I bought The Researcher’s Book at the book fair and read it last week. This collection of 26 articles reveals the work life of a researcher organized around three themes. The contributors are researchers at different career stages from doctoral student to emeritus professor. The book works well: it opens the tacit knowledge of the field to the reader in ways that are fascinating – and sometimes sarcastic. In the article by Joel Kuortti andTapio Rissanen, working conditions on the typical short-term research project are described with the expression ‘Japanese strike’: researchers do more and more work, because they’re never sure how much is enough.Anneli Anttonen and Jorma Sipilä temper the novice researcher’s enthusiasm to conquer the world by saying that bold initiatives are not well received in the strenuously conservative scientific world . An article is more likely to be published if it brings a little clarification to an issue that has been recently discussed in academic journals. According to Pirjo Nikander, a conference paper is likelier to be accepted when the title sounds interesting but not too clever; it’s also wise to embed in the title some words related to the conference themes. The Researcher’s Book also suggests that scientific writing is undergoing changes. For example, it now includes candid descriptions of the actual research process, and the writer is no longer completely hidden by facts and neutral phrasing.