Hello, Redditors of r/AskAcademia,

I am currently an undergraduate student studying in South Africa, and I have wanted a career in research for most of my life. However, I've recently come across many posts on Reddit that portray academia as a complete waste of time, almost like hell on earth.

I’m planning to finish my BSc in Economics and hope to apply for a grad program in Economics at a top institution in Europe or the US. Given that I am a non-citizen in those countries, I am wondering: is pursuing a career in academia a bad idea? Should I abandon my aspirations for graduate school and academia, or is Reddit just being overly pessimistic?

As you can tell from my tone, I am very confused and really need advice. Thank you all!

I watched a webinar where several editors were complaining about publishers. And honestly, it was pathetic.

One editor proudly described how she launched a new journal. She spammed her contacts, begged PhD students to submit, got more than 150 papers… and published only three. And surprise, those three came from guys at the most prestigious universities. So let me ask: were the other 150 all trash? Or maybe prestige was the only real criterion?

Another editor openly called many submissions “shitty.” That’s the word he used. Like months or years of effort mean nothing — just one insult and it’s gone.

This isn’t peer review. This is a circus. Editors block the door, proud of their power, while researchers are demotivated .

Here’s the truth: the problem isn’t just publishers. The problem is editors who reproduce the same elitism and favoritism they pretend to fight. They don’t respect the work of scientists, and that’s why we waste years, why science barely moves forward.

But maybe there’s still hope. Maybe one day we’ll build publishing system that’s transparent, supportive, and fair — where every result has value, and where “peer review” actually means peers helping each other. Until then, what we have is just elitism with a fancy mask.

I've been looking at posts on Pubpeer and the amount of fake Western blots, edited IFs, copied graphs, plagiarism, and unsubstantiated ideas is absurd. I think most ideas based on scientific literature may be false!

I'm doing Master's in Zoology and plan to give CSIR NET in June 2026. Long-term, i want to pursue a PhD, but I also want to prepare for UPSC.

Has anyone here tried balancing UPSC prep with higher studies/PhD? Should I focus on clearing NET first and then UPSC, or is it possible to manage both together? Any advice would help ✨

Hi all,

I received a PhD in, more or less, the history of widgets from a T10 program. I am currently a NTT lecturer at an elite history department, but the position is non-renewable (not to mention the cost of living being hard to swallow!). I have a hard science master's degree, but no formal business coursework.

Before graduate school I worked in supply chain management, and continued to lend a hand when needed. I have taught professional development courses in supply chain and quality management, and have a strong reference from an R2 business school dean who I worked with--I have spoken with him about writing up a paper on the supply chain of widgets that we could probably wrap up with a short turnaround time. I am wondering how viable it would be to transition to teaching in a business school given the state of hiring in history (along with an interest in the supply chain and flow of widgets).

(Reposted due to new account.)

I just published my first peer-reviewed paper. Woot! My question: What do you do when you definitely know the identity of a reviewer? Like, 100%. I know this person professionally but not super well. Would it be inappropriate to acknowledge it?

I want to respect the integrity of the double-blind peer review process, but it feels pretty silly not to acknowledge that I know (and am grateful for) their critiques. Plus I'm 100% sure they know it was me as well (small world in my subfield). So I know that they know, and they know that I know. Silly, right? Should I reach out and say here's the final paper, thanks so much for your insights...? Is that verboten? TIA for advice!

Edit: Got it, won’t do anything with this knowledge.

In the last year and a half of job searching, I’ve run into some puzzling patterns in academic hiring (especially at large institutions in Texas, California etc):

• Jobs I applied to more than a year ago still show as “under review” in HR systems
• Some of these same roles are still being reposted on LinkedIn today
• Postdoc ads are the same copy-paste template across totally different fields (urology, oncology, bioinformatics, etc.) - literally.
• Even with large HR or TA teams listed, emails to follow up usually get no response

My naive thought is, if funding is uncertain, why not close the role, take down the posting, or at least send a decline after 6+ months “in process”?

I’m trying to understand what’s going on. Is this just how academic funding cycles and HR systems work, or is there another reason for this?

Would really appreciate perspectives from faculty, administrators, or anyone who has been on the hiring side.

Thank you!

Hi Everyone,

I hope this is the right place to post this. I have been out of work for 10+ years (I was a stay at home mom) but I have a masters degree in mental health counseling. My goal is to become a Career Counselor at our local university. 1) I love working with that age group 2) I love the university setting 3) I don't want to do mental health counseling anymore. I figured I should enroll and take some courses on Career Counseling to brush up on my education. It's hard to remember everything since I graduated 13+ years ago.

My questions are this: Is there a certification you would recommend?

How do I get work experience without having well.....work experience in that specific field?

Should I get my Counseling license again just to have it? would it help with my application?

Thanks!

Hi, I’m a high school student trying to map out a multi-year plan for International STEM Olympiads: IMO, IPhO, IChO, IOAA, IESO, IOI, and IBO.

I have some experience in math and science, starting to prep seriously, but want to know feasibility and strategy. I'm sure that I can master the basics within a few months in order to start the prep as currently I'm in my redemption arc .

I have a few questions though :

• Has anyone attempted more than 2 Olympiads? How did they manage?
• What’s the realistic timeline for prepping for all 7?
• Are there certain Olympiads easier to get gold in compared to others?
• Best resources/books/courses for holistic prep?
• Any advice, tips, or personal experiences would be really appreciated. Thanks!

I've always wondered about this. Of course, it probably varies from field to field, but what about your field? If I give a competent/incompetent review, does word get around? If it depends, what does it depend on? The network? The sophistication/crassness of my language? Who I cited in my review?

Hi there, I’m currently in the early stages of my paper-based PhD journey and am planning my first paper, which will be a systematic review and meta-analysis (SLR). I’ve been thoroughly reading about SLR and the PRISMA model, and I’m contemplating whether it would be beneficial to publish a protocol paper before conducting the SLR. I must admit, I’m a bit confused about this decision. Of course, I’ll consult my supervisors about this also, but wanted to check with you.

Hello, people of this subreddit!

I’m a Grade 12 STEM student leading a competition-based research project for the first time, and honestly, I’m kinda overwhelmed. I have zero experience in life science research (my background’s more in quantitative and qualitative, purely classroom-based), and now that I’m the leader, I’m realizing how big this responsibility really is.

I know I probably should’ve thought this through before saying yes, but hey, here I am, and I want to do this right. We have a research adviser, but I don’t wanna keep bugging her with questions.

So if anyone has experience with writing research plans, or just some tips and advice, can you please DM me or share your email? I’d love to send over our drafts and get some feedback.

Thank you so much! Please, be kind. I would really appreciate any help. 🙏🏻

Take the Swiss excellence government scholarship for example, they expect you to a have a project proposal. So my question is, at what level in this project are you expected to be. Do they expect that you finished the literature review, the initial modeling, initial simulation…. . What exactly is this proposal expected to contain?

Hi, I’m working on a systematic review protocol (registered on PROSPERO) about immune responses and graft survival outcomes in Xenotransplantation. Right now, my inclusion criteria cover:

Preclinical studies: pig-to-primate models and pig-to-brain-dead (decedent) human models.

Clinical studies: interventions in living human recipients (e.g., recent case reports of pig kidney/heart transplants).

Here’s my dilemma:

Some colleagues suggest I stick to preclinical only (primate + brain-dead humans) because mixing with clinical case reports could introduce big heterogeneity and make synthesis messy.

But, excluding the few clinical xenotransplantation cases feels incomplete, especially since they’re so high-profile.

My question is, for a systematic review, is it methodologically acceptable to include both preclinical and clinical studies (but synthesize them separately), or would it be cleaner to restrict the review to preclinical only?

Would love to hear from anyone with SR or transplant research experience on how you’d approach this.

Thanks in advance!

Hello,

My name is Durnea Constantin and I am an undergraduate student at B. P. Hasdeu University of Cahul. I am currently working on my bachelor’s thesis, which involves a survey about video game player preferences.

I understand that sharing survey links directly here is not allowed, but I would like to ask:

What are the most appropriate communities (on Reddit or elsewhere) where undergraduates can share academic surveys to gather responses?
Do you have any recommendations for strategies to increase participation?

Thank you very much for your advice!

I am a 2nd year philosophy student and I want to eventually get my PhD to become a professor. As of right now my plan would be to do comparative research in reading Marxism with classical Chinese philosophy and post-structuralism.

I was thinking of doing 2 because I thought that I could do my first one in China and learn mandarin and classical Chinese there, and then do my second on post structuralism back in the UK, before then finally doing my PhD where I do comparative work with it all.

I'm not sure how good any of this actually is as it has just been something I've been passively thinking about over the past few weeks so I thought that I would ask here for any advice or anything of the sort

I'm a TT professor at an R1 (STEM, US, vhcol city). Someone on my finance team has really been amazing on this last grant, and I'd love to send them a little something to say thank you.

Would a $20 gift card sent via email with a short note be appropriate?

I don't want it to be awkward -- they were basically just doing their job -- but they also did their job really well, and I feel like admins are often overlooked and underappreciated, especially in current era (IDC cuts and more).

I applied for the phd in June and got invited for an interview on the 8th of August. The interview was good and The Professor said in the beginning that my Application stood out. He said I will get an answer quickly in around 1 week. Now exactly 2 weeks after the interview and I didn't hear anything. I followed up with the Professor 3 days ago but no Response 🥲 Should I assume rejection? I'm feeling really down as it was my dream Phd 🥹

Saw a lot of profiles on LinkedIn doing internship from very early stage startups. Are they even worth it? And these guys are having whopping 22 experiences on LinkedIn (including live projects and socs)

Won’t these be worthless as soon as they get their 1st job or go for masters?

What exactly are these fillers and what are the ones that you will keep in your life forever?

I personally do not mean to do small unpaid or minimal wage internships from very early stage startups just as a filler since I have good extracurriculars.

Do you think these help in the long term? Especially from a registered company with good role like Finance intern or business advisory, but unpaid?

I do have these options but i was thinking whether they will act as anything better than a filler? Should I just start applying for big name ones?

I am in my 2nd year of College.

I just (saw) an advert for a postdoc at Purdue which pays $47,500.

Is this a mistake or are these people joking?

I (23M) study a BA in intellectual history in a European country. Due to personal reasons (mainly mental health, trauma), I interrupted two degrees in history and law without taking any modules/sitting any exams in any of them. I got sick leave from my GP for one of the years, and during that year I mainly worked as a tutor for secondary school pupils.

I am fully aware that many places will be less open to me as a future postdoctoral researcher and that my career situation is dire, but a professor of mine has told me that some unis are likely more open to accept postdoc applications from people who have switched degrees like me.

There are certain career opportunities like the PEGASUS Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship that I am aware of, but currently I am pretty worried (even though there are many years until I enter the workforce).

Any thoughts?

Edit: I am well aware that I need a PhD first

I'm starting my internship at a Japanese NGO working towards eliminating violence against women soon in September. This is part of my university curriculum, so I get credits for it. While there's no university grant available, I get paid by the organisation - albeit a minimum wage.

They have asked me if I wanted to go to an international conference in the field in Australia. They said they'll cover the participation fee (1500 AUD) and hotel expenses, but not the flight tickets. It will be around 100,000 yen (which is around 680 USD, and is around 55% of my monthly income from the internship).

For my future, I wanna do academic research in that field. And I will be applying to masters programmes and scholarships for 2026.

So my question is: is it worth it to spend 680 USD to go to the conference, as an investment for future? I'm still an undergrad student so I've never participated any kind of conference. Is having an experience of joining a conference boost my resume and scholarship applications?? I've been thinking for so long. And I'd like to hear your thoughts on this...

Basically I am going through a mid life crisis as an academic. I have a background in maths and Information Technology, then went on to social sciences to do a Masters and a PhD in International development. Worked for a decade in the international development space and currently in academia.

I am looking at courses in AI that will help me build my career that is relevant in today's climate. I do have some L&D funds from a grant I got recently. As I don't have background in AI, would you suggest some beginner courses to begin with?

What courses do you all suggest I should look at?

Thanks in advance

I've been having a hard time searching for primary literature for a thought paper I've been working on. When I say primary literature, I meant books, essays, encyclopedias, and whatnot—very different from journal articles usually found in the search engine.

I'm just asking for an engine or website that basically functions like Google Scholar but provides book titles, chapter titles, or even just page content as the results of a search. Thanks!

I graduated three years ago with a degree in marketing and subsequently worked as a teaching assistant for two years. In parallel, I have accumulated three years of professional experience as a Creative Director and Senior Content Creator, developing advertising campaigns and working extensively in the creative field. Alongside my professional career, I have been pursuing my master’s degree, and I am currently in the final stages of completing my thesis, which I expect to finish within six months.

Recently, I received a job offer for an academic position at a university. However, I am considering declining the offer in order to focus on completing my master’s and further developing my professional career. My question is: if I choose to return to academia later—after finishing my master’s and perhaps gaining further professional expertise—would it still be possible to pursue a teaching career at the university level, even after some time away from academia?