Polese’s demystification of peer review and the high-stakes gambit of academic publishing is well overdue. He lifts the lid on both overall strategies and the no less important nitty-gritty aspects.
— Jeremy Morris, Aarhus University

There have recently been several depictions of the precarity of contemporary academic life, but The Scopus Diaries stands out among these. What is refreshing in Polese's book is that it moves beyond mere diagnosis—it not only identifies key problematics but also productively engages in their potential solution.
— Martin Demant Frederiksen, University of Copenhagen

This is a must-read if you are in academia and do not yet have a tenured position. Even more urgently, it is a must-read for everyone who wants to or should have to reflect on the complex and sometimes counter-productive logics of today's (social) science production.
— Heiko Pleines, University of Bremen

The Scopus Diaries is an indispensable guide for early researchers who often find it difficult to balance academic life with their nonacademic passions. If offers a vision of work-life balance from one of the best in the field. A must-read primer for non-Western scholars interested in learning about the academic strategies in the West.
— Rajan Kumar, Jahawaral Nehru University

The book is a welcome attempt to start a candid, unapologetic discussion about the 'black box' of being an untenured academic. The issues Polese brings into focus using his rich personal experiences will resonate with many colleagues with longer or shorter academic careers due personal experience or that of colleagues. His conclusions, whether one agrees with them or not, will certainly provide food for thought both for experienced as well as aspiring academics.
— Borbála Kovács, Central European University, Budapest

Abel Polese is a scholar, development worker, writer, and wannabe musician (with his children at Multea Music YouTube channel). He works at Dublin City University and has, to date, published fifteen books, over 100 peer-reviewed chapters and articles, and designed capacity building and training programs on the Caucasus, Central Asia, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, and Latin America (funded by, inter alia, the EC, UNDP, Erasmus National Agencies, Irish Aid). In addition to “The Scopus Diaries” he has been working on the blog (and future book) “the guide to everywhere,” suggesting an approach to travel that can make people “read” new countries and cultures even when one encounters them for the first time.