The American Chemical Society has started a series of free on-line videos about how to publish your research: Publishing Your Research 101 (ACS Publications).
So far, they have produced 3 episodes, each 6–9 minutes long:
- Publishing Your Research 101 – Ep. 1
How to Write a Paper to Communicate Your Research - Publishing Your Research 101 – Ep. 2
Writing Your Cover Letter - Publishing Your Research 101 – Ep. 3
Selecting Peers to Suggest as Reviewers
I’d like to be able to tell you that I’ve watched the videos and highly recommend them, but I can’t. I hate videos as an instructional format and don’t have the patience to watch even a 6-minute one. I could not bring myself to click on the video links even for the purpose of reviewing the video. Strangely, I have no trouble watching a full Mythbusters episode on DVD with my family, nor sitting through more-than-hour-long live lectures, so neither video alone nor lecturing alone is the problem. I’m not sure why I find the combination so irritating.
Still, the concept is a good one, and I realize that my reaction to video instruction is highly idiosyncratic, so I thought it worthwhile passing on the information to those not on the American Chemical Society spam list. I suspect that their target audience was postdocs and junior faculty, but grad students and advanced undergrads would probably benefit as much.
I have the same reaction to video instruction. It seems so inefficient. I particularly hate the trend of putting software manuals into video format.
Comment by BKM — 2011 July 30 @ 06:08 |
I have that reaction to video instruction also. Frustrating, because I think it is a good idea to have instruction recorded so that it can be reviewed multiple times, but I can’t stand viewing them.
Comment by kcab — 2011 July 30 @ 06:59 |
Me too, especially about the manuals. It’s pretty good for showing off shoes,though (on Zappos). I realized, looking at origami videos, though, that the main motivator is that it’s a lot easier than writing a coherent manual/text/instructions. So the trend is production driven (perhaps even more so than consumer driven).
I haven’t figured out why I don’t mind the lecture format nearly as much as the video. I think it’s ’cause there is alive person there to interact with. I prefer plays to movies, too.
Comment by zb — 2011 July 30 @ 07:44 |
I have the same reaction, I hate videos, but I will still send it to everyone that I know, just in case. :-)
Comment by Max — 2011 August 3 @ 12:05 |