Blogs, Communities and Networks

Higher education
  • Higher education and the academic career path
  • Imperial Blogs - Imperial blogs can cover everything and anything related to student and staff life at the College. From posts about the latest research to student expeditions and research trips, to project updates.
  • “Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers” – Key principles for supporting and managing research staff, agreed on and committed to by UK higher education institutions.
  • Researchers14 blog - Researchers14 is a group of Universities, which represent 65% of the research staff community in the UK. Its representatives are a voluntary group of expert higher education professionals, uniquely focused on research staff and their development.
  • The Early Career Blog - The Early Career Blog is a joint endeavour between the universities of Cambridge and Oxford, drawing on expertise from a broad team of careers advisers and development professionals.
  • The essential guide to moving up the academic career ladder
  • LSE Impact Blog – Blog about maximising the impact of academic research. Guest writers write blogs on a diverse range of timely academic issues, such as the REF, public engagement and open access.
  • ECR Chat – Blog and international twitter community for early career researchers. Themed chats take place weekly at varying times to accommodate US, UK and Australian time zones. Use hashtag #ecrchat to participate. Summaries of the chats appear afterwards on the blog.
  • The New Academic – Blog by Liverpool-based humanities lecturer with advice on many aspects of academia, aimed at those starting or aiming for their first permanent academic job.
  • Guardian Higher Education Network – Read diverse articles about higher education and follow or participate in live chats usually held at lunchtime on a Friday. Join the network for updates, events and upcoming job opportunities.   
  • ICoRSA – International Consortium of Research Staff Associations is a new resource linking national research staff associations. There are plans to list national researcher associations on the website in the future so postdocs moving to a new country are able to find their local association.
  • Nature, October 2016 - This edition of Nature is a special issue on young scientists that focuses on the problems that postdocs and early career academics are currently facing and how to solve them.
  • ORCID - ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between you and your professional activities ensuring that your work is recognised.
  • Publons – Your publications, citation metrics, peer reviews and journal editing work, in one place. 
  • Peer mentoring for scientists – A resource advising scientists on how to create their own peer mentoring group for support and discussion, by Joanne Kamens, a US-based postdoc trainer.
  • The Research Whisperer – Blog for early career researchers with international contributors. Sections include ‘Apply for funding’, ‘Building your track record’, ‘Networking’, ‘Research Culture’.
  • The Royal Society publishes reports on a range of topics of interest to researchers, including funding, governance and careers.
  • Universities and College Union – The UCU website provides a number of downloadable guides on topics such as finding funding, careers and social media and links to campaigns, support and publications.
  • UKRSA – UK Research Staff Association. A researcher-led community to empower researchers and share information. 
  • Vitae – A UK organisation for researchers and those employing and supporting researchers. The Vitae website contains advice on career planning and job searching with CV samples and career stories, as well as access to the Research Development Framework (RDF).
  • Research Development Framework – A framework developed by the researcher development organisation Vitae. The framework is designed to help researchers in assessing research skills and monitoring progress.  An interactive planning tool is available at a cost of £24 per year per person. Check app and cost details