{"id":46767,"date":"2019-02-04T17:56:20","date_gmt":"2019-02-05T01:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=46767"},"modified":"2019-02-04T17:56:20","modified_gmt":"2019-02-05T01:56:20","slug":"the-care-and-feeding-of-critical-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/the-care-and-feeding-of-critical-friends\/","title":{"rendered":"The care and feeding of critical friends"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Getting critical feedback on your work is one of the most difficult things to negotiate, whether you\u2019re just starting out as a scholar or have published and been applying for grants for years.<\/p>\n

We know that academia requires us to jump through hoop after hoop, so finding good ways to deal with this process of receiving feedback and constructively moving onto the next stage can make life a lot easier.<\/p>\n

Often, the feedback you receive on your work will be from gate-keepers and assessor types or senior researchers in your area, possibly even your direct manager. These are often authority figures from whom you need ticks of approval, and they may not be of your choosing.<\/p>\n

The value of a critical friend<\/strong><\/p>\n

To make research life and your academic career easier, I\u2019d recommend finding \u2013 and keeping! \u2013 good critical friends. The idea of critical friends is extremely well established in education circles, and most academics have them even if they may not call them that.<\/p>\n

As researchers, we need critical friends at all stages, and for many aspects, of our careers.\u00a0Chief Executives of organisations often need them<\/a>, and some\u00a0universities even \u2018out source\u2019 critical friends<\/a>\u00a0for you.<\/p>\n

Critical friends are colleagues whom you trust to read your work (whether that work is a grant application, journal paper, promotion document or research report) and give you rigorous, constructive feedback. They are supportive and invested in helping you develop your track-record.<\/span><\/p>\n

Every semester, I give a couple of workshops about publishing in journals and one of the things I find myself repeating is the importance of cultivating a strong group of critical friends. Participants variously nod in understanding, look concerned about the work involved in doing so (as they don\u2019t have one at all), or are lost about how to get started.<\/p>\n

I thought it might be useful to talk about some aspects in a bit more detail.<\/p>\n

How do I find them?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is no critical friend directory. Sorry.<\/p>\n

The key is in the term \u2018critical friend\u2019. They are the colleagues who already make up your friendly acquaintance circles. They aren\u2019t strangers. If you look around and can\u2019t see anyone who could be your critical friend, it might be good to think further about the collegial networks you need to grow. There are many ways to get to know more people in your discipline and organisation. I\u2019ve written about some of these ways previously (e.g.\u00a0Networking that works<\/a>,\u00a0Networking and other academic hobbies<\/a>).<\/p>\n

How can I tell if someone might be a good critical friend?<\/strong><\/p>\n

These are the main ways I know whether someone would be a good critical friend:<\/p>\n