Category Archives: Report

Report

How can better data sharing and management improve a career in science?

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Taking the time to plan how raw data will be recorded and shared can make all the difference when new research directions appear, says Matthew Edmonds.

In many research projects, there tends to be three major interested parties. The first is the researcher who actually performs the experiment and collects the data. The second is the scientist overseeing the research project, who may be collating related data from several researchers. Finally, there is the institution, which supports the research financially and provides a space in which to do it.

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{credit}Roche DG, Lanfear R, Binning SA, Haff TM, Schwanz LE, et al. (2014) Troubleshooting Public Data Archiving: Suggestions to Increase Participation. PLoS Biol 12(1): e1001779. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001779, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30978545{/credit}

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Seeking out stronger science: An incomplete, non-systematic list of resources

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Our reporter Monya Baker runs through some of the statistical tools she found when writing her latest story.

As I reported in a Nature feature published this week, I found more online courses that were being developed than were actually in place. Resources to help scientists do more robust research are set to expand quickly. For example, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences has a competitive program that awards funds to institutions to enhance graduate student training; of 15 such supplements awarded in 2015, a dozen involved data analysis, statistics, or experimental rigor. You can find more here, and that is only a fraction of what is available. Some courses are still being developed and piloted to select students; others are being offered only to those in a particular department or training grant. If you find one that interests you, it can’t hurt to ask.

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{credit}PW Illustration/Getty{/credit}

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Preparing researchers to manage traumatic research

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Studying traumatic events comes with its own risks – the scientific establishment needs to be doing more to protect researchers, says Dale Dominey-Howes and Danielle Drozdzewski.

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One of the authors interviews survivors a few days after the September 2009 South Pacific tsunami in the rubble of their communities in Samoa, as part of the UNESCO post-tsunami survey team reporting into the Prime Minister and King of Samoa. “It was a hard day for all of us,” says Dale Dominey-Howes.

What’s the issue and why is it important?

Earth is destabilizing rapidly. Terrorism, conflict, genocide, human displacement, socio-economic disruption, rapid global environmental change, slow emergencies and natural disasters are more common than at any point in history. Consequently, opportunities exist for researchers to investigate the causes, consequences and potential management solutions arising from this instability. For this to happen, we need a well-trained workforce equipped with the skills and capabilities to work with ‘traumatic’ research content, people and places. Continue reading →

Big data jobs are out there – are you ready?

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Jungwoo Ryoo, Pennsylvania State University

Big data is increasingly becoming part of everyday life. Network security companies use it to improve the accuracy of their intrusion detection services. Dating services use it to help clients find soulmates. It can enhance the efficiency and accuracy of fraud detection, in turn helping protect your personal finances.

“Big data” is a catchall term for any data set of exceedingly large volume. It could be transaction information at a credit card company, invoice data at an online retailer, meteorological measurements from a weather station. All these data sets have unique characteristics that make it extremely difficult to use conventional computing technologies and techniques to store and process them for analysis. Their variety is daunting, and high velocity is required to handle them in a timely manner.

Organizations in any field can use big data to enhance their effectiveness, which is why there are seemingly unlimited career opportunities in big data these days. The big data industry is growing fast, with the market predicted to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 23.1 percent over the 2014-2019 period.

So who is going to store, manage and process all this information? Well, why not you? Companies are starved for people with this kind of expertise. Big data is a growth industry and people from a variety of academic backgrounds can find successful careers in this area.

Get ready, get set….
World Bank Photo Collection, CC BY-NC-ND

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Highlights from the Comm4Science science communication conference

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You need to prepare to get your science in the news. And when it comes to interacting with journalists, loosen up and let your emotion come through.

Guest contributor Virginia Schutte

The international conference Comm4Science: communicating science beyond the lab took place in Heidelberg in early May. Around 100 participants attended, where they met a great roster of speakers, took part in a communication workshop, and asked questions of a panel of experts.

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Virginia Schutte

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How not to respond to reviewers: Eight simple tips

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Responding to reviewer reports is a key part of publishing academic work in peer reviewed journals. But if you’ve received mixed reviews of a paper or are publishing for the first time, where do you start?

This piece was republished from Sophie Lewis’ blog.

My first attempt at publishing a paper was a breeze. A collaborator was asked to contribute to a special issue and offered me the opportunity to lead the paper. I was a PhD student at the time, and spent two months visiting her lab overseas and writing. By the end of my visit, I’d carved out a draft that I left behind for comments. After a bunch of emails and several rounds of revisions over the next month, we were ready to submit.

Flickr/AJ Cann, CC BY-SA

Flickr/AJ Cann, CC BY-SA

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Follow your passion when choosing a career in science

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What are you passionate about?

Guest contributor Aliyah Weinstein

This question plays a role in the career decisions for almost everyone, yet is absent from most conversations when it comes to early-career scientists. Questions all PhDs hear are: What kind of research are you interested in doing? Do you want to work in academia, or in industry? But these questions make a fundamental assumption: every scientist wants to pursue a career in research. I, for example, have had a lifelong interest in writing and languages.

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Five tips to overcome authorship conflict

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Discuss authorship assignments to avoid fallout with collaborators, says Andy Tay

When I started my first year of graduate school, I was referred to a post-doc in my lab by some fellow students. Eager to start my research, I expressed interest in the project without thinking through the reasons behind my colleagues’ reluctance to join the post-doc.

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The Naturejobs career expo journalism competition, London, 2016!

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Enter for a chance to work as a Nature journalist for the day!

 

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Here we go again!

Following the success of the Boston and San Francisco Naturejobs career expo journalism competitions this year, we’re launching the competition for our tenth career expo in London, to be held on September 16th.

The London Naturejobs career expo is our flagship event, so we are looking for five budding science writers to help us with our coverage of the conference sessions, workshops and general ambience of the event for those who cannot make it. The conference will explore career paths in industry, academia and science communication, finding funding, and much more.

The five winners will have the opportunity to attend the expo and write up at least two of the sessions or workshops for our readers, sharing the advice and expertise of the speakers with our worldwide audience. Winners will also have the opportunity to work closely with Nature editors, and their articles will be published on the Naturejobs blog. Continue reading →

#scidata16: Publishing Better Science through Better Data: Writing competition

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This competition provides the chance to attend the Publishing Better Science through Better Data October 2016 event, work with a Nature editor and have your writing published here on Naturejobs.

After a very successful event last year, we are again looking for five budding science writers to help with news coverage of this year’s Publishing Better Science through Better Data event.

 

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