The TDT paper is particularly difficult to write, and will require many months of work even from someone as skilled as Rachael. It’s hard to figure out which points to emphasize and how to present the ideas, and then it’s doubly hard to figure out how to squeeze 200 pages worth of material into the 20-30 pages that is suitable for journal publication.
If the aim is to get peer reviewed journal articles for the sake of it then $20 000 is a lot of money. If the aim is to get peer reviewed journal articles to raise the profile of FAI issues or to raise the reputation of SI (with philosophers) then I suggest Rachael Briggs is worth the money—she’s very well respected in academic philosophy circles and a single paper from her will garner far more attention than (I suspect, literally) dozens of papers from other people.
The paper I wrote for the DoD this last year cost them $2,000 a page (only about a quarter went to me), and so that seems in line with general academic funding.
That is, why am I measuring their expenditure in terms of pages, rather than months? Because Alicorn asked how long the paper was, and I couldn’t help but do that calculation when I saw the grant proposal.
Exactly.
I thought you meant the actually payed per page, something I have heard is costume with course-books in the states. Have always found it to be rather strange.
One day of your time would pay for one month of my life. Funny how much that hurts, even though I already know there are trillions of dollars zipping back and forth in the world. I can only hope that I cross the threshold of fundability as soon as possible.
That is more in line with what I imagine to be the socioeconomic level of the regulars on this site.
And I guess what you said wasn’t in itself “hurtful”, it just forcibly reminded me of the evil aspect of my own situation, which (optimistically expressed) is the terribly long time it’s taking to get into a position where I can really start to act.
I get (52⋅5−8−20)⋅($20000/12) ≈ $386666.67 - this of course is an absolute upper bound on how much I can make for my employer, not an estimate. But agreed, chargeout rates for philosophers may differ.
Awards Awards for Research Grants are up to $20,000 for 1-year projects, or up to $35,000 for 2-year projects. In accordance with AERA’s agreement with the funding agencies, institutions may not charge indirect costs or overhead on these awards. Approximately 15 Research Grants will be awarded per year.
Reporting requirements All Research Grantees will be required to submit a brief (3-6 pages) progress report mid-way through the grant period. A final report will be submitted at the end of the grant period. The final report should be an article based on the proposed research and of the quality and in the format for submission to a journal for publication.
Note that they do not even require a publication, only a submission.
Hang on, is this document saying that they expect to be able to completely cover the salary costs and expenses of a full-time academic, for two years, for $35,000? That can’t be right. Can anyone help?
Academics apply for multiple grants, and their salary is partly supported by each grant (and also by a salary they draw from the University they are affiliated with for teaching classes). Universities also “tax” grants at 50%+ rates.
For example, it is not uncommon to be supported by 5-6 grants each covering a bit less than 20% of your salary. The rough idea is if a grant covers X% of your salary, you will generally spend X% of your time working on the research covered by this grant.
I wasn’t proposing myself. Although depending on how much of the job is “research” and how much of it is “writing”, and whether twenty thousand dollars was a typo, maybe I should. (But I don’t have publishing credits outside of an essay in a “Pop Culture and Philosophy” book for a popular audience so maybe I wouldn’t do regardless of ability to produce a finished product.)
It costs twenty thousand dollars to get someone to write an example of this sort of paper? How long is it?
The TDT paper is particularly difficult to write, and will require many months of work even from someone as skilled as Rachael. It’s hard to figure out which points to emphasize and how to present the ideas, and then it’s doubly hard to figure out how to squeeze 200 pages worth of material into the 20-30 pages that is suitable for journal publication.
OK, so now I want to know how you got such a bargain!
Academics make peanuts, relatively speaking.
Tenured professors often make less than $100k a year. Adjunct professors tend to make much less than $20k per year per school they’re teaching at.
If the aim is to get peer reviewed journal articles for the sake of it then $20 000 is a lot of money. If the aim is to get peer reviewed journal articles to raise the profile of FAI issues or to raise the reputation of SI (with philosophers) then I suggest Rachael Briggs is worth the money—she’s very well respected in academic philosophy circles and a single paper from her will garner far more attention than (I suspect, literally) dozens of papers from other people.
The paper I wrote for the DoD this last year cost them $2,000 a page (only about a quarter went to me), and so that seems in line with general academic funding.
Why a page?
That is, why am I measuring their expenditure in terms of pages, rather than months? Because Alicorn asked how long the paper was, and I couldn’t help but do that calculation when I saw the grant proposal.
Exactly. I thought you meant the actually payed per page, something I have heard is costume with course-books in the states. Have always found it to be rather strange.
If her consulting rates are like mine, this will buy about 12 days of her time.
One day of your time would pay for one month of my life. Funny how much that hurts, even though I already know there are trillions of dollars zipping back and forth in the world. I can only hope that I cross the threshold of fundability as soon as possible.
If it helps, that doesn’t reflect what I’m paid—I’m a salaried employee of a consultancy.
That is more in line with what I imagine to be the socioeconomic level of the regulars on this site.
And I guess what you said wasn’t in itself “hurtful”, it just forcibly reminded me of the evil aspect of my own situation, which (optimistically expressed) is the terribly long time it’s taking to get into a position where I can really start to act.
At that rate, that’s an annual salary of over $600,000. No way a pre-tenure academic philosopher is that expensive!
I get (52⋅5−8−20)⋅($20000/12) ≈ $386666.67 - this of course is an absolute upper bound on how much I can make for my employer, not an estimate. But agreed, chargeout rates for philosophers may differ.
Here is a comparison with a real funding agency, American Educational Research Association:
Note that they do not even require a publication, only a submission.
Hang on, is this document saying that they expect to be able to completely cover the salary costs and expenses of a full-time academic, for two years, for $35,000? That can’t be right. Can anyone help?
Academics apply for multiple grants, and their salary is partly supported by each grant (and also by a salary they draw from the University they are affiliated with for teaching classes). Universities also “tax” grants at 50%+ rates.
For example, it is not uncommon to be supported by 5-6 grants each covering a bit less than 20% of your salary. The rough idea is if a grant covers X% of your salary, you will generally spend X% of your time working on the research covered by this grant.
OK, thank you! So now I really can’t work out what this tells us about the SI grant.
Seconding the recommendation of Alicorn for any job that involves writing.
I wasn’t proposing myself. Although depending on how much of the job is “research” and how much of it is “writing”, and whether twenty thousand dollars was a typo, maybe I should. (But I don’t have publishing credits outside of an essay in a “Pop Culture and Philosophy” book for a popular audience so maybe I wouldn’t do regardless of ability to produce a finished product.)