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Mounting workloads and mushrooming publication output are making the task of staying abreast of the latest developments in the literature ever more difficult for academics. Here, eight researchers reflect on their own approaches and offer their tips

Robert MacIntosh offers some tips on dealing with the deluge of student reference requests – and on how to get a decent one yourself

Summer is upon northern hemisphere academics. But its cherished traditional identity as a time for intensive research is being challenged by the increasing obligations around teaching and administration that often crowd out research entirely during term time. So is the 40/40/20 workload model still sustainable? Respondents to a É«ºÐÖ±²¥ survey suggest not. Nick Mayo hears why

Leiden University acted unlawfully, a court has ruled, in using anonymous letter to discredit an applicant for a professorship

Michael Kosterlitz tells É«ºÐÖ±²¥ how colour blindness shaped his career and why Nobel winners shouldn’t be taken too seriously

Asking people to prepare for a 10-week course that might not run is too much, says an anonymous early career academic

Even in disciplines in which research is inherently inexpensive, ‘grant capture’ is increasingly being adopted as a metric to judge academics and universities. But with success rates typically little better than one in five, rejection is the fate of most applications. Six academics give their tips on how to improve the odds

Giving short online talks for a general audience offers benefits for individuals, subjects and the entire profession, says Kristen Sadler

Recent confusion over The Lancet’s stance on green open access highlights the difficulty for support staff in preparing researchers for the new rules, says Alice Gibson

With such wide disagreements in grading, the research excellence framework’s gravity for careers is unjustifiable, says Philip Moriarty

Corruption, poverty and inequality can’t be tackled by weakening the state and driving academics abroad, says Mark Aspinwall

Promotion criteria requiring top researchers to also be good teachers and managers undermine the nature of universities, says Andrew Oswald

Giving those in professional services a sense of identity and purpose in increasingly complex institutions are among keys, experts say

The president emeritus of Nanyang Technological University says be prepared to answer endless questions and learn to control your ego

Data on almost 2,500 computer scientists in US and Canada suggest ‘prestige’ of PhD institution does not influence number of papers they later produce

Pam Denicolo, Dawn Duke and Julie Reeves answer some of the most common questions preoccupying doctoral candidates about the biggest day of their career to date

Robert MacIntosh considers how university staff should approach the management merry-go-round of vice-chancellors, pro vice-chancellors and department heads

Work to encourage team science is gathering momentum, and a recent Academy of Medical Sciences report highlights key steps to be taken

Impostor syndrome, feeling misunderstood and pressure to stay on top can plague many academics. Magdalena Bak-Maier advises how to prevent them derailing your efficiency  

For those reliant on EU funding, seeking appointments at continental universities is the only sensible course, says Peter Coveney

Queen guitarist Brian May completed his PhD after enjoying rock stardom. Jack Grove looks at how doctoral dropouts can land second chances – and supervisors can help

A student’s mysterious accusation of racism saw P. K. Newby removed from her course â€“ and another woman lost from the leaky pipeline

Diana Mitlin, professor of global urbanism at the University of Manchester, shares her tips on working with politicians and government officials

Since the 1970s, an increasingly competitive job market has come to advantage the already privileged

Scholars offer their advice on the art of promoting research online

Scientists and medics have the best chance of reaching the top job in the UK, leaving other disciplines looking for answers

With many doctoral candidates unhappy and reporting mental health problems, Emma Pierson suggests ways supervisors could reduce pressures

Why other academic disciplines have not also introduced such markets is a ‘very good question’, organisers say

As a new report reveals dissatisfaction with mentorship for female researchers, Jack Grove asks where responsibility lies

Study based on fields of astronomy, ecology and robotics suggests huge drop in duration of scholarly careers

ProfHub plans to let applicants rate universities – and allow anonymous leaks – about the academic selection process

Whether you approach an editor in person, over email or on the phone, make sure to tap into their passion for the subject, writes Nature’s Magdalena Skipper

Hearing that an editor does not want to publish your work can be crushing, but learning from the experience can make you stronger

Scientific excellence must mean more than ‘how good someone is with a round-bottom flask’, conference hears

The humanities professor discusses her passion for human rights, how universities can work with refugees, and learning to stop apologising

Satisfaction with postgraduate research declines significantly over course of programme, survey reveals

A new teaching year has just begun in the northern hemisphere. Eight academics reflect on their experience of lecturing, and offer their tips on opening students’ eyes – and keeping them open

Scholarly prose can be verbose and unclear, and can obscure the point you are trying to make. Joe Moran offers his top 10 tips for writing well

Research will suffer from the collapse of professional development into financially fixated assessments of ‘capability’, say Gill Evans and Dorothy Bishop 

To spare doctoral candidates protracted and unproductive efforts, Tim Marler and Dean Young suggest a pragmatic route to successful completion, while, below, Julian Kirchherr advocates a quick-and-dirty path to a viable thesis

Virginia King explains how university departments can improve staff inductions to help them hang on to new arrivals

Review of UK guidelines says junior scholars should spend 20 per cent of time on their own projects and personal development

Study challenges the idea that it is primarily parenthood that hinders women’s careers – but in Germany, the picture is very different

Ahead of publication of revised concordat, Brunel leader calls for funding agencies to give document greater importance

A failure to treat staff fairly and consistently impedes academic standards and hurts students, says Sheikh Nahid Neazy

Former Bank of England governor Mervyn King and economist John Kay address the USS’ so-called funding crisis and propose a fairer approach to sharing risk between employers, employees and generations

Gavin Buckingham offers new lecturers tips on how to thrive in the pressurised first few months in the job

Junior scholars need all the experiences they can get, but their digital know-how can also boost the impact of academic events, says Alice Kelly

Life as a comedian at the Edinburgh Fringe has many parallels with the experiences of early career academics, explains Anna Ploszajski

‘REF season’ is under way and staff who support the development of impact case studies need to consider their tactics. Chris Hewson offers guidance based on his own experience

Billed as a remedy for career uncertainty, micro-credentials may play into bosses’ hands, critics warn

Senior management has its perks but it also comes with a host of new practical, philosophical, psychological and even physical challenges. Here, seven people who have lived through that fiery baptism tell their tales

Precarity is a significant feature of the academy worldwide, creating a feeling of ‘academic apartheid’ as it grows. Ellie Bothwell explores its impact

Martin Chalfie argues that young scientists who ‘play the game’ of publishing in selective journals are less likely to win permanent posts

Leading a university seminar for the first time can be an intimidating prospect. Here, three PhD students offer some advice for those preparing for the new academic year

Early career social scientists should be entitled to extensive support from their university long after attaining their doctorate, study says

As universities prepare for A-level results day next month, Liz Carlile explains how to get clearing right

Extended PhDs would be money well spent in the quest for international competitiveness, says leading physicist

Robert MacIntosh explains what to expect when staff enter the little-known world of the university exam board

Report says early career academics should be given more opportunities to lead their own research teams to foster independence and improve job security