When One Door Closes . . .

Greetings again. I hope you’ve had a good month.

In English, there’s a saying that when one door closes, another opens. In other words, when one opportunity decreases or ends, another becomes available. This pattern has been true in my work.

For example, starting in April, my AuthorAID blog posts decreased from weekly to monthly, in keeping with INASP’s long-term plans. Almost immediately, though, other such chances appeared. For instance, that same month another group asked me to write a blog post.

Likewise, as some chances for international teaching have decreased, others have increased. Now that AuthorAID has trained many trainers overseas and gives MOOCs, I give fewer AuthorAID workshops. But other chances to give workshops keep arising.

For instance, last month I was at Capital Medical University in China to speak at a workshop. Indirectly, this workshop grew out of my teaching for 2 years in China in the 1980s. That teaching has opened a series of doors, both in China and elsewhere.

Last month’s workshop, which was on writing and publishing journal articles, had two speakers. Speaker Tom Lang addressed some aspects of the topic—such as preparing tables and graphs and reporting statistics. I discussed other aspects—such as writing the sections of a scientific paper and communicating with journals.

My main slides from this workshop, and a Chinese translation of them, are available in the AuthorAID Resource Library. Much of the content resembles that in AuthorAID workshops. For researchers who haven't yet been able to attend an AuthorAID workshop or take an AuthorAID MOOC, perhaps these slides can serve as a door.

Until next month—

Barbara