Choosing the best postdoc position for your future career in science is essential. However, most young scientists have no plan how to find the position(s) that fit best and how to choose with care. A number of key questions will help you to find the postdoc position which fits your needs, talents and skills.
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Young scientists often think that a long publication list is crucial for an academic career and that obtaining multiple co-authorships are a clever strategy to make their publication list longer. Is this true?
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We all know that scientific fraud is bad for science and society in general. However, apart from these general considerations it is necessary and effective to make young scientists aware of the fact that scientific misconduct ruins their personal integrity and destroys their careers. The following 16 personal reasons will convince most young scientists that scientific misconduct is a bad idea.
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Young scientists often struggle with the problem that they are obliged to include authors in the author list who may not have contributed substantially – or not all. Especially partners who only provide technology, patient samples, genetically modified organisms or general infrastructure may be a reason for debate, although without their contribution, the research would be impossible. How can you handle this problem?
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Many PhD students and most postdocs want to pursue a career in academia. But is it a good idea to admit that you want to become a professor? Would you appear overambitious or pretentious? Or does it ruin your career to hide your ambitions from potential mentors and decision-makers?
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Many young researchers struggle with their work-life balance. Especially for researchers with a family, it is challenging to divide their time and energy between home and work. The question “is it possible to be a parent and have a career in research?” keeps many researchers up at night.
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Young scientists often produce negative results. All experiments were done correctly – but there was no difference between test and control. They get conflicting advice from supervisors and ethicists. Some say that publishing negative results is a waste of resources and ruins their careers. Others say that ‘not publishing negative results is unethical’ and promotes the reproducibility crisis. What should young scientists do in such a situation?
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Being a professor is amazing: a lot of academic freedom to investigate and teach very interesting subjects and a considerable and secure salary until retirement. However, the way in which to obtain this position can be pretty hard and more than 90% of all PhD holders find a job *outside* of academia.
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Impact factors are heavily criticized as measures of scientific quality. However, they still dominate every discussion about scientific excellence. They are still used to select candidates for positions as PhD student, postdoc and academic staff, to promote professors and to select grant proposals for funding. As a consequence, researchers tend to adapt their publication strategy to avoid negative impact on their careers. Until alternative methods to measure excellence are established, young researchers have to learn the “rules of the game”.
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Young scientists often get conflicting advice on how they should publish. Every generation of young scientists has to address similar questions: Should I publish several smaller papers or should I focus on one big paper with a high impact factor? What is the effect of my publication strategy on my career and the possibility to raise grant money? How important is my publication list for a non-academic career?
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