Rejection

[Marasme]

Thought i d put this here.

A few months ago i got a fellowship rejection, on a scheme to promote research "re entry" for people who have been prevented to do research due to high adnin or teaching burden.

I finally got the feedback today - one of the factor against my application was ... the lack of recent big research papers :/

Fucking academia

[MiladyThesaurus]

Oh that's typically absurd for academia! How frustrating.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Jesus. What a load of bullshit.

Is there any way to flag up the idiocy of the decision?

[Marasme]

I did flag it up.
The older i get, the less tolerant of that kind of shit i am.

The feedback in the line "you are mediocre" always bite though, no matter how old i get or how often i tell my staff not to take them personally.

Shitty academia and fucking impact factors.

[Foureyesarebetterthantwo]

Ugh, what a crap reason. I think they run out of reasons, given there's such a shortage of funding at the moment. I kind of like the ESRC's 'your project was worthy of funding but we had no money to fund it, sorry' line, makes you feel less crap!

I do think, though, that academia is always trying to get more bang for its buck everywhere and this ends up really disadvantaging anyone but the most star-like. For example, the 1 + 3 ESRC schemes are supposed to be for excellent graduates just finishing to take them on, train them in methods in the 1 then do a PhD. What invariably happens at our institution is that everyone is put in competition with everyone else in a huge big college-wide bun-fight, and those who already have Masters with Distinction, a paper, work experience with academics rise to the top and get the studentships even though they are not the ones targetted by the scheme. The competition takes place in March time, so the younger 3rd years haven't even finished. This then unfairly lets those who can already afford a Masters be the ones to win and the younger or poorer ones lose.

Same with jobs, if there's ever an opportunity to snap up a senior hire under a junior job (which there is with so many applicants), they take it then wonder why the senior isn't all that happy or goes elsewhere a few years later.

The system is really creaking IMO.

[Foureyesarebetterthantwo]

I also got a grant rejected as the topic was deemed 'a bit premature' and getting ahead of the basic issues, then 3 years later, lots of other similar projects are now getting funded and I've missed the boat!

[Booboostwo]

That takes the biscuit!

I'd be tempted to complain but then again all that will do isn't raise your blood pressure even more.

I've had some corkers for paper rejections. One was rejected for promoting too male a perspective....erh, I am female?! Another was rejected as I should have referred more to my own work - fair enough the referee was looking at an anonymize paper, but how shoddy was the editor for not noticing!

[worstofbothworlds]

A colleague's DH has been on soft money for a while (in a STEM field) and is looking for teaching jobs. Even temporary teaching fellows require evidence of grants held - when you can't apply for a grant without a permanent post!

[murmuration]

What????? That is completely ridiculous. Like, you should be disqualified from this scheme if you do have recent big research papers because you clearly don't need it...

[MedSchoolRat]

Who got the fellowship? Is it someone who did have recent high impact publications?

[Marasme]

MedSchoolRat - no idea. I'll check in a few months if I remember.
My DH believes that there are a lot of "middle authors" out there who still manage to pack a decent CV despite teaching loads. I have no such luck, unfortunately... the only papers I am on are those I write!

[MiladyThesaurus]

I'd like to be one of those middle authors. Alas, I am only on papers I actually write too.

[MedSchoolRat]

I know some of the middle authors sometimes did minimal, but other times we did BUCKETs. I don't think I've ever been included frivolously as author -- ime, that usually only happens to senior colleagues who are PI & hold the purse strings, so they did write the grant-bid in first place & had some part in study design or setting research objectives.

There is one big multi-faceted project I'm working on where I purposely do NOT want to be first author b/c of data quality problems, no matter how much work I put in; thank goodness others have skills to write. Someone else can be held more responsible, & especially field media queries.

[MiladyThesaurus]

But wouldn't it be nice to regularly be one of those middle authors who made someone a cup of tea once.

Sadly I think most of us have to contribute an awful lot to anything that gets our name on it.

[Foureyesarebetterthantwo]

I literally loathe my 'middle author' who has done nothing in an entire 18 month project. They don't care though, one more for the CV.

[MiladyThesaurus]

They clearly aren't making you enough tea.