Bieber et al., NJIT © Slide 1 Getting Known & Making Opportunities for Interaction Michael Bieber Information Systems Department College of Computing Sciences New Jersey Institute of Technology

Bieber et al., NJIT © Slide 2 Agree with Gordon Davis I wish I had read Gordon’s article at the start of my career… Reference: A STRATEGY FOR BECOMING A WORLD-CLASS SCHOLAR IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS, by Gordon B. Davis

Bieber et al., NJIT © Slide 3 Just a few years junior… We are all colleagues –Everyone is a few years ahead or behind the others Talk to everyone, no matter what their status –if you were 10 years further ahead and a junior researcher asked you a question, wouldn’t you gladly talk to him or her?

Bieber et al., NJIT © Slide 4 Always prepare a question… Always to go conferences /meetings with an interesting question about a research problem you’re facing –Your mission: ask as many well-known people as you can (& take notes) Have a research answer to “how are you?” –Pretty busy, and isn’t the weather lousy… (versus) –I’m doing well. I’m working on a really interesting resarch project…

Bieber et al., NJIT © Slide 5 Organize Panels Organize panels annually at top conferences –Pick a hot topic in your field or otherwise –You’re the moderator If you’re a recognized expert then you can be a panelist –Invite top researchers (& strategic practitioners) –Time consuming; assume 2 people will cancel

Bieber et al., NJIT © Slide 6 Organize Special Journal Issues Organize special journal issues/sections –Pick a hot topic in your field –You need to propose to the journal, with papers/contributors already planned –You’re the editor/co-editor You can include your own paper, but get written proof that it went through a stringent peer-review –Need to handle reviewing process –Invite top researchers to submit articles The more senior the contributor, the less politically you can reject his/her article –Really time consuming; expect problems

Bieber et al., NJIT © Slide 7 Sit on Grant Review Panels Contact the NSF and other funding agencies Volunteer to review every relevant grant that you did not submit to that time –Spend a lot of time with respected colleagues –Learn reviewer criteria –See SOTA research ideas –Talk to program officers about your ideas

Bieber et al., NJIT © Slide 8 Manage your time Guard your time jealously –Don’t over-commit; learn to say “no” Set time to read and research e.g., 3 hours each morning before reading p.m. each day Specific times Set aside specific sanity time –Save time for your family (or yourself) e.g., 2 nights a week and all day Saturday Don’t even check at those times