The Effort Report

MicroEpisode 20 - Epic Fails

18 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss one of their more epic failures and whether there were any lessons learned from the experience.   Show Notes: Roger Peng ...

MicroEpisode 19 - Faculty Titles

25 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger dive into one of the most evergreen subjects of discussion in all of academia.   Show Notes: Roger Peng Elizabeth on Twitter/X Ef...

MicroEpisode 18 - Academic Correspondence

11 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss the tools for corresponding with your colleagues in academia.   Show Notes: Roger Peng Elizabeth on Twitter/X Effort Repo...

MicroEpisode 17 - New NIH Review Policy

28 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss the new NIH grant review policy and its potential implications for grant reviews and for the writing of grants.   Show No...

MicroEpisode 16 - Opportunities for Scholarship

13 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss how to unearth opportunities for scholarship in the clinic and the classroom.   Show Notes: Roger on Twitter/X Elizabeth ...

MicroEpisode 15 - Being a Professional

16 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss what it means to be a professional in academia and what value it has in collaborations.   Show Notes: Roger on Twitter/X ...

MicroEpisode 14 - Salary Support and Diversifying Your Portfolio

30 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss the different ways that salary support and effort are broken down in academia, as well as strategies for diversifying the ...

MicroEpisode 13 - Writing a Promotion Letter

19 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss what a promotion letter is and how to write one that promotion committees can use to evaluate faculty.   Show Notes: Roge...

MicroEpisode 12 - Effort Report Pro-Am

29 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger are in a Pro-Am providing both professional and amateur tips about mentoring others.   Show Notes: Roger on Twitter/X Elizabeth o...

MicroEpisode 11 - Faculty Searches and Search Committees

07 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger describe what a search committee is, what it does, who creates it, who serves on it, and whether you want to be on one.   Show No...

MicroEpisode 10 - Academic and Professional Service

19 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

MicroEpisode 9 - Accounting Pearls

02 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger turn to Roger's favorite topic: Accounting. But Elizabeth manages to keep Roger on track as they discuss what is a faculty member'...

MicroEpisode 8 - Holiday Parties

18 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss the critical question of whether to attend department/division holiday parties. The pros, the cons, and everything in betw...

MicroEpisode 7 - Choosing a Mentor

12 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

There are mentors with different purposes: Research mentor, career mentor, etc.  Furthermore, advisors are different than mentors. Elizabeth and Roge...

MicroEpisode 6 - Managing Up

28 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss the concept of "managing up" and how it applies in the world of academia. Most people in academia report to someone in som...

MicroEpisode 5 - How to Be a Good Citizen

30 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger talk about how to be a good citizen in your department, school, and university while still advancing your career goals.   Show No...

MicroEpisode 4 - Your CV: More than Meets the Eye

16 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss your curriculum vitae (CV), including what goes in it, how it differs from a resume, what it's used for, and how to mainta...

MicroEpisode 3 - Asking for Resources

12 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger talk about how to ask for resources for a new initiative.   Show Notes Roger on Twitter Elizabeth on Twitter Effort Report on Twi...

MicroEpisode 2 - Corresponding Author

25 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger talk about whether it matters if you are the corresponding author or not.   Show Notes Roger on Twitter Elizabeth on Twitter Effo...

MicroEpisode 1 - Promotion Letters

14 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger talk about what are promotion letters and why they matter.   Show Notes Roger on Twitter Elizabeth on Twitter Effort Report on Tw...

174 - No Pet Peeves

20 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss awards and managing grants both pre- and post-award. Also, re-vamping research funding, robots writing grants, and more le...

173 - Color of Money

23 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss whether all money is green in academia, panic writing, summary statements, and doing the work.   Show Notes: Roger on Twi...

172 - The Value of Money

06 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger are here to discuss sending slides in advance, five minute meetings, making invisible work visible, and the value of external mone...

171 - Time Pies are Ruthless

14 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss time pies, continuing resolutions, appropriations committees, head shots, travel receipts, and responding to RFAs. And Rog...

170 - Strategic Priorities

30 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss a grab bag of work in progress and answer the question of whether you should ever align yourself with a fund agency's stra...

169 - Synergistic Pet Peeve

19 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger, back in person together, discuss synergy that is totally not a pet peeve, caddies, Elizabeth's steering committee, golf bullies, ...

168 - The Academic Caddy

07 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger follow up on volunteering and then discuss new research buzzwords, communication platforms and their purposes, deflecting requests...

167 - Volunteerism

23 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss the nature of volunteering in academia. Also, Roger settles into his new office, revisiting the interpretation of summary ...

166 - Office Clean Out

03 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Roger cleans out his office and finds some archaeological gems while Elizabeth experiences the beginner's mind. Also, word salad, ignoring emails, and...

165 - Crafting Your Craft

19 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Roger and Elizabeth introduce the first in a series of "craft" segments that talk about the nuts and bolts of being an academic. They discuss how to r...

164 - Rolling With the Chaos

01 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It's Elizabeth's turn to welcome Roger back from the far north so that they can discuss cover letters (again!), corresponding authors, paper acceptanc...

163 - Roger's Effort Report

20 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Roger welcomes Elizabeth back from Finland to discuss conference COVID protocols, work creators, whether you should interview for a job, sussing out c...

162 - Letters of Recommendation

03 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss how to write good letters of recommendation, as well as getting "scooped", systems problems, and using golf carts.   Show...

161 - Longhorn Statistics

19 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss Roger's new job, "quick questions", "warm bodies", mock study sections, and the future of physician scientists.   Show No...

160 - Executive Authors

28 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger determine if Elizabeth is executive material. They then discuss writing by committee, retooling your game, leadership lessons, and...

159 - Study Section Drama

13 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger follow up on conference robots, then discuss department rankings, academia vs. industry, and reorganized NIH study sections.   Sh...

158 - Robot Presence

23 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Roger and Elizabeth discuss telepresence robots, administrative grant rejections, plagiarism, DEI initiatives, and writing by committee. Also space ju...

157 - Corporate Committees

01 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth returns from the AAAAI meeting to talk with Roger about diversity in investigator teams, corporatization of committees, in-person meetings, ...

156 - Crisis Management

15 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss the computer desktop and browser hygiene, how to generate ideas (and other important questions), various leadership tricks...

155 - In Compliance

01 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss graphical abstracts, the success/failure dichotomy, hybrid meetings, handling Q&A in talks, managing sponsors, and how to ...

154 - Closet Strategy

19 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss the nature of success, hybrid meetings, hierarchy of problem realization, and dealing with uncertainty.   Show Notes: Ha...

154 - Closet Strategy

19 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss the nature of success, hybrid meetings, hierarchy of problem realization, and dealing with uncertainty.   Show Notes: Ha...

153 - Making Decisions

04 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss new research institutes, tradeoffs, committee structure, and how to decide whether to do something.   Show Notes: Arc Ins...

152 - The Leaders and the Leaded

15 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss contracts, grants, and cooperative agreements. Also, taking credit for other people's work, being excited without being in...

151 - Half Baked Ideas

02 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger revisit SEO for paper and then discuss email signatures, expanding curriculum, interpreting feedback, and being the "glue".   Sho...

150 - Mind Your Manners

22 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss letters of recommendation, leadership jargon, male-only dinners, the astronomy decadal review, and the art of the progress...

149 - Just Google It

03 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss work in progress, treating postdocs like staff, research therapists, and teaching Googling skills.   Show Notes: Roger on...

148 - Conflicting Leadership

21 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger dedicate almost an entire episode to issues related to leadership.   Show Notes: Roger on Twitter Elizabeth on Twitter Effort Rep...

147 - Ode to Bureaucracy

08 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss process and org structure, thanking reviewers for their comments, research tourism, and the one page introduction to revis...

146 - Doubling Down

25 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss double degrees, org charts, institutions and love, and Netflix's The Chair.   Show Notes: Softspikes BLM8006 Golf Ball A...

145 - Building the Response

14 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss how to respond to things, like paper revisions. Also, they discuss school web sites, out of office messages, things they w...

144 - Strategic Calendaring

23 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss institutional vs. field reputation, power sentences, SEO for authors, references, rules vs. common sense, and iteration.  ...

143 - So Much Leadership

28 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger have a quadruple dose of Roger's Leadership Academy, along with a discussion of how postdoctoral fellows should be spending their ...

142 - Writing to Learn

15 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger continue to wrestle with writing and also discuss people who love meetings, details vs. quality, having the world crash around you...

141 - Pandemic Over

17 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger finalize metrics for ending the pandemic, discuss cover letters, university accounting, Roger's leadership skills, Twitter tenure,...

140 - PERT Plus

03 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss space surveys, project management, and Roger's love of government manuals.   Show Notes: Don't call them heroes PERT Ro...

139 - Buttering Your Bread

19 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger debate how the podcast will know the pandemic is over, Mad Men's connection to academia, learning from golf videos, knowing where ...

138 - Non-Transactional Meetings

06 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger are both peeved, and also revisit cover letters, discuss not checking email at all on vacation, types of scientific papers, how gr...

137 - Tee Time

21 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss embracing the grind, doing other people's work, loan repayment programs, getting others to write letters about you, and El...

136 - Entrepreneurialism

08 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger follow up on managing up, covert resources, and grants. They also discuss the nature of creativity, YouTubing as preparation for a...

135 - Covert (Resource) Affairs

24 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger cover a variety of small things, grant follow up, and how to think about covert or hidden resources.   Show Notes: Christoph Mol...

134 - Imaginary Pandemic Friends

11 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss imaginary friends in a pandemic, what it means to be a "closer", document hygiene in collaborations, epidemiological satel...

133 - Being Organized is Hard

23 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger get pedantic on grant (proposals), then talk about academic EQ, metrics for characterizing academic productivity, and how far you ...

132 - So Many Pet Peeves

27 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss how Elizabeth's R01 revision is going, managing up, working the publishing system, and how to define failure.   Show Note...

131 - Cut and Paste

13 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger welcome the new year and discuss triaging the various demands of academia, university communications/media relations offices, cutt...

130 - Goodbye 2020

18 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss grants, grants, and more grants and interpret their summary statements from recent grant submissions. Show Notes: NIH Mat...

129 - Organizing for Innovation

02 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss organizational structure and innovation for universities. Show Notes: How Apple is Organized for Innovation Roger on Twit...

128 - Academic Money

19 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

 Elizabeth and Roger discuss getting large center grants, being a calendar filler, crossing the cultural divide with collaborators, and the fungibili...

127 - Cognitive Wrestling

06 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss the lifetime of cognitive wrestling that comes with a career in academia. Show Notes Roger on Twitter Elizabeth on Twitter...

126 - Tales from The Academic Mindset

24 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss the NIH cap, more Zoom habits, personal strategic planning, what people do wrong in grants and papers, the value of divers...

125 - All the Small Things

09 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss a number of "small" observations about grants, paper writing, and career timing. Show Notes: Terrence Tao Roger on Twitter...

124 - Transitions of Power

25 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger talk about letters of recommendation, pep talks for mentees, journal decision-making, and transitions of power. Show Notes: Scrip...

123 - Embracing the Limelight and Being In the Know

09 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss NIH reassigning grant reviews, usefulness of grant reviews, giving a poster vs. a talk, and how information is power. Show...

122 - The Professional Professor

28 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss going to the office, university complexity, how look professional on Zoom, and what exactly is a promotion. Show notes: B...

121 - Conference Spies

14 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger cover a range of academic communication-related topics, large and small. Show notes: Morris Chang Roger on Twitter: https://twitt...

120 - Reality Sets In

30 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger grapple with the reality of actually fulfilling the job description during the pandemic. Show notes: Roger on Twitter: https://twi...

119 - Teaching in the Pandemic

13 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss what teaching may look like in the fall and the good and bad of scientific controversy. Show notes: Elizabeth's thread on...

118 - Moving On From University Budgets

28 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss a range of topics: #Blackintheivory, external validation, lessons from grant applications, endowed professors, and more. S...

117 - University Budgets, Take 3

29 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger continue the marathon discussion about university budgets as the financial situation at universities continues to "evolve." Show n...

116 - Strategizing Your Way Through a Crisis

16 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger talk about strategies for navigating financial uncertainty and meeting idiosyncrasies brought on or exacerbated by video conferenc...

115 - Academia and (Major) Economic Downturns

05 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger talk about recent responses of universities to the economic fallout from COVID-19 and keeping your eye on the ball. Show notes: J...

114 - Money and Vacation (during a pandemic)

21 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger talk about vacations during a pandemic and university budgets. And the return of friends of the Effort Report with Paul Rathouz. S...

113 - Academia in a Time of Crisis

03 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss academic life during the COVID-19 global public health crisis and internal metrics of success. Show notes: Roger on Twitte...

112 - Don't be Afraid to Take the Plunge

27 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger talk about the heavy cognitive lifting involved in some types of writing and introduce a new segment. Show Notes: Roger on Twitter...

111 - Of Emails and Pies

05 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger talk about the complexities of email communication and introduce a new pie - the mission pie. Also, Roger's Theory of the Pre-Meet...

110 - Working and Hiding

17 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger talk about the definition of work and where they go to hide. Show Notes: How much is the specific aims page worth? Data cleaning...

109 - Tinkering

03 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger ring in the new year with a discussion of nitpicky reviews, conceptual diagrams, collaborative writing, being kind, and profession...

108 - Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks

18 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss the ins and outs of NIH study sections, whether it's a good idea to learn new things, and team science. Show Notes: The C...

107 - Leadership Pies

09 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger follow up on Kelly Clarkson, crying, collabofriends, and lessons from space, and discuss clinicians vs. epidemiologists, new vs. o...

106 - All About Leadership

20 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss leadership from many angles. Show notes: Roger on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rdpeng Elizabeth on Twitter: https://twitte...

105 - Managing the Black Hole of Work

04 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth gets advice from Roger about time management, and Elizabeth's pet peeves are back! Show notes: Roger on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rdpeng ...

104 - The Locus of Control

16 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger talk about being a good citizen and revisit crying. Also, they discuss mentoring, space walks, and imposter syndrome. Show notes: ...

103 - After Hours Email

03 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger continue the discussion of checking email outside of "official" work hours, revisit moving institutions, and research project stra...

102 - How To Win Friends and Influence People

16 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss cancelled meetings, time tracking, Roger's "back to work" strategy, and aligning incentives to get people to do things. Sh...

101 - The Insider's Episode

31 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger follow-up on several Effort Report-isms including time pies, collabo-friends, and Venn diagrams and discuss some academic life hac...

100 - The 100th Episode

16 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger celebrate their 100th episode summarizing some fan feedback, discussing NIH summary statements, travel tips, Elizabeth's pets, and...

99 - The Time Between Meetings

30 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger have a special announcement regarding the 100th episode of The Effort Report. Also, they discuss networking, the time between meet...

98 - Managing Uncertainty

19 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss foreign influence in academic research, managing uncertainty and autonomy, and leadership and team-building, and when is t...

97 - Setting the Record Straight

05 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger discuss managing people versus systems, oversimplifying things, and Roger's recent R21 grant submission score. Show notes: Roger o...

96 - The Academic Environment

21 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth and Roger revisit the topic of work-related travel and discuss the role of the institutional environment in faculty productivity and impact....