Back in 2021, John and Elizabeth sat down with Brandeis string theorist Albion Lawrence to discuss cooperation versus solitary study across disciplines. They sink their teeth into the question, “Why do scientists seem to do collaboration and teamwork better than other kinds of scholars and academics?” The conversation ranges from the merits of collective biography to the influence of place and geographic location in scientific collaboration to mountaineering traditions in the sciences. As a Reca...
Apr 17, 2025•42 min
What makes one sentence easy to read and another a slog that demands re-reading? Where do you put information you want readers to recall? Drawing on cognitive neuroscience, psychology and psycholinguistics, Writing for the Reader’s Brain (Cambridge University Press, 2025) provides a practical, how-to guide on how to write for your reader. It introduces the five 'Cs' of writing - clarity, continuity, coherence, concision, and cadence - and demonstrates how to use these to bring your writing to li...
Apr 16, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 387
How do academic books get published? How do scholars turn dissertations and articles into the books we love? How does academic publishing compare to the world of trade publishing? This week, we speak with Robert Dreesen, a seasoned publishing professional with over 30 years of experience in the industry. Dreesen has worked in trade publishing at Penguin and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, and for nearly two decades at Cambridge University Press, where he served as a publisher of economics and politic...
Apr 09, 2025•48 min
Our book is: Project Management for Researchers: A Practical, Stress-Free Guide to Getting Organized (U Michigan Press, 2025), by Dr. Shiri Noy, which tackles the how, what, and why of project management. It offers step-by-step guidance on choosing tools and developing a personalized system that will help the reader manage and organize their research so that steps and decisions are documented for accountability and reproducibility. Readers will find worksheets they can adapt to their own needs, ...
Mar 20, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 258
In this episode of Publish My Book, we break down the key components of a strong book proposal. We discuss essential elements like a well-structured table of contents, a compelling cover letter, a carefully chosen sample chapter, and a narrative author bio that connects emotionally with acquisitions editors. We also explore the importance of a persuasive prospectus that highlights your book's novelty, market relevance, and target audience. Whether you're approaching an editor at a conference or ...
Mar 01, 2025•8 min•Ep. 11
In this episode of Publish My Book, we explore the peer review process for book manuscripts. We discuss how securing an acquisitions editor’s support is the first critical step before entering peer review, where feedback can vary in depth and rigor. We share tips on suggesting reviewers, managing the often lengthy review timeline, and effectively addressing critiques—whether agreeing, disagreeing, or clarifying misunderstandings. While revisions may feel daunting, they’re essential for refining ...
Feb 28, 2025•8 min•Ep. 10
In this episode of Publish My Book, we dive into how to approach acquisitions editors with confidence and clarity. We discuss their role in the publishing process, what they're looking for in a manuscript, and how to make a strong first impression—whether at conferences or via email. We share practical tips on tailoring your pitch, respecting their time, and navigating feedback. Acquisitions editors are key partners in your publishing journey, and understanding their perspective can make all the...
Feb 27, 2025•9 min•Ep. 9
In this episode of Publish My Book, we explore how to transform a dissertation into a compelling book. We begin by examining the key differences between the two: while a dissertation demonstrates our research abilities to advisors, a book communicates core ideas to a broader audience. We discuss how to distill our arguments, streamline dense sections, and rewrite for clarity and engagement. We also consider our target audience—academic or trade—and address the ethical and legal considerations of...
Feb 26, 2025•9 min•Ep. 8
In this episode of Publish My Book, we explore the essential role of a well-crafted book index in academic publishing. A good index helps readers easily locate specific topics, names, or places, making your book more accessible and impactful. Avi discusses different types of indexes—such as subject, author, and sources indexes—and provides guidance on creating one. We emphasize starting the process early, choosing relevant terms, and ensuring accuracy. While some authors prefer to create their o...
Feb 25, 2025•8 min•Ep. 7
In this episode of Publish My Book, we explore open-access publishing, a model designed to make publicly funded research freely available to everyone. Unlike traditional publishing, where readers or libraries pay for access, open access requires authors or their institutions to cover upfront fees—often $4,000 to $6,000—to make their books freely accessible. We discuss the benefits of open access, such as broader readership, higher citation rates, and increased impact. We also brought up the chal...
Feb 24, 2025•7 min•Ep. 6
Listen to this interview of Sakina Fatima, Research Fellow, University of Ottawa, Canada; and also, Taher Ghaleb, Assistant Professor, Trent University, Canada. We talk about the coauthored paper Flakify: A Black-Box, Language Model-based Predictor for Flaky Tests (TSE 2023). Taher Ghaleb : "With our RQs, it's not just a matter of there being a problem with flaky tests. I mean, every researcher in this area already know that flaky tests is a problem. So, when we talk about the problem in our pap...
Feb 11, 2025•45 min•Ep. 247
Listen to this interview of Abubakar Mohammed, Manager, Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, Nigeria. We talk about the coauthored paper Cybersecurity Challenges in the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry: An Industrial Cyber-Physical Systems (ICPS) Perspective (TCPS 2022). Abubakar Mohammed : "I would put the success of the paper down to us just generally understanding the audience we want. Because, we were quite clear about who our audience are — we were looking at security experts who...
Feb 09, 2025•38 min•Ep. 246
Listen to this interview of Arjun Guha, Associate Professor, Northeastern University. We talk about his coauthored paper MultiPL-E: A Scalable and Polyglot Approach to Benchmarking Neural Code Generation (TSE 2023). Arjun Guha : "My group and our collaborating colleagues really try to pick problems carefully so that we choose a problem that we can attack with the expertise that we have. So, for example, to pull off a benchmark like the one in this paper, you needed a group of students who were a...
Feb 02, 2025•49 min•Ep. 245
Listen to this interview of Ricardo Amaro, Senior Engineering Manager, Acquia, USA, and also a PhD Researcher, ISCTE—University Institute of Lisbon, Portugal. We talk about his coauthored paper Capabilities and Practices in DevOps: A Multivocal Literature Review (TSE 2023). Ricardo Amaro : "One of the main challenges we've been experiencing in DevOps is, let's say, the cultural resistance to change — and really, it's questions like these that, sure, academia have tried to answer, but to be hones...
Feb 01, 2025•44 min•Ep. 244
Listen to this interview of Isaac da Silva Torres, Postdoctoral Research, TU Delft, Netherlands. We talk about his coauthored paper Guidelines to Derive an e3value Business Model from a BPMN Process Model: An Experiment on Real-world Scenarios (SOSYM 2023). Isaac da Silva Torres : "I'm an industrial engineer, and I've worked in a lot of companies. Then afterwards, I worked for the government, back in Brazil. And then I came to the Netherlands to do my PhD. But, my work experience, as a business ...
Jan 31, 2025•52 min•Ep. 243
Listen to this interview of Sumon Biswas, Assistant Professor, Case Western Reserve University. We talk about his coauthored paper The Art and Practice of Data Science Pipelines (ICSE 2022). Sumon Biswas : "Yeah, it's true, not many people are working in software design and software architecture — at least at ICSE — and in fact, this has been an important discussion in SE research in general: How can we increase contributions in software design and architecture? And there has been an important p...
Jan 30, 2025•51 min•Ep. 242
Listen to this interview of Steffen Zschaler, Reader, King's College London, UK; and of Fiona Polack, Professor, University of Hull, UK. We talk about their coauthored paper Trustworthy Agent-based Simulation: The Case for Domain-specific Modelling Languages (SOSYM 2023). Fiona Polack : "The sort of collaborative environment that brings together researchers from many different backgrounds — that's an environment that's very, very creative — and what's more, it also encourages people to address n...
Jan 28, 2025•45 min•Ep. 241
Peoples and Things host, Lee Vinsel, is joined by guest host and Peoples & Things producer, Joe Forte, Media Projects Manager with Virginia Tech Publishing, in interviewing Marshall Poe, the founder and editor of the New Books Network, the largest academic podcasting platform in the world. The trio discuss how the New Books Network came to be; how digital technologies open up new tools for academic work; changing media landscapes, including the recent bursting of a podcasting bubble; and the fut...
Jan 27, 2025•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 89
Listen to this interview of Lianglu Pan, PhD Student, and Shaanan Cohney, Senior Lecturer, and also Thuan Pham, Senior Lecturer — everyone at University of Melbourne, Australia. We talk about their coauthored paper EDEFuzz: A Web API Fuzzer for Excessive Data Exposures (ICSE 2024). Thuan Pham : "The reading pattern in our group goes something like this: When reading to broaden our knowledge and come up with ideas, we focus on the conceptual contribution of a paper, instead of zeroing right in on...
Jan 26, 2025•44 min•Ep. 240
Listen to this interview of Lorenzo Rossi, Research Fellow, University of Camerino, Italy. We talk about his coauthored paper A Technique for Discovering BPMN Collaboration Diagrams (SOSYM 2024). Lorenzo Rossi : "Yeah, this way of structuring the concluding remarks in this paper is a technique we often apply in our research contributions, especially to journals, where the space limitations are less stringent. This structured approach to the conclusion, where we discuss assumptions and limitation...
Jan 25, 2025•41 min•Ep. 239
Listen to this interview of Kangfeng Ye, Research Associate, University of York, UK. We talk about his coauthored paper Probabilistic Modelling and Verification Using RoboChart and PRISM (SOSYM 2022). Kangfeng Ye : "In this paper, I have four coauthors, all of them senior researchers. And when we reviewed the manuscript internally, we adopted a strategy we call sequential review. In the usual process of review at a conference or journal, every submission gets reviewed simultaneously — all review...
Jan 24, 2025•39 min•Ep. 238
Listen to this interview of Emerson Murphy-Hill, Research Scientist, Microsoft. We talk about his coauthored paper GenderMag Improves Discoverability in the Field, Especially for Women (ICSE 2024). Emerson Murphy-Hill : "Too often in papers, the authors get defensive about limitations or threats to validity. Of course, they'll state outright a limitation, like in our paper that we study only one small feature of a company-internal piece of software. But many authors will then grow defensive, cla...
Jan 22, 2025•40 min•Ep. 237
Listen to this interview of Ionut Predoaia, Research Fellow, and also, Antonio García-Domínguez, Senior Lecturer — both at the University of York, UK. We talk about their coauthored paper Streamlining the Development of Hybrid Graphical-Textual Model Editors for Domain-Specific Languages (ECMFA 2023). Antonio García-Domínguez : "I think that the limitations in any work are really opportunities for follow-up research. I mean, essentially, you are identifying for the reader, 'Look, these are the b...
Jan 21, 2025•39 min•Ep. 228
Listen to this interview of Zejun Zhang, Research Scientist, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. We talk about her coauthored paper Hard to Read and Understand Pythonic Idioms? DeIdiom and Explain Them in Non-Idiomatic Equivalent Code (ICSE 2024). Zejun Zhang : "Following my presentation of the paper at ICSE, it was interesting. I mean, there was, first off, a lot of positive response, but then some people in the audience were asking why we would research the readability of Pythonic idi...
Jan 19, 2025•33 min•Ep. 235
Listen to this interview of Roberto Verdecchia, Assistant Professor, University of Florence, Italy; and also, Per Runeson, Professor, Lund University, Sweden. We talk about their coauthored papers Threats to Validity in Software Engineering Research: A Critical Reflection (IST 2023) and Threats to Validity in Software Engineering — hypocritical paper section or essential analysis? (ESEM 2024). Per Runeson : "I think what we've seen in our work here on threats to validity — and it was certainly o...
Jan 17, 2025•42 min•Ep. 234
Listen to this interview of Nan Jiang, PhD candidate, and Lin Tan, Professor — both at Purdue University. We talk about their coauthored paper Impact of Code Language Models on Automated Program Repair (ICSE 2023). Lin Tan : "In my research group, the procedure in every project is to write the Introduction early — very early, in fact. It's the first section I have my researchers think about, actually. Because, you know, a lot of people will imagine that the approach section is where you begin — ...
Jan 16, 2025•42 min•Ep. 233
Listen to this interview of Jenny Liang, PhD student, Carnegie Mellon University. We talk about her coauthored paper A Qualitative Study on the Implementation Design Decisions of Developers (ICSE 2023). Jenny Liang : "When it comes to selecting specific results or codes, I like to think about it in terms of what was surprising. So, maybe it's not so surprising that people think about requirements when making these implementation design decisions — and that's why we didn't talk about that. But wh...
Jan 15, 2025•38 min•Ep. 232
Listen to this interview of Yun Peng, Research Associate, Chinese University of Hong Kong, China; and also, Cuiyun Gao, Associate Professor, Harbin Institute of Technology, China. We talk about their coauthored paper Static Inference Meets Deep Learning: A Hybrid Type Inference Approach for Python (ICSE 2022). Yun Peng : "And I remember the reviewers at ICSE commenting how they never imagined solving the type-inference problem in just this way. So, for me, the takeaway here, is: When we are cond...
Jan 14, 2025•43 min•Ep. 231
Listen to this interview of Sterre van Breukelen, engineer, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands; and Ann Barcomb, Assistant Professor, University of Calgary, Canada; and Sebastian Baltes, Full Professor, University of Bayreuth, Germany; and Alexander Serebrenik, Full Professor, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands. We talk about their coauthored paper "STILL AROUND": Experiences and Survival Strategies of Veteran Women Software Developers (ICSE 2023). Alexander Serebrenik ...
Jan 12, 2025•52 min•Ep. 230
Listen to this interview of Roberto Verdecchia, Assistant Professor, University of Florence, Italy; and also, Luís Cruz, Assistant Professor, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands. We talk about their coauthored paper A systematic review of Green AI (WIREs Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery 2023). Luís Cruz : "Sometimes, especially in systematic studies, we are so worried about the process that we forget about the goals of why we're doing this. That means, we can end up reporting things j...
Jan 11, 2025•44 min•Ep. 229
