equivalent of minimum wage for someone working full-time. I work
more.

~~~
thatfrenchguy
> I feel pressure to work always, also on weekends. I will not be taking
> vacations, I will not visit family over holidays, I will be at university.

But why ? Nothing prevents you from going on vacation, and it’s not like it’s
going to influence your PhD results anyway.

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whymauri
When I was a junior in high school, I worked Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
as a lab research assistant.

I got out early and made it home for dinner, but my mentor/supervisor spent
the night at lab running experiments and monitoring a protein purification
protocol. I don't regret leaving lab-bench science and academia.

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cmdshiftf4
>More than a tenth of U.S.-based researchers who submitted manuscripts and
peer review reports to journals did so during the holidays.

I got my degree and got out, so excuse my ignorance on academia as a
profession, but I'm just wondering what the cause behind this spike is?

Is it as a result of researchers being off during the summer months and then
making up for the time during the opening half of the academic year, pushing
to get to a certain deadline (and getting there last minute, as many in
education will)?

Or is there an incentive to submit at a time where reviewers are distracted
with non-work activities, such as here during the holidays? i.e. is one more
likely to be pass peer review and be published at these points in time?

~~~
srl
I'm not sure that is a "spike". At my institution, "holidays" are nearly
1/10th of the year already! Moreover, the quote doesn't say "more than a tenth
of papers were submitted", it says that "more than a tenth of researchers who
submitted, did so during the holidays". The latter statistic includes folks
who pushed out several manuscripts in a year, including one which happens to
be finished over the holidays.

Not that it's implausible that there is a spike -- just that I've never seen
actual evidence of one.

(Disclaimer: haven't read article thanks to paywall.)

~~~
cmdshiftf4
Ah, very plausible. Thanks for weighing in.

>At my institution, "holidays" are nearly 1/10th of the year already!

That would indeed go quite some distance in explaining it in itself.

Although I'm sure the idea of hitting an already bogged-down reviewer at peak
season in the name of getting something perhaps hastily put together to
publish, in avoiding perish, has crossed the minds of a few. Indeed, if it can
cross the mind of a decidedly average non-academic such as myself, I'm almost
certain it has for my intellectual and academic betters.

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jostmey
Yes, as a researcher, I will be working over the winter break. But that's what
I want to do! I guess it is the people who love their job so much they do it
on their time off that lowers the bar for everyone else

~~~
nr2x
You can love your job and also love your family, and holidays are primarily
about time with family. If one prioritizes one “love” for another you either
fall behind professionally or live long enough to regret the decisions you
made. The problem is people with families shouldn’t be forced into that choice
as it is cruel to all involved.

I’m early stage academic and my mother in law is late stage. My MIL missed a
lot of my wife’s childhood and if she could go back in time she’d prioritize
differently which is why I’m taking next week off to spend with my kid.

~~~
bachmeier
> You can love your job and also love your family, and holidays are primarily
> about time with family.

The problem is that academics at many institutions have two jobs. During the
school year, they are teaching, doing service work, and generally have so many
distractions that it's hard to do research. During breaks, the job turns into
a full-time research position. Of course you're going to want to work over
break - especially if you're aiming for a promotion that depends on research.
The current system requires you to do forty hours a week of routine stuff that
won't get you promoted or get you an outside offer, and once you've done that
you can work on your promotion and/or outside offer.

~~~
nr2x
Precisely my point, near-term overwork for a possibility of a “permanent” job
later on, but many people who get there sacrifice family life, get divorced,
and win something of a pyrrich victory in the end: a lifetime job with nobody
to share it with.

Not true for everybody but I’ve spent my entire career at ultra-elite tier
places and the divorce rates are far in excess of average. Pretty sure 50% of
tenured faculty at my grad institution were still unmarried well past 40 or
divorced. I’m not suggesting one must be married with kids to have a perfect
life, but the current system is weeding out anybody who wants that.

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musicale
January deadlines are the worst. I would like to see more conferences and
journals switch to rolling deadlines, which in addition to providing more
flexibility for authors could have additional benefits of spreading out the
review workload and reducing some of the incentive to rush to publication
before the work is ready.

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julienchastang
Especially when your annual conference is immediately after the holidays which
is the case for the American Meteorological Society (AMS) conference. This
used to bother me, but I've gotten used to it over the years. I suppose I
would rather put in extra hours during the winter months and have more free
time during the warmer parts of the year.

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neonate
[http://archive.md/yN43e](http://archive.md/yN43e)

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waynecochran
Siggraph paper due date has always been in January. What are you going to do?

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hprotagonist
Tell me about it. I’ve got drafts due 20 Jan.

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buboard
there's summer break though - try finding reviewers in August

~~~
jefft255
In my experience it’s usually the universities administrative staff that’s
gone during the summer, sometimes making it complicated to get stuff done.

