Take This Job and Pre-Register It

Going on the job market is stressful already. If you’ve been embracing open science practices in your work, how should you convey that? And will you be embraced as forward-thinking or dismissed as a destructo-warrior? Also: This is the first episode we’ve recorded since we launched and we talk about how it feels weird. And two, count ’em, TWO letters today: The perils of trying to seem knowledgeable and admitting what you don’t know; and should you accept a review request for someone you know is a serial sexual harasser?

Discussed in this episode:

The Black Goat is hosted by Sanjay Srivastava, Alexa Tullett, and Simine Vazire. Find us on the web at www.theblackgoatpodcast.com, on Twitter at @blackgoatpod, or on Facebook at facebook.com/blackgoatpod/. You can email us at letters@theblackgoatpodcast.com.

Our theme music is Peak Beak by Doctor Turtle, available on freemusicarchive.org under a Creative Commons noncommercial attribution license.

This is episode 6. It was recorded April 14, 2017.

Excellence adventures

Universities are increasingly talking about “excellence” as a basis for evaluating scholarship and making strategic decisions. We talk about a recent paper that analyzes the rhetoric around excellence, finds it wanting, and offers up some alternatives. Plus: We get ready for spring “break” (flying to beautiful places to keep working); the controversy around Brian Wansink’s Food and Brand Lab; and should our letter-writer appeal an editorial decision based on an error?

Links discussed:

The Black Goat is hosted by Sanjay Srivastava, Alexa Tullett, and Simine Vazire. Find us on the web at www.theblackgoatpodcast.com, on Twitter at @blackgoatpod, or on Facebook at facebook.com/blackgoatpod/. You can email us at letters@theblackgoatpodcast.com.

Our theme music is Peak Beak by Doctor Turtle, available on freemusicarchive.org under a Creative Commons noncommercial attribution license.

This is episode 5. It was recorded March 20, 2017.

Episode 4: Hate the Sinner

Many of us try to draw a line between criticizing the science and criticizing the scientist. But when are ad hominem criticisms okay? We talk about the difference between ad hominem arguments and the ad hominem fallacy, the asymmetry between praise and criticism, and the sometimes complicated relationship between our scientific output and our reputations. Plus: In our opening segment we talk about an experiment in gender-swapping email signatures. And we answer a letter from someone whose data was used for a publication by a fellow graduate student without permission.

Links discussed:

The Black Goat is hosted by Sanjay Srivastava, Alexa Tullett, and Simine Vazire. Find us on the web at www.theblackgoatpodcast.com, on Twitter at @blackgoatpod, or on Facebook at facebook.com/blackgoatpod/. You can email us at letters@theblackgoatpodcast.com.

Our theme music is Peak Beak by Doctor Turtle, available on freemusicarchive.org under a Creative Commons noncommercial attribution license.

This episode was recorded March 10, 2017.