Onwards and upwards

Last year’s resolution was: I will only referee papers from Open Access or Learned Society journals. This I more or less stuck to, except in a couple of cases where it really had to be me.

In 2015 I will follow the resolution 100%, but will add two further resolutions:
1. Papers where I am PI will only be published in Open Access journals (something I achieved in 2014)
2. All the above papers and for as many of those where I am co-author as possible will also provide Open Data. This is something started in late 2014 and which will continue in 2015.

As for the past year, it has been good. I have more or less recovered form being REF wallah for the institute and being on the Faculty’s Clinical Medicine subpanel, jobs that finished in November 2013.
The fact that we did well in REF (beyond any hype, there is real progress) helps too, but the praise for that goes to my colleagues, my own contribution was just 4 papers. In July I handed over the headship of the Biochemistry Department, after 2 years as Head of division and then when departments were re-invented (I am sure @PliceneBloke has the mot juste on such “changes”) 4 years as Head of Department.

Recovery has been somewhat geological, as in the slow rise of land after the ice melts, but with 7 papers published, three under review, and four others in various stages of drafting, the overhang of data is slowly being eaten into. Meanwhile, back in the lab, things are going well and I have even had the chance to wield a pipette, most precious times.

As Madame Mére said “Pourvu que ça dure“!