Question: How do you like to present your findings?

Huma Shah answered on 7 Nov 2016:

Hello Izzy,

Either in writing or in talks.

Presenting findings through academic articles takes longer, because you have to submit papers to journals who then send papers to anonymous researchers in your field to ensure quality and originality. This is called peer-review and can take months – one of the papers I submitted and was accepted took 10 months for acceptance. A paper I submitted in July this year has still not gained a decision on acceptance or rejection. Peer-review is unpaid so researchers undertaking peer-review have to read and assess findings in their spare time.

At conferences the decision to accept or reject a paper of findings is quicker, because conferences have dates to work to, especially when the conference is held. Conferences are a great way to receive instant feedback on your findings, you can get into some real arguments with people at conferences who just don’t like your research! No one said scientists are all objective all the time 🙂 Even Alan Turing suffered at the hand of a Reviewer.

Huma