Being a professor is amazing: a lot of academic freedom to investigate and teach exciting subjects and a secure salary until retirement. However, obtaining this position can be pretty strenuous, and many young scientists do not know the requirements to qualify for such a position. In this article, I give you 10 essential parameters a selection committee will evaluate when selecting a new professor.
If you have doubts about whether to stay or leave your postdoc position, quitting your postdoc can be daunting. But it can also be a great opportunity to move forward in your career.
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 scientific careers. Others say that ‘not publishing negative results is unethical’. What should young scientists do in such a situation?
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?
To become an author on a scientific publication, you need to contribute substantially – but what does that mean? Are there clear criteria, or can this be debated? What about collaborators who only provide data or samples or medical writers who improve the English of the paper? What about ChatGPT and other text generators?
Everybody knows that high impact factors are essential for a career in science. However, young scientists often underestimate the value of citations. They provide a more valuable estimate of the quality of a scientific publication than other metrics, including impact factors. In this article, I provide 20 strategies to increase your citation counts.