This week, we recommend the Essay On Self-Citation and the Field Note on On the Day After a Rejection. Each piece is written for readers working on their own papers, grants, and teaching. Read one; return for the others.
Essays
Field Notes
On the Day After a Rejection
April 2026
On the Temptation to Cite People You Have Never Read
April 2026
The Footnote That Belongs in the Main Text
April 2026
How to Read a Peer Review on the Day You Receive It
April 2026
What an Abstract Is, What It Is Not, and the Sentence Most Researchers Leave Out
April 2026
See all →
Dispatches
Dispatches coming soon.
The Library is the Almanac's reading room. Essays come out monthly, Field Notes weekly, Dispatches when the news warrants. Write to the editors with suggestions, corrections, and pieces of your own.