Speaker 1: There is so much bogus advice out there on what will actually make you successful in academia. It stems from stuff like, oh, this will look good on your CV, or you need to go abroad and do some stuff and then you're more attractive when you come back to your home country. There are loads of other types of examples of advice that I think worked for one person that all of a sudden they're like, yes, that worked for me, so clearly it'll work for you. But that is completely false. But the truth is there's only actually four things that really matter when it comes to getting an academic career. You need to have one of these four things. Otherwise, your career is unlikely to progress and be successful. So, there was this interesting paper, this one, which came out only this month, actually. And this paper says, early career factors largely determine the future impact of prominent researchers. Evidence across eight scientific fields. And I think this is the first glimpse that we've really got about the factors that really matter and look, they're not surprising to anyone but I think it sort of like just tells you what you should focus on. Stop worrying about, you know, getting stuff to look good on your CV and start focusing on doing these four things if you're serious about a career in academia. This paper took 100 researchers from a range of different scientific and research fields. Successful researchers that they found had at least one of these characteristics when they were an early career researcher. So, within the first five years of your first peer-reviewed paper, here are the four things that you should be aiming for. When I was getting to the end of my undergraduate and it looked like I was gonna do quite well, I was gonna graduate with a first-class degree, one of my supervisors and lecturers sat me down and said, you know what, you should apply to Oxford. And I was like, thank you very much, but no, that's not for me. And to be honest with you, looking back, I'm pleased I didn't, but he had an insight that not many people are willing to just say outright, and that is the university that you go to heavily dictates your success. And this study found that one of the success factors that you can look for is the university at which you did your PhD. You have to aim to be in the top 25 of universities worldwide, otherwise it's an uphill battle for you. Here they are, this is the list and you can find it at topuniversities.com and the ones that are at the top are the ones that you can buy jumpers and t-shirts with their name on it, like Oxford University, Cambridge, MIT. Essentially the rule is, if you can buy a sweatshirt that you would be happy to wear out in public, even if you didn't attend this university, it is likely going to be in the top 25. So here we are, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard, Stanford, Imperial College London, ETH Zurich. Essentially this is the cutoff down here, down at Nanyang Technological University. Anything above that and you're likely going to be successful in your academic career. One of the professors that I used to work with used to make sure that his academic papers were rejected 80% of the time. He thought that if it wasn't being rejected that much, you are not aiming high enough. And the problem is, this study has shown that there's a nugget of truth in that. You have to get your papers into a higher impact factor journal as humanly possible. It's actually better if you've got the time and the luxury in your professor, that is. You know, for early career researchers, that luxury doesn't exist. So if you can wait for your paper to bounce around different places and find its home in the highest impact factor journal possible, that is a good indicator for your career. One of the most important indicators is that you have to make sure that one of your papers is published in a top five journal. It is estimated that only three to 14% of researchers have actually published in a top five journal and therefore means that they are highly likely to succeed in academia. There's a certain prestige that comes along with publishing in journals such as Science, such as Nature, such as PNAS, all of those places. If you put them on your CV, it's like, yes, the door is open, come on in. Sometimes when you're an academic, you just want to get that paper published. You don't care where it ends up. I know during my postdoc, there were times where I was like, ah, I just want this to be somewhere. I'm fed up about reformatting it. I'm fed up sort of like doing the cover letters over and over again. I just want it somewhere. That can be quite damaging for your career apparently. And that is you have to make sure that most of your peer-reviewed journals are published in Q1 journals. Now what does Q1 mean? Now there's not actually any definition out there, but essentially if you take any sort of like list of journals in a field and you rank them on citation, age of citation, volume of citations over a given time. You have this sort of like list of journals and you're aiming to be in the top quarter. If you're not sure whether or not the journal you're aiming for is in a Q1 journal, check out this website. It's called listofjournals.com and you've got a list of journals and overall you've just got them all listed out here. And look, the top ones are not surprising but importantly there are different ones in different categories that you can look for down here. So if we go to medicine, for example, then we need to see that, okay, these are all of the best journals to publish in and you want to make sure that there's a Q1 next to it. If there's not a Q1 next to it, then it is not sort of like considered a Q1 journal. And then we can look at Q2 medicine journals and see essentially, you know, the second rate of where you should be publishing. But ultimately, you should always be aiming to get into a Q1 journal, and that's because one of the indicators is that most of a successful researcher's publication record is in a Q1 journal. So you need to aim for that. Networking in academia is a nightmare. You have to sort of like schmooze with the right people, you have to go to conferences, you have to reach out, you have to be ignored, you have to kind of like get into the inner circle in a particular field. But this study has shown us that that is one of the most important things about a successful career and that is kissing the butt or at least becoming friendly with the most prominent researchers in a field. If you can publish with an incredibly prominent, famous scientist or researcher in your field, you are more likely to be successful. And remember, this is within the first five years of your research career, which is the first five years after your first publication, that's important. And that's a really tough time to be networking because you've got basically zero credibility. So you can sort of like increase the chances of collaborating with the bigwigs by using your supervisor to make contact. But it is incredibly challenging and it's a tough one, but going to conferences, speaking to people, making sure that you're not scared just to sort of like make that connection will help your career. So, collaborating with massive names in your field will help and if you can do that within the first five years since your first publication, you stand a good chance of a successful academic career. If you like this video, remember to go check out this one where I talk about the number one thing that will dictate whether or not you will fail your PhD. Go check it out because it is quite the watch. So there we have it, there's everything you need to know about the four things that really matter when it comes to being a successful academic. There are so many people giving bad advice out there such as focus on boosting up your CV with these weird things, going abroad, but really it comes down to these four. Let me know in the comments what you think because I think that we all know this on the surface, we all understand it, but just sort of like stripping it down and being like, do this, this, this, and this, otherwise your career's gonna be a failure. It's kind of harsh and no one wants to say it, but that's apparently the truth, and it's been revealed by this recent study. So, 95% of the people that are successful in academia have at least one of those. So that's what you should be focusing on. Try to ignore everything else. It's just noise. All right then, let me know what you think in the comments. And also remember, there are more ways you can engage with me. The first way is to sign up to my newsletter. Head over to andrewstapeton.com.au forward slash newsletter. The link is in the description. And when you sign up, you'll get five emails over about two weeks. Everything from the tools I've used, the podcasts I've been on, how to write the perfect abstract, and more. It's exclusive content available for free, so go sign up now. And also remember to go check out academiainsider.com. That's my project where I've got e-books, I've got resource packs, I've got blogs, I've got forums, and courses are on their way. And everything is over there to make sure that academia works for you and not just your supervisor or the university. All right then, I'll see you in the next video.