The Keep:Graduate Student Guild

Guild description
A guild for graduate students or prospective graduate students. Use Habitica to complete that thesis, dissertation, or other big foreboding project, or just get support and advice on graduate student hardships. Join us here.

Common recurring challenges include the following:
 * One Page Fresh Academic Writing (write a page a day)
 * Hit the Scrolls (read one paper a day and share interesting ones with the guild [scrollcast])
 * Organize the Scrolls (get your chapters/articles organized for easier research access)

Leadership: Guild leader: BeanieB; Moderators: Liobia, keyes, InfH.

Useful Files

 * Updated Critical Synopsis Template(adapted by Liobia): a template for describing texts that includes a section for a scroll cast summary.

Writing/Reading Tips

 * Writing an Effective Book Chapter
 * Surviving the Dissertation: Tips from Someone Who Mostly Has
 * How to Write a Better Thesis - 2nd Edition
 * Critically Reading Journal Articles
 * How to Read a Scientific Article
 * Dissertation Deadlines Calculator
 * Writing and Presenting Your Thesis or Dissertation
 * Draw.io - free online diagram software for making flowcharts, process diagrams, org charts, UML, ER and network diagrams.
 * Writing a Literature Review
 * Writing a Research Paper
 * A guide to writing in LaTeX - basic and introductory, but very accessible for new users.
 * Detexify - draw the symbol you are looking for, and it will give you the LaTeX code

Graduate Fellowships

 * National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP)
 * National Defense Science and Engineering Grant (NDSEG)
 * Science, Mathematics, And Research for Transformation (SMART) Fellowship

Productivity Tips

 * Use your time wisely. Try using the pomodoro technique, installing productivity extensions (Strict Workflow, StayFocusd, etc.)
 * Define time for answering emails so you're not glued to your inbox all day.
 * Set SMART goals for each day.
 * Set some time aside each week to remind yourself how your work fits into the bigger picture
 * Say "no" when you feel like you're getting stretched too thin.
 * Take breaks!
 * Don't forget - graduate school is a marathon, not a sprint. Take care of yourself.

File/Reference Managers

 * EndNote
 * Mendeley
 * Zotero
 * Papers (Mac/iOS)
 * Citavi - can add sources by ISBN/ISSN/DOI, and will extract info for citations for you
 * You can find others here

Research Article Databases and Archives

 * arXiv.org - non-peer reviewed self-submitted pre-prints in physics, mathematics, computer science, nonlinear sciences, quantitivate biology, and statistics.
 * PubMed.gov - over 25 million citations for biomedical literature

Prospective Graduate Students

 * Blog post on undergraduate vs. graduate school (from a scientist)
 * Matt Might's Blog has a lot of good articles, ranging from information for prospective graduate students to tips for getting tenure
 * Illustrated explanation of a PhD
 * How to get into graduate school in engineering or computer science

First Generation Graduate Students

 * "Those invisible barriers are real": The progression of first-generation students through doctoral education PDF
 * On Becoming a First-Generation Grad Student: Article

Keeping Things in Perspective
These links may not be professional, but they're evidence you're not alone.
 * PhD Comics
 * #WhatShouldWeCallGradSchool (tumblr)
 * Grad School Problems (tumblr)
 * Illustrated guide to a Ph.D.

Studying and Career Resources

 * College Info Geek has many great tips (e.g. Resources and Tools for Students or even on How to Build a Personal Website for kickstarting your career).
 * LinkedIn is a great professional social networking site
 * ResearchGate is similar to LinkedIn, but is designed for academics in particular.
 * Academia Fulfills the same purpose as ResearchGate, but you can't have too much visibility.
 * My IDP (Individual Development Plan) - find out what life science careers (academic, industrial, and non-traditional) best fit your skills, values, and interests.
 * LaTeX CV Template A popular CV template

Life Science Resources

 * Advice for a Young Investigator - Ramon y Cajal
 * Picking a good mentor

Linguistics Resources

 * All Things Linguistic's grad school tag, particularly:
 * Should you go to grad school in linguistics? Maybe.
 * So you wanna go to linguistics grad school? Part I: What you don’t know you don’t know
 * So you wanna go to linguistics grad school? Part II: Picking a school
 * Linguistics, Natural Language, and Computational Linguistics Meta-index - a collection of links to many different linguistics resources, maintained by Christopher Manning
 * What are some "papers all linguists should read at least once"? - a Reddit discussion
 * LaTex for Linguistics
 * What is LaTeX and why do linguists love it? - an intro to typesetting linguistics in LaTeX
 * Linguistics-specific packages in LaTeX
 * Link Collection on Information about Linguistics, Experiments, Fieldwork, Tools, and Statistics maintained by Sonja Eisenbeiss

Computer Science/Machine Learning Resources

 * Neural Networks & Deep Learning - introduction to neural networks & deep learning with excellent explanations

Physics Resources

 * MIT 8.02: Electricity and Magnetism  - MIT course on Electricity and Magnetism given by Walter Lewin in 2002

Statistics Resources

 * Introduction to statistics - the Johns Hopkins Data Science Specialization is a list of courses that provide a great introduction to statistics and programming in R (you can enroll in individual courses for free)

Guild leader eating (election) contest (Spring 2016)
The previous guild leader was Badman, but had been MIA for over 6 months. A Google poll was used to elect a new guild leader in Spring 2016 (The Eating Contest Challenge was posted for this purpose).

Candidate Statements, provided February 28th-March 5th

 * 1) BeanieB
 * 2) How long have you been a member of the guild? How much longer do you expect to be an active member of the guild? I have been a member for 9 months and will be graduating this summer. However, I will be pursuing a teaching post-doc position and thus will still be active in the guild and on Habitica. 
 * 3) If there should be a conflict within the guild chat, how do you think you would approach participants? While I don't anticipate any conflicts, I do have experience as a resident advisor and have been trained in conflict management. I will do my best to stay objective and to uphold Habitica's community guidelines.
 * 4) What do you think are this guild's strengths and weaknesses? I think GSG's strengths and weaknesses are one and the same - it is student/member run. I believe GSG's recurring challenges and conversations concerning graduate school are its strengths, but there are often lapses in conversation and activity. 
 * 5) What would your goals be as guild leader? My goal would be to try to maintain an influx of new members when I see other graduate students in the tavern or in other guilds. In addition, I will stay active on Habitica to help the guild when necessary. While leaving majority of the "leading" up to those in the guild, I will happily take any ideas for improvement. 
 * 6) What types of challenges would you use the guild gems for? While Scrolls and Writing challenges are great, graduate students often need reminders to relax and recharge themselves, and to remember that they are smart and productive citizens (avoiding imposter syndrome). I would love to have some challenges that encourage the wellbeing of graduate students and encourage them to post more regularly on their progress in challenges and health. I plan on modeling some of these challenges after those in the Short Term Goal Accountability Guild. 

Moderator statements

 * 1) InfH
 * 2) How long have you been a member of the guild? How much longer do you expect to be an active member of the guild? I have been a member of the guild since March 2014, shortly after I joined Habitica. I have ~ 2 years to graduation, but I'll be on Habitica afterward for sure. If you need to reach me, my PMs direct to my primary email address, and I can also be reached off Habitica at [username]ed at gmail dot com. I'm frequently on Habitica, even if I'm resting in the inn.  
 * 3) If there should be a conflict within the guild chat, how do you think you would approach participants? I will work with the other moderators and guild leader to make sure that everyone is treated with respect in this guild, and to make sure that community guidelines are upheld. Like BeanieB, I've also been an RA and trained in conflict resolution.
 * 4) What do you think are this guild's strengths and weaknesses? BeanieB said it all :) I'd also add that while there aren't any large issues, we seem to rely on regular challenges being up at a certain time and sometimes, people have stuff going on that prevents them from being active on Habitica. I'd like to offer more support (i.e. rotating challenge posting / offerring "vacations") to people posting regular challenges, so they can take a break if they need to, while continuing to provide the benefits of their challenges to other members of the guild. I've done regular weekly community posts for another site, and as much as I enjoyed it, I could have used a break sometimes.
 * 5) What would your goals be as moderator? Keep the chat flowing, make sure there are no major issues, keep challenges coming? I'd eventually like to consider the possibility of mentorship challenges (mentor a guild member), but I'm a bit behind on another challenge I said I'd make.
 * 6) What types of challenges would you use the guild gems for? N/A. I have my own gems, though, and I hope to come up with challenges focusing on "professional development," those non-degree things you ought to be doing in grad school but nobody tells you about. I also welcome suggestions from members of the guild - I've donated my gems to someone making a challenge which I had no expertise to make myself, and I'm happy to do so again.


 * 1) keyes
 * 2) How long have you been a member of the guild? How much longer do you expect to be an active member of the guild? I honestly can't remember, but I've been on Habitica since Jan 2014 and probably joined then. I'm only in second year so I'm here for the foreseeable future.
 * 3) If there should be a conflict within the guild chat, how do you think you would approach participants? I don't think I've ever seen a conflict in this guild's chat! It's a great place full of great people and I'm confident we'd be able to talk things out even without needing anyone to intervene with "mod powers". I'd be willing to do so to resolve a dispute if necessary, but I prefer a pretty light touch.
 * 4) What do you think are this guild's strengths and weaknesses? What they said. :P On top of that I'd like to add that the members are great, so it stays active, friendly, and useful. Also, of all the places I run challenges, this guild's members cheat the least by a pretty big margin. <3 GSG.
 * 5) What would your goals be as moderator? I'll keep running the page-a-day monthly, and I'm up for running other challenges as they occur to me or as someone suggests them. I'd check in to chat frequently too. (But of course I do all of these things anyway!)
 * 6) What types of challenges would you use the guild gems for? N/A. Like InfH I have my own gems and I'm happy to donate them to someone running a challenge, or to run a challenge thought up by someone without the gems they'd like to back it.


 * 1) Liobia
 * 2) How long have you been a member of the guild? How much longer do you expect to be an active member of the guild? Just like keyes I'm not quite sure, but I joined when I found out I'm going to be a PhD student so at least since then. I joined Habitica in September 2015, so I guess it was shortly after.
 * 3) If there should be a conflict within the guild chat, how do you think you would approach participants? If the participants involved don't manage to clear things up by themselves, I'd approach them based on the community guidelines, trying not to take either side. Though I don't really anticipate any conflicts that big, this guild has been a very welcoming and friendly place so far.
 * 4) What do you think are this guild's strengths and weaknesses? I guess everything has been named so far. There are some things I like in particular though. Academia can be a very lonely place, especially when it comes to all the 'hidden' work we do, like reading papers, editing and all this. It's hard to see the worth of the work of the day when there is no physical product at the end sometimes. Challenges like Hit the Scrolls! or One Page Fresh Academic Writing help tremendously with that. InfH's Nebula challenge brought me through the time where I had to work on my exposée to approach my thesis advisors. The community is so supportive, so you can get cheered on for all the papers you read or you can rant about how the last meeting with your prof went awful and you feel so misunderstood by the feedback. You can even ask for advice.
 * 5) What would your goals be as moderator? I don't run any challenges currently but I have an idea in mind that I want to test soon. There's the "Visit Dr. Meta" challenge in the Short-Term Goal Accountability-Guild, which I'd like to adapt for GSG. It's basically about taking a step back, on a meta-level, and evaluate whether what you're currently doing is still helpful and whether you are still on track or detoured somewhere on your way to your goal. Are your current hypotheses fitting for your main question? Is the way you organize your day and your work good for you? Things like that. I found it incredibly helpful myself. I'd also like to collect the advice, resources, and material people share in the chat on the wiki page.
 * 6) What types of challenges would you use the guild gems for? I'm also a subscriber, so I don't think I'd use guild gems for any challenges. :) 

General eating contest, took place March 6th-April 2nd
You can view the results here. BeanieB was declared guild leader, and Liobia, keys, and InfH were declared moderators-in-effect.