The Logistics of Scientific Growth

in the 21st Century

How to stand out in academic scientific research

Group meeting, 24.11.2014

The missing piece to changing the university cultureSchillebeeckx M, Maricque B, Lewis CNat Biotechnol. 2013 Oct;31(10):938-41

Percent of STEM Ph.D. judging a career to be “extremely attractive”. Taken from Saurman & Roach (2012).

● Drop in the interest of STEM (Science/Technology/Engineering/Mathematics) Ph.D. students wishing to pursue an academic tenure-track career

● Average age for a researcher to get their first NIH grant is now 42 years old (“50 is the new 30, if you’re a promising scientist”)

● The era of exponential growth in academic research is over? Or things will return to happier days when we get back to “normal” economic growth and governments increase investment in research?

Taken from de Solla Price 1963.

Roughly constant doubling time for different forms of scientific output.

“Eighty to 90 per cent of all the scientists who have ever lived are alive now”

● The doubling time of the number of scientists is much shorter than the doubling time of the overall human population

● Either everyone on earth will be a scientist one day, or the growth rate of science must decrease from its previous long-term trends

Taken from de Solla Price 1963.

● PhD students and post-docs: opportunities in science may not be there for you (less of them).

● Early-stage academics: career trajectory is going to be more limited, fewer grants, smaller lab, more competition for resources; career progression may hold expectations, as a result more conflict with senior members of staff

● Established academics: you had it easy, they have it much harder now than you did. You are probably dealing with someone who is more qualified for their job than you would be. Don’t judge your junior colleagues with out-of-date views. Seek to promote a sustainable model of scientific career.

Part II, how to stand out?

● Nothing else matters, other than publications● Write fast● From results to a first draft: 1-2 weeks● 30 minute presentation: 1-2 hours● Conference poster: 1 hour (??)

Learn to write papers

Know more than your PI

● Knowledge and skills● E.g. PI is getting e-mail from you, the post-

doc, about a hot-off-the-press paper that you think is relevant

● You’d be amazed how quickly PIs will find funding to keep you on if your skills are i) rare, and ii) essential for their future research

Finish stuff

● 90% of the work will take 10% of the time; the remaining 10% of the work will take 90% of the time

● Be the person who can do the 90% and the 10%

● Double-check and check again – but make sure that this doesn’t take months to do

Transition from post-doc to PI

● Your opportunities to do this will be limited by only one thing: publications

● Lots of first author papers before anyone will consider you for a PI position (some high-impact journals)

● Not every post-doc will become a PI

Should you go for it?

● Reading and writing about scientific research: is a chore or a pleasure?

● PIs live and breath their science● The majority of PIs work long hours, and

they do it willingly (37.5 + 10-20 hours/week)● Are you like this? Do you want to be like

this? Do you have what it takes to be like this?

The end

References

1. Casey Bergman, The Logistics of Scientific Growth in the 21st Century

2. Mick Watson, How to stand out in academic scientific research

3. de Solla Price D (1963) Little Science. Big Science. New York: Columbia University Press

4. Kealey T (2000). More is less. Economists and governments lag decades behind Derek Price’s thinking Nature, 405 (6784) PMID: 10830939

5. Sauermann H, & Roach M (2012). Science PhD career preferences: levels, changes, and advisor encouragement. PloS one, 7 (5) PMID: 22567149