1+5 Habits for Young Researchers

Academia could be a wonderful place. By seeking the truth, researchers are exposed to several research challenges, and their discoveries could shape the way we think, work, and live. However, academia can also be a tough place to work. Graduate students are six times more likely to be depressed than the general population. The academic job market is extremely competitive. 

If you happen to think that academia is for you, it is better to foster some good habits. 

In this book that I'm selling for only $ 5, I describe 1+5 habits that I follow over the last few years. By sharing these habits, I believe I could help other young scholars to find their path in academia, as I found mine. The 1+5 habits are the following:

• Do your homework;
• Know your institution;
• Collaborate;
• Procrastinate on Twitter;
• Stay healthy;
• Have fun.

There is a sample of the book, including the chapter describing the first habit.

A natural question that the reader would ask is: why you mention 1+5 habits instead of just six habits? Well, because I believe the first one is more than habit, it's an obligation. If you don't do your homework, you can hardly move forward. Therefore, the other habits do not make much sense. Simple like this.

Limitations

In research works, we always have many limitations. This book is no different.

First, one avid reader would quickly realize that the writer of this book is a young researcher himself, so his habits might be limited due to his little experience in conducting research projects. I wholeheartedly concur. Therefore, this book may be more attractive to really young scholars, such as undergraduate and graduate students.

Second, I cannot claim that the ideas that I discuss in this document are anything new. On the contrary, many have been discussed since the early days of research and documented in many books by many authors in many research fields. Perhaps, the main contribution of this book is to have these ideas summarized in a single place.

Third, as a software engineering professor and researcher, my views are shaped based on my interactions with this community. Although I believe that some researchers in other areas could see some value here and there, it is not clear to me how my "1+5 habits" would generalize to other research fields.

Finally, this book is based on my own experience and views. It does not reflect the opinions of my employer, etc.

About the author

Gustavo Pinto is a software engineering researcher and professor at the Federal University of Pará, Brazil. Gustavo Pinto is a young scholar himself. He got his Ph.D. from the Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil, in 2015. Since then, he became a fairly active researcher in his research community, which could be noticed by his 100+ papers published, 1,500+ citations, and five awards. Know more online at www.gustavopinto.org or follow him on Twitter (@gustavopinto).