Tag Archives: EMBO

Would you return to your home country to set up a lab?

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Last week EMBO announced the recipients of its 2011 Installation Grants – a round of funding that supports scientists who want to relocate to a country that is currently building its fundamental research capacity. The 2011 grants, which comprise an annual award of 50,000 euros for three to five years, will enable seven scientists to set up laboratories in the Czech Republic, Poland, Estonia and Turkey.

One of the recipients, Nurhan Özlü, has returned to her home country of Turkey after spending ten years in the United States. In an EMBO podcast, she says that for a junior group leader, establishing a lab in a country that’s growing its scientific capacity has several benefits, but she also has to adapt to a developing research infrastructure. “[In the United States] all the facilities, resources and services were available and if I purchased something it arrived the next day,” she says. “[In Turkey] experiments take a lot more effort and time.”

In a Nature Careers article on the topic from 2009, the head of a lab in the Czech Republic said that while the research infrastructure was comparable to Germany and the United States, it was necessary to assemble attractive salaries from several sources of funding.

Would you trade a scientific powerhouse such as the United States for a country with a less-developed research infrastructure if it meant you could set up your own lab? Have you already done so and thrived on the opportunity? Let us know your thoughts and experiences. The next application deadline for EMBO Installation Grants is 15 April 2012.

Writing a paper: habits of successful authors

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If you’d like to boost your chances of getting your research published in the right journal, it’s worth knowing some of the habits of successful authors. Bernd Pulverer, head of scientific publications at the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO), shared some insights with attendees at last week’s Naturejobs Career Expo in Heidelberg, Germany.

Consider the final paper when you first plan your project

Pulverer advises authors to “plan carefully and think holistically”.

Choose your journal with care

“There are many good journals out there,” Pulverer says. Study what kind of papers the journal publishes to see if its scope is suitable.

Don’t hold back data

“I can’t emphasise this enough,” Pulverer says, adding that the “cat and mouse game” between authors and referees is a huge problem. Don’t hold back data that you think the referees will ask for later in order to please them — include it with your initial submission.

Write a cover letter

Pulverer says a cover letter allows you to explain the importance of your research to editors and referees in a less formalised manner than in your paper. “It’s not essential, but it provides a good opportunity to give a different flavour to the results,” he says.

Tell a story, but avoid spin

Think about the ‘story’ of your paper, but don’t over-labour it — and don’t oversell your findings.

Be thorough when responding to referees

If you make it to peer review and get recommended changes from referees, “make sure you address every single point raised”, says Pulverer. If you don’t agree with something, write a thorough, point-by-point rebuttal.

Respond well to rejection

If your paper is rejected, don’t simply resubmit it to the same journal with a different title and list of authors. “It sounds trivial, but we see this quite a lot,” says Pulverer. “There are many other good journals at the same level.”

Have your say

Do you have any other tips or advice to share? Let us know below.