Striking a balance between the literature load and walks in the woods

NUÑEZ, M. A., CRUTSINGER, G. M., SIMBERLOFF, D., SANDERS N. J.

Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment

Año: 2008 vol. 6 p. 160 - 161

1540-9295

Graduate students in ecology are busy with teaching, lab meetings, coursework, research, and having a life (however minimal) outside of the lab. While we have no choice about the amount of time we devote to some tasks (ie lab meetings are from three to four o’clock on Thursdays), prioritizing time spent mastering one’s study system versus keeping up with the current literature poses a dilemma. Should we be investing our time in observation of the study subjects, or should we be catching up on reading about cutting-edge topics in our discipline’s top journals? Our advisors would probably say we should do both, but there are only so many hours in the day to read papers and watch beetles, and, after a certain point, coffee is no substitute for sleep. While we do not claim to have any magic solutions, there are some tricks that can help graduate students to both stay current in new research and know their own systems.