The Impact Factor

The Impact Factor: Life Update

Graduate school is hard. Earning a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences is hard. I could pretend it isn't, but that would be lying. 

Hard doesn't quite cover it, though. Working towards a Ph.D. is more than "hard," or at least different than the hard I'm accustomed to. Taxing would be a better word. Experiments are taxing, before during and after. Academia is taxing. Thinking and working in such a competitive and increasingly demanding discipline is taxing. I'm exhausted. Physically, mentally, and if I'm being honest, professionally.

Frustrations supersede elation. Failures outnumber successes by a large margin. The Impact Factor has been my solution to these entrenched problems.

Now almost two full years later, The Impact Factor has given me more than I could have ever asked for. A creative outlet that wasn't tied to my science. A community of friends old and new. A time capsule for the energy I pour into my biggest hobby. Work on The Impact Factor comes at a cost, though. It saps away time I could have spent making figures, doing statistics, or keeping up with my field's current literature.

I want to graduate. I need to graduate. Desperately. If you listened to the last episode of the podcast, you'll know what this means -- The Impact Factor is taking a hiatus. Kind of. I have shocked even myself that I maintained a regular posting schedule for nearly two straight years. But that has to change if I ever want to get out of here. Until further notice, there is no schedule for new pieces here on the blog. If everything goes well, you'll still see new articles, reviews, perspectives, and News & Views. But just not as regularly. Almost certainly not every week.

For my own sanity, The Impact Factor podcast will continue on a weekly basis. It will still be posted to SoundCloud, iTunes, and this blog each Friday. 

I'm really sorry.