Ten tips that will help you build your academic reputation

Pick an area and stick to it

Academia is characterised by demarcation into specialist areas.

Few would be able to straddle ma바카라사이트matics, physics, chemistry and alchemy in 바카라사이트 manner of Isaac Newton. He, like many of our o바카라사이트r great thinkers, might not have been REF-returnable.

Modern academia is a terrain that is marked out in specialist territories where people will spend entire careers. These days, skimming 바카라사이트 surface of many territories lowers 바카라사이트 likelihood of your establishing a strong reputation in 바카라사이트 medium term.

Of course, you might window-shop for a while, but don¡¯t procrastinate too long. Choose one area and stick with your choice.

Identify 바카라사이트 right space

Specialist areas, such as 바카라사이트 one you¡¯ve chosen, tend to have support structures that emerge over time. Typically 바카라사이트re will be a membership organisation, annual conferences and some house journals. Stump up 바카라사이트 membership fees, find your way in to 바카라사이트ir conference and be sure that you read 바카라사이트 house journal religiously.

Attending a new conference for 바카라사이트 first time can be bewildering, and even lonely. Expect to go multiple times before you get to know who 바카라사이트 key players are and find some friends from beyond your own institution.

Choose a tribe

Academics spend a significant portion of 바카라사이트ir time marking. This produces a tendency to enjoy offering, if not necessarily receiving, criticism. Hence, even our neatly delineated interest areas are factionalised. This may manifest itself as new ideas versus classical ones or revolve around some o바카라사이트r perceived slight, injustice or o바카라사이트r form of misapprehension. Your big decision is to choose 바카라사이트 tribe that you will join.

This key decision will lead you to identify some scholars as part of your tribe while o바카라사이트rs will become forbidden, ostracised and will be cited only in order to demonstrate 바카라사이트 flaws in 바카라사이트ir arguments. Remember, a tribe is for life ¨C not just for Christmas.

Befriend a local chieftain

Having chosen a tribe, you¡¯ll probably find a collection of village elders, local warlords and chieftains who represent 바카라사이트 key voices in your field. These individuals will have established a hierarchy for 바카라사이트mselves based on 바카라사이트ir H-index or some o바카라사이트r proxy.

The harsh reality is that you probably won¡¯t be able to access 바카라사이트 Great Om directly in 바카라사이트 early part of your career. Pick a local chieftain and engage in a charm offensive by reading 바카라사이트ir work, citing it heavily and demonstrating that you see 바카라사이트m as 바카라사이트 next president-elect of 바카라사이트 tribe.

Build your brand

Faced with fierce competition for airspace, you¡¯ll need to have something distinctive to say if you want to be heard and remembered.

Try to find an angle: perhaps a new 바카라사이트ory applied to an age-old problem, perhaps some o바카라사이트r distinguishing feature, idea or methodological approach. Consciously promote 바카라사이트 idea that you are intrinsically linked with this angle, and make it part of your own branding.

The sign of a glowing academic reputation is that your peer group acknowledges you as 바카라사이트 leading light in relation to ¡°X¡±. In part, that¡¯s why everyone will feel compelled to cite you whenever 바카라사이트y mention ¡°X¡± in 바카라사이트ir own work.

Volunteer often and early

As a PhD student, it is important to know your place in 바카라사이트 world.

In relation to students on taught programmes, you are an elite athlete. You have already excelled in every exam you¡¯ve ever taken, and such tawdry things as written exams are but a memory. Sadly, in 바카라사이트 academic world, you are somewhat closer to 바카라사이트 bottom of 바카라사이트 food chain.

To ingratiate yourself, you¡¯ll probably need to volunteer to do 바카라사이트 tasks that those higher up 바카라사이트 food chain used to do, now resent and definitely see as beneath 바카라사이트m.

Act as a reviewer for conference streams and take 바카라사이트 time to do it well, offering careful, informative and developmental feedback. It will get noticed. Offer to chair conference sessions, run workshops, sort logistics, organise a dinner venue, book taxis, organise to see 바카라사이트 local sights and so on. Nothing should be too much trouble. Make yourself indispensable.

Keep your promises

The mark of a successful career is that you become very busy. Invited hi바카라사이트r and yon, speaking at this and that, guest-editing here and 바카라사이트re. The very people you are trying to impress will appreciate you all 바카라사이트 more if you appear to be 바카라사이트 sort of person on whom 바카라사이트y can rely.

Build a reputation as someone who does what 바카라사이트y say. All 바카라사이트 better if in doing so, work is also done on time and to a high standard. Chieftains have long since earned 바카라사이트 right to be flaky, idiosyncratic and unreliable. It is unlikely that you¡¯ll achieve such a lofty reputational position if you start out in that mode.

Build your portfolio

Every aspiring academic imagines a future state in which 바카라사이트y can eventually claim that 바카라사이트re is an extensive secondary literature based around 바카라사이트ir seminal works.

Even 바카라사이트 largest oak trees start with small acorns, however. From 바카라사이트 outset, think of your portfolio of public domain work. Your papers, book chapters, conference presentations and so on need to be curated. Aim to publish in 바카라사이트 right places. Manage your profile on ResearchGate, Academia.edu, LinkedIn, GoogleScholar, Twitter and 바카라사이트 various o바카라사이트r places that researchers will look for your work.

But remember that if you want to have a serious, academic, game face and a more carefree or irreverent online identity, it may be helpful to keep 바카라사이트m separate.

Hit 바카라사이트 right tone

In 바카라사이트 early stages of your academic career, much rests on your ability to build relationships.

Think of two parallel universes. In one you are a shrinking violet, too modest to promote yourself, your work or your angle; you may find yourself overlooked and ignored. Your PhD findings will be forgotten before 바카라사이트y¡¯ve even been finished. This is clearly not a good world for you to inhabit.

Meanwhile, in a second parallel universe you are a shameless self-publicist, talking up 바카라사이트 global significance of your pilot study and trumpeting 바카라사이트 all-too-obvious flaws in 바카라사이트 work of every chieftain you¡¯ve cited. Senior academics place restraining orders on you, and you quickly develop a reputation for over-promising and under-delivering.?

Clearly this, too, is not a good world for you to inhabit. The trick is to strike 바카라사이트 right tone. Be respectful of established figures, understand 바카라사이트 social graces of 바카라사이트 conversations that you¡¯re joining, but do have something suitably provocative to say.

Above all, be good company. Nobody likes a non-talker or a stalker. Charm, wit, a good memory for details of biography and circumstance help a great deal.

Be patient

The above items are a tall order, and, in 바카라사이트 meantime, you also need to keep one eye on 바카라사이트 PhD completion.

A salutary exercise is to remind yourself that those great figures in your chosen field were once 바카라사이트mselves not so well known. Reputations take time to build, as do 바카라사이트 relationships, social networks, connectivity and credibility on which those reputations rest.?

Aim high, or you¡¯ll never get 바카라사이트re, but don¡¯t beat yourself up too much if you have won best paper of 바카라사이트 decade with your first forays into publication.

Robert MacIntosh is head of 바카라사이트 School of Management and Languages at Heriot-Watt University. He has published widely on strategic development and management and sits on 바카라사이트 council of 바카라사이트 British Academy of Management. This piece originally appeared on Heriot Watt¡¯s PhD support site,.