Drug companies have what they call pipelines. This refers to the future drugs they are developing and which they hope will eventually come to market and make them lots of money (and cure sick people blah blah). There are lots of points in the pipeline that a drug can fail - clinical trials etc. It is an expensive, time consuming, and uncertain journey. So drug companies try to always have some things in the pipeline at any one time, at various stages of development. This way there is always some hope of success.
I think academics can apply the same principle. Getting an article published is expensive, time consuming and uncertain. It is better to have a few options on the go so that if one hits a snag - an unresponsive collaborator, reviewers taking ages, a rejection - you still have other things to be working on. So consider your own pipeline. How does it look? Ideally a few mature projects close to completion. Some others which are still at a draft phase but well on the way in terms of data collection, analysis and writing up. And a few imaginative initial ideas which might be fun to pursue or write up as a funding bid.
Or it might look worryingly empty like mine. Big drug companies usually buy their way out of this problem. Anyone want to sell me their new theory of sustainable tourism for a possibly out of date book voucher?
I think academics can apply the same principle. Getting an article published is expensive, time consuming and uncertain. It is better to have a few options on the go so that if one hits a snag - an unresponsive collaborator, reviewers taking ages, a rejection - you still have other things to be working on. So consider your own pipeline. How does it look? Ideally a few mature projects close to completion. Some others which are still at a draft phase but well on the way in terms of data collection, analysis and writing up. And a few imaginative initial ideas which might be fun to pursue or write up as a funding bid.
Or it might look worryingly empty like mine. Big drug companies usually buy their way out of this problem. Anyone want to sell me their new theory of sustainable tourism for a possibly out of date book voucher?
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