Support Open Access In Academia

As a communication scholar, I am a hardcore supporter for public scholarship and open access (OA) in academia. I am committed to making the outcome of my own studies and other intellectual assets broadly accessible and applicable to venues beyond the halls of the university or the pages of scholarly journals.

Years ago when I first applied to doctoral program in North America as an international student (and a first-gen grad), I had absolutely no idea of the application culture, skills, jargons, abbreviations, rules, accesses that are widely (or narrowly, to be precise) shared among academia. What is "R & R"? What is "N/ICA"? What the hell is "SoP"? What's the difference between an "SoP" and a "PS"? What should reference letters look like? Do GRE scores matter? Why do people in academia sound like they speak a different language? Where can I find high-quality research papers that are unavailable for someone without a first-tier university library access? Where can I find scholarly resource?

Lacking fundamental knowledge and not knowing where to look into resulted in a ALL-Rejection application season: I ended up having 15 rejection letters (out of 15 programs that I applied). My second attempt was much more successful thanks to those who graciously helped me with generosity, valuable information, insights, resources and much more.

I will continue to provide open-access academic resources via this blog.

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