My brain is a little fuzzy today, my first day back after 3 weeks annual leave. I have sorted through a LOT of emails, deleted many and attended to all the important ones. A couple of student crisis in there but mostly just mundane things to do.

In that 3 weeks I have been asked to review 3 different things – abstracts for the AARE conference and two journal articles. One is a review for a Q1 journal that I have not reviewed for before so I am happy about that one especially. I have committed to doing all 3, possibly because I’m crazy! Mostly because it is good on my resume. Unfortunately, it is just another thing on my already too long, to-do list.

I know it is an unpopular opinion but I don’t mind reviewing articles at all. I see Facebook posts from academics, usually American talking about the injustice of the academic system whereby we do research and PAY to have it published at times (open access that is) and we do a lot of work “for free” which includes reviewing. I guess I am lucky that my university encourages us to review and do any other typically unpaid “scholarly” work. As a teaching scholar I have 25% of my time allocated towards any scholarly activities (reviewing included) so it is up to me how much time I allocate to my own research and how much time I give to tasks like reviewing. The other advantage is I get to read the latest and greatest (or not so greatest) stuff in my area. In the case of the conference presentation abstracts I get a bit of a sneak peak at the conference before the whole program is released and I can decide if I want to save up money to attend.

As a PhD student with limited publications I think it looks very good on my resume, or in interviews, when I can say that I have completed multiple reviews for this journal and that journal – especially the top ranked journal I am about to do! As long as they send me some sort of completion certificate or acknowledgment of my efforts I am happy!

I have had a couple of meetings today and a catch up chat with my workmates here on campus. I think that is my excuse for not being as productive as I would like. Things, including emails, have been stacking up, but I do feel like I could have done more.

Still I had a good break while I was on leave and every time I started thinking about work or confirmation/PhD I just told myself to forget it and relax. I’m hoping it will take me a couple of days to catch up and then I’ll just be back in the swing of things. Once these reviews are done then I can focus on my confirmation report again and make some changes to the survey questions that Anna suggested. Then of course there is every other research project I am a part of… because I have done a giant NOTHING on any of them for at least the last 3 weeks. It’s catch up time indeed!