Sir Philip Campbell, the editor in chief of Nature, speaks at the Naturejobs Career Expo, London, 2016.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO5SFLFxJxk
What is the future of publishing?
Reply
Monthly Archives: November 2016
Finding job satisfaction in industrial research
After finishing a PhD and postdoc studying the cellular mechanisms behind cardiovascular disease, Shikha Mishra decided not to continue in academia.
She found she could still do the work she loved at the bench by doing product development research at Thermo Fisher Scientific.
Top paid jobs: Where are the scientists?
David Payne investigates the wide gaps in salary between academics.
The Office of National Statistics (ONS) issued its annual survey of hours and earnings last month. Scientists are conspicuously absent from The Guardian‘s subsequent trawl of the data to highlight the UK’s top 10 best paid jobs. These include brokers (1), CEOs (2), pilots (4) air traffic controllers (7), and doctors (8). Continue reading
Away from home: ‘Research not Nobel-driven’
We’re bringing you the best stories in lab mobility from Nature India.
Today’s blog comes from Arghya Basu, who wears many hats — that of a membrane protein researcher, an amateur photographer and a weekend hiking enthusiast. A doctorate from Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata, India, Arghya now lives his many passions working at the University of Alberta, Canada and says research might not always fetch you a Nobel but should be able to make life better for some.
Dad, my first science teacher
My father was my first science teacher. A banker by profession, he had an extraordinary skill to explain the world and all conceivable worldly acts in terms of science. I remember, as a kid I used to look forward to those hours when my father would come back from office and open my science books, be it the physical sciences or life sciences. The next few hours used to be magical. I always wanted to touch that magic. So, it was a no-brainer for me to choose science and scientific research as my future career quite early in my life. Continue reading
Thinking of a PhD? This is the Australian story
Advice for prospective PhD candidates focuses on career prospects in R&D, but more thought should be given to personal aspirations in life and work.
Research is fuelled by the energy of post-graduate students. PhD students contribute 57% of total university research output, according to a 2013 discussion paper from The Group of Eight Universities in Australia. In 2011 Nature published “The PhD factory,” which described the ongoing crisis caused by the oversupply of trained researchers and the inability of academia and industry to soak up the overflow.
Five of the Australia Telescope Compact Array antennas at Narrabri, New South Wales
Fast forward to 2016, and the PhD factories are just as productive, if not even more so. In the 2011 article, Dr Anne Carpenter at Harvard/MIT’s Broad Institute fought the system by hiring permanent staff scientists instead of the usual mix of postdocs and graduate students. She struggled to justify her high staff cost to grant-review panels. Continue reading
Your best work might be just around the corner
A recent finding shows that a scientist’s career can peak at any age.
Ever wonder when you’ll publish that big paper that’ll win you the Nobel Prize (or at least a new research grant)? Turns out, it could be your next.
As Nature News reports, a new equation, developed by a team led by Albert-László Barabási at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, shows that papers published at any point in a scientist’s career have equal chance in becoming their most highly cited work. It might be sensible to keep that in mind the next time you’re struggling through centuries of data analysis, or when your thumb starts to bruise from more and more mindless pipetting.
You can watch a video explainer below, and find the paper here.
Suggested posts
How to get published in high-impact journals: Big research and better writing
Writing for international journals: tips and techniques
Nature Masterclasses: Writing for highly-selective journals
What are your thoughts on blind reviewers?
Sir Philip Campbell, the editor in chief of Nature, speaks at the Naturejobs Career Expo, London, 2016.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqDScsKzt0Y
Loved minds think alike?
Dating for Scientists, New Scientist Connect and gk2gk are online dating sites that propose perfect matches for partners with scientific mind-sets. Is there a link between the background of one’s partner and success in scientific careers, asks Christina Morgenstern.
It’s been seven years, two months, 19 days, five hours and 37 minutes since I left the bench. I keep counting the hours and desperately try to hang on to my memories. Some days it feels like yesterday that I left PCR reactions, agarose gels, and my beloved mouse embryos behind.
Christina Morgenstern
But a lot of things have happened since then. After my PhD at University College, London, and four years at Cancer Research UK’s London Research Institute, I boarded a plane back home to Austria. All these years my husband worked in our home country, and commuted back and forth between Austria and London every other weekend. I decided that now it was time for me to return to Austria to be with him permanently. I knew my region of Austria — Carinthia — doesn’t have research infrastructure and so I was already planning on shifting from research to science communication. Continue reading
Lab quizzes, cake clubs and lunch dates
A Nature special issue last week examined the plight of young scientists. David Payne runs over the details.
Interviewees described the pressure to publish, secure funding and earn permanent positions, leaving little time for actual research.
The cluster of articles, along with a podcast and infographic, do propose some ways forward to improve the situation. For example, four researchers suggest ways of enabling scientists to pursue promising ideas, and three “agents of change” who have left the bench explain how they’re trying to improve junior researchers’ experiences.
Away from home: Getting the right exposure
We’re bringing you the latest stories in lab mobility from Nature India.
Today we hear from Anil Shukla, a PhD from the Department of Biotechnology, IIT Guwahati, who chose to work as a postdoctoral fellow at the National cancer Institute in USA to be able to get a world view of cancer research. Though he loves his work environment and research standards, he misses the warmth of Indian friendships and human relationships.
