The Happy Academic

How to Succeed and Stay Healthy in Academia

Many young academics dream of a thriving career in academia, but the daily reality is often defined by tough competition and precarious working conditions. More than a third of PhD candidates worldwide seek help for anxiety or depression caused by work-related problems. Roughly the same percentage of PhD researchers drop out before finishing their PhD programme.

The good news is there are many proactive steps academics can take to look after their mental well-being. In this book, Dutch psychiatrist and researcher Joeri Tijdink lends a supportive hand to them by pinpointing key factors influencing academic stress, and sharing 34 simple self-care tips and tools to navigate the challenges of academic life.

Clear, practical and positive, The Happy Academic supports and inspires researchers on their journey to becoming effective, successful and happy academics.

 

Joeri Tijdink (PhD, MD, AP) works as a psychiatrist and researcher at Amsterdam University Medical Center (AUMC). His research activities focus on research integrity, mental health in academia and research cultures.

 

In The Happy Academic, psychiatrist and researcher Joeri Tijdink lays out the serious challenges every aspiring researcher will face. To address these challenges, he offers positive, lighthearted and hands-on solutions. The suggestions are certain to be of benefit for every ECR in navigating the bumpy road of establishing a research career.

Gorden Gyatt, Distinguished Professor of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario.

 

Tijdink’s excellent book The Happy Academic is a valuable self-help book for young academics beginning their careers. Guidance from supervisors for doctoral candidates is extremely variable, from very helpful to not at all. The Happy Academic is a personal guide to everything you need to know to be successful as a scholar and career academic. I would recommend it as required reading for every doctoral student.

Deborah Poff, Former president of Brandon University, Canada, founding editor of Journal of Academic Ethics, editor-in-chief of Journal of Scholarly Publishing.

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