Technical things.

This page is for boring, technical things.

Work

The resources for local Otago Psychiatry trainees are here.

Computing

I have used Linux as my operating system of choice for over a decade now: the final straw was when word 97 destroyed a dissertation in my final year of training. I am limited to using Ubuntu based distributions, as IMS Revman works seamlessly with them but tends to fail with Debian, Arch and Fedora.

If anyone can tell me how to fix this, I will probably move to a rolling distribution such as aptosid, arch, or LMDE.

Writing as an academic

I differentiate between my work machines, which remain with the standard distribution, and fun machines, which are allowed to break. The two tools I have useful in writing are LibreOffice, which is now stable and has better export facilites for Word. Zotero, which manages references well and is cross platform, and R. I tend to use rkward — and then once the GUI is in place paradoxically use the command line.

I have used Lyx on long documents — I wrote a thesis in this — but if I had to do a long project again I would learn how to use Scrivener, on a mac.

Advice on setting up a project
When you move beyond stage II in most degrees, you are encouraged to enter the world of research. Research is a bug. I have it — and it generally does not make you a better person or practitioner, but like a writer, you have to do this to “let it out” or your brain will hurt.

Here are some hints.

  1. There is a difference between being busy and being effective. Work somewhere — if possible — that allows you to be effective.
  2. If you can’t describe your project on the back of an envelope, you have not thought hard enough.
  3. New ideas are rare. so search for the topic if you think you have one.
  4. Keep your notes in a journal, and DATE your notes. You may have to prove that it was your idea.
  5. New project, new folder: paper, reference manager and computer.
  6. USB drives are cheap. Back everything up yourself. If possible, email  your projects to a second computer — which is not at work.
  7. Use your computer to communicate and calculate, not to think and not to create new ideas.
  8. Talk to the statistician before you start collecting data.
  9. Everything will take twice as long as you think.
  10. All papers will get rejected at least once. The papers that are published are the ones that are resubmitted.
  11. In academia and the professions,  your name is your brand. Your opinions belong under your handle.

Simple and proven techniques work. It is far wiser to contribute to a community such as SOFA or Cochrane than invent something new.

– Update –

My academic friends remind me of the following.

  1. Do not keep your backup disks with your computer. Keep them at home, at work, and with a friend. I’d add that you can expect your computer to crash and eat your work at the most inconvenient time.
  2. Talk to your statistician early (they suggest I repeat this as it is so important).
  3. Keep your research notes secure. This is an ethical requirement in New Zealand, where secure means “in a locked filing cabinet, in my office at the university”. When the project is over, archive the raw anonymized data for the requisite period of time (minimum of 10 years) Which is one reason that keeping a university affiliation is a good idea.
  4. The funding grant committee is your first real peer review.
  5. The ethics committee is your second peer review. Their suggestions generally improve the project.
  6. The first rejection note is your third peer review. People, at least in Australasia, are polite when you present papers. They are less polite when they review. So expect your first submission to be rejected, and use the feedback to improve the paper.