Interlude: New Books, Neglect, and Text Recycling

Earlier this week, I was walking my dog, and we stopped by a Free Little Library. (Confession: I might plan our walks so that we pass these little gems).

As I browsed the books, I found myself thinking, "Why am I looking at more books? I already have a stack of books that I need to read at home."

And then I thought, "But these are new books!"

I think there is something joyful about getting a new (or new-to-me) book. I enjoy the excitement of possibility—of learning something new or being engrossed in a story.

I also appreciate that books are packages of knowledge or imagination that the author is sharing with the world. It's a pretty remarkable accomplishment and contribution to society.

So the next time you pass a Free Little Library, take a book or leave a book to spread the joy.

Now onto this week's round-up...

💌 Round-up

👓 Reading

One Scientist Neglected His Grant Reports. Now U.S. Agencies Are Withholding Grants for an Entire University.​
"The National Institutes of Health, the Office of Naval Research, and the U.S. Army are withholding all of their grants from the University of California at San Diego because one scientist failed to turn in required final reports for two of his grants..."

​When it is and isn’t OK to recycle text in scientific papers​
"Text recycling refers to the reuse (copying) of one’s own previous writing in the production of a new piece of work. . . From the journal’s perspective, we encourage reuse of methodological information from your previous work, as long as you cite the original paper in which you introduced the method (and the reuse complies with copyright law). However, reusing ‘boilerplate’ stretches of text outside of the methods section is not only problematic, but is also likely to obscure the specific point that you are trying to make in a paper and to reduce its accessibility and impact."

🖥️ Watching

Rejection​
In this post, Jamie Kern Lima shares her positive outlook on rejection. I think that her perspective is a valuable way for us to reframe our thoughts and feelings when we face rejection from a journal or funding agency.

💬 Quote

"In any case, don't get into the habit of using a semicolon (or anything else) merely to mark a breathing space. Your reader will be perfectly capable of doing his own breathing, providing your sentence is well punctuated; punctuation is an aid to understanding, not to respiration." –R L Trask, Penguin Guide To Punctuation

✅ Action

The next time you pick up a book to read, pause for a moment to appreciate the time and effort that the author invested in crafting that book.

Thank you so much for reading.

Warmly,

Crystal