To paper or not to paper? - The dilemma of an early career academic
It’s 2 pm on a Saturday. Kojo is in the kitchen whipping up my favourite cocktail – a super-milky pina colada. I can hear the violence as he shakes his flask mixing the ingredients from one of his made-up recipes. Recipes which he never seems to perfect. It’s a compulsory lazy weekend for me. I am in my comfy reclining sofa, curled up in my favourite duvet, surrounded by a mountain of throw pillows. The front windows are open, letting in a cool breeze and the sound of birds. The plan is simple: to drink Kojo’s almost perfect cocktail whilst binge-watching whatever Netflix series Twitter is buzzing about currently. My phone vibrates and a notification pops up on the screen. It is an email from an Elsevier journal editor. A request for major revisions on the Cryptolepine paper I submitted four months ago. I stare at my MacBook; it stares back. Somewhere deep within its MacOS, it wonders why it was sold to this West African slave driver. Kojo walks in with the cocktails and sets them do