Last week saw the publication of a book that is guaranteed to bring mirth and merriment. Not to mention make a very good Christmas present.
This is what the crowdfunding publisher, Unbound, says about it: “Academia Obscura is an irreverent glimpse inside the ivory tower, exposing the eccentric and slightly unhinged world of university life. Take a trip through the spectrum of academic oddities and unearth the Easter eggs buried in peer reviewed papers, the weird and wonderful world of scholarly social media, and rats in underpants.”
I have bought it already (on pre-order!). Let me give you three examples from page 117. 🙂 🙂 🙂
| What academics say | What they mean |
| We are grateful to the two anonymous peer reviewers for their constructive comments | God help them if I ever find out who they are |
| An extensive literature review | A quick Google search |
| A promising area for an initial study | I have to do this to get funding |
.
And the Table entitled,”Selected p-value workarounds” is a masterpiece including, inter alia 😉 :
- “a robust trend towards significance”
- “only flirting with traditional levels of significance”
- “hovers on the brink of significance”
- “on the very fringes of significance”.
You can find Academia Obscura at booksellers (it will raise many, many smiles, I promise!), and do have a look at the publishers’ website to find out more about their community business model.
From Words to Deeds: translation & the law 
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