tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18174256180781867842024-02-29T23:39:06.322-06:00The Singular ScientistDare to be exceptionalDrDoyennehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01923421604660796579noreply@blogger.comBlogger353125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1817425618078186784.post-5837855864178144232014-07-14T14:20:00.000-05:002014-07-14T14:20:00.025-05:00Retirement of a Scientist: When Should I Announce It?<br />
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You've decided to retire. Depending on your organization's rules, you will have to file paperwork by a certain deadline and inform your supervisor or department chair. But deciding when to make your decision to retire publicly known is less straight-forward. Should you wait until the last minute? Do you drop hints as much as a year before? Do you announce at the same time you file the paperwork or tell your supervisor/chair? When should you tell your staff/students? When and how should you tell close coworkers/friends? Why should you even be concerned about when to tell others about your impending retirement?<br />
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Some people put off telling as long as possible for fear of becoming marginalized (or worse) during the final weeks or months of employment. Others announce their intentions far in advance. Experts often recommend treating retirement procedures and announcements much the same way you would leaving for another job. If your departure will disrupt the organization and significantly affect co-workers or students, then some time will be required to square things away before your last day. I know colleagues who retired but then returned as a part-time, paid employee to finish out projects. I think it's a good idea to have your department chair or lab director make the announcement, which takes the burden off of you and sounds more official.<br />
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Although you could tell people long before your retirement date, there is no real reason to and may lead to unexpected and unpleasant consequences. Almost every retiree I've talked to has said that as soon as you make the announcement, you will be treated differently at work. You become a lame duck, and people may begin to write you off sooner than you like. Or they may decide to take advantage of the situation. One colleague said, "As soon as the word gets out, the vultures will start circling." He was referring to colleagues who coveted his lab/office space, equipment, and funding that (they assumed) would be up for grabs when he departed. Not everyone has this experience, but some scientists may find it difficult to give up the resources that they've worked so hard to acquire. Having co-workers prematurely claiming your stuff just makes it worse. I know of at least one scientist who rescinded plans to retire when a young colleague became a bit too aggressive in taking over his program.<br />
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If your students and/or projects will continue beyond your retirement and are dependent upon those resources, then it's important to work out a transition plan with your superiors. By working out a plan to transfer space and resources to someone of your choice (and getting official approval for that transfer) before announcing your retirement will help discourage the vultures and ensure your projects and students are taken care of in your absence. Once you retire, you will have no say in such matters.<br />
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I decided a year ahead as to the approximate date of retirement and contacted the person responsible for guiding employees through the process (usually such people must keep your information confidential). I selected the precise date about two months before termination (this was my agency's recommended time frame). Then I decided on what date to inform my supervisor and scheduled a meeting with him. It's a good idea to have all your paperwork in order with HR before you meet with your boss. Depending on your relationship, the meeting may be a brief, formal interaction or a more friendly conversation. If appropriate, you can discuss the possibility of becoming an emeritus scientist/professor and negotiate what that status might entail. At such a meeting you also can discuss having your boss make the announcement—and when—so that you have time to tell close co-workers and your staff and students personally (you don't want them to find out in an email announcement). I set up a meeting with staff to tell them right after I met with my supervisor. I met individually with close co-workers/friends to tell them.<br />
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When you announce your retirement (and how) is obviously an individual choice and dependent on a number of factors. However, it's important to give it some thought ahead of time.<br />
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<br />DrDoyennehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01923421604660796579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1817425618078186784.post-7742848900988754272014-07-07T13:24:00.000-05:002014-07-07T13:24:00.353-05:00Retirement of a Scientist: When Should I Retire?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">We are talking about retirement in this series of posts. </span>Once your contemporaries begin retiring, you will begin wondering if it's time for you too to put down the pipette and hang up the lab coat (or whatever the equivalent is in your specialty). In the last post, I covered how to determine if you are ready to stop working. In this post, let's explore the factors that determine when you should retire.<br />
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Deciding exactly when to retire is partly dependent on one's finances, as discussed in a <a href="http://womeninwetlands.blogspot.com/2014/06/retirement-of-scientist-can-i-afford-to.html" target="_blank">previous post</a>. Other factors include age, health, job satisfaction, and the spouse's situation and preferences.<br />
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<b>Will I Be Forced To Retire?</b><br />
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">In the past, people over the age of 65 were thought to have embarked on an inevitable decline in mental and physical faculties, a belief that underpinned the widespread implementation of </span><a href="http://www.oeaw.ac.at/vid/download/fuernkranz/lazear_mandatory_retirement.pdf" style="font-weight: normal;" target="_blank">mandatory retirement</a>. It provided an easy way for an employer to replace aging employees with younger staff to ostensibly maintain overall productivity. Mandatory retirement was later challenged in several countries (e.g., as age discrimination in the U.S.) because it was not based on a person's actual performance but on some arbitrary chronology that did not necessarily apply to everyone. Scientists in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, New Zealand, and Australia no longer have a mandatory retirement age and can work as long as they are able. Other countries may have different rules.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">Even with mandatory retirement, one can continue to work. A famous example is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper" target="_blank">Grace Hopper</a>, a computer scientist, who made important contributions to computer programming (she's credited with coining the term "debugging"to describe finding and fixing computer glitches). She was retired at age 65 by the UNIVAC division of Sperry-Rand Corp. (now Unisys). She then went to work for the U.S. Navy's Naval Data Automation Command and achieved the rank of rear admiral. Fifteen years later at age 79, she involuntarily retired from that post (she was able to remain on active duty beyond the mandatory retirement age by special approval from Congress). Hopper almost immediately started a new career as a senior consultant with Digital Equipment Corp. (which has no mandatory retirement) and worked there until her death at age 85.</span><br />
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It's great if you are able to carry on like Grace Hopper and continue to be active and productive into your eighties. But not everyone is able to or wants to.<br />
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<b>What's the Best Time To Retire?</b><br />
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Some scientists retire in their fifties or sixties, but others stay on into their seventies and beyond. For me, an important consideration was to retire early enough so that I would be physically and mentally capable of doing what I wanted to do once I stopped working—and there were things I wanted to do before I got too old to do them. Someone who quits at age fifty-five is still young enough to travel, to <br />
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learn a new skill, or even to embark on a new career. At seventy-five, a person may be less physically and mentally fit to do volunteer work in Africa, learn to ski, travel the world, or go back to school. Yes, there are individuals who remain energetic and mentally sharp well into their eighties and nineties. But most people don't. Some don't even make it to those ages to find out. Mortality statistics show that even though the death rate in the U.S., for example, has declined over the past 75 years (see graph), average life expectancy is only 78.7 years.<br />
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Even if you exceed this average life expectancy, your physical functioning will likely decline. The next graph shows the percentage of the population (of Americans in 2012) exhibiting difficulty with some physical function such as walking, stooping, or carrying. At age 75, about half are having difficulty with some daily task; by age 85, 86% have some type of physical impairment (66% have difficulty walking, for example). You may be lucky and fall in the 15% who are able to perform all daily tasks well after age 85, but it would be wishful thinking to assume you will.<br />
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In our calculations, my husband and I figured that we would be in the majority—those who will have difficulty doing one or more daily physical tasks after age 74. We estimated that if we retired in our mid-sixties, we might have another ten good years in which we could still travel easily and do other physically challenging activities. That calculation was quite sobering. Ten years is not a very long time.<br />
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A general rule of thumb is that you want to retire before you have to. Knowing when that will be is not easy; if you are no longer productive or are having difficulty with some tasks, then you've probably stayed too long. I began noticing that it took me longer to finish certain tasks and to bounce back from physically-demanding fieldwork. Not enough that others noticed or that would interfere with my job, but I felt it clearly. Many older people discover ways to compensate for minor mental and physical changes, and I certainly used those. However, those gradual changes alerted me to the fact that I was slowing down a bit. Those are just a few signs that someone might watch for if they want to stop working early enough to be able to attempt physically or mentally challenging activities in retirement.<br />
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In the end, the decision of when will likely rest on a combination of ability and desire to continue working. Some scientists may feel less and less satisfied with research or teaching and decide it's time to hang up the lab coat. If you are passionate about your research, and it requires access to a laboratory or special equipment, for example, then you may decide to continue working. If your research is mostly computer based, then you might easily continue your work, perhaps part-time, at home—if that is what you want. Many scientists change the focus of their research over a career, and thinking ahead to retirement might be wise in formulating such a change.<br />
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Identifying something to do in retirement that is just as interesting and challenging as your former work is not only essential but can help you decide when to retire. I planned to continue some research and publishing for a while in retirement to ease the transition, but also wanted to do something new. During the last six years of working, I consciously gravitated toward visual communication of science (something I was good at and enjoyed) with the idea that this would be readily transferable into retirement. Is there some aspect of your job that you love to do and that you might spend a lot more time doing if given the chance? If you enjoy writing about science, for example, then science blogging or writing a book might provide a good outlet. If you like being outdoors or interacting with people, then volunteering or working part-time as a guide at a park or science museum might be fulfilling. For me, I enjoy writing as well as developing better ways to communicate science. So in addition to blogging, I'm now giving lectures, hosting workshops, and creating video tutorials to help others be more effective science communicators.<br />
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Or you may want to develop something totally unrelated to science--woodworking, building model trains, starting a vineyard, gourmet cooking, whatever. Or you may just want to spend your remaining years spoiling your grandchildren or walking on the beach.<br />
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However, it's a good idea to try out your plan ahead of time to see if it is sufficiently satisfying. I started blogging and making science videos long before I retired. I spent enough time at it to know that it would be fulfilling in the long run. The same goes for anything else one fantasizes about doing in retirement. Planning to take up wood carving or travel writing? Try it out for a while before retirement. You may see that it is not what you thought…that it is not sufficiently challenging or interesting. On the other hand, it may get you so fired up that you can't wait to retire and focus entirely on your new activity.<br />
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<b>What If My Spouse Isn't Ready To Retire?</b><br />
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If you have a spouse who works, things get even more complicated. Couples don't always agree about when to retire. One spouse may be ready to retire at 55, but the other wants to continue working another five to ten years. Among our friends and acquaintances, the difference is less, with one spouse wanting to work only a year or two longer than the other. Having one spouse working while the other is "having fun" puttering around the house or traveling can lead to resentment, however. On the other hand, if the retired spouse takes over the housekeeping and cooking chores, then that may balance the outside work by the employed spouse and reduce friction. An age difference can add to the discrepancy in readiness (or need) to retire—something to consider in financial planning. The older spouse may be forced to retire due to health or other issues long before the younger spouse is ready to quit working.<br />
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Fortunately, my husband and I had similar feelings about approximately when to retire, which may have been partly because we were close in age and partly because we had been discussing our options for several years—an ongoing conversation that gradually merged our respective outlooks. I was the first to really express an intention to retire and was prepared to do so whether or not my husband retired at the same time. But I was also willing to compromise and work a couple of years longer if my husband considered retiring at the same time. We decided that it was important to retire together because we both would be free to travel and do other things together. We eventually settled on a date that we both felt comfortable with.<br />
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Talking about retirement is not necessarily easy, however, and some couples may avoid it because it may dredge up financial problems (a reason to set up a retirement plan early and stick to it) or marital problems (the prospect of spending 24 hours/7 days a week together may terrify some couples). Some people have strong opinions about their careers and are unwilling to compromise when there is a disagreement about when to retire. One spouse may be so totally committed to research or teaching that they cannot see things from their less enthusiastic spouse's perspective. For us, what worked well was to think about retirement as a joint future together and doing what was best for us as a couple rather than as individuals.<br />
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Another concern is whether both of you will have something to do in retirement. If you have a schedule of activities and lots of interests but your spouse has nothing to keep them occupied, there will be conflict. I think it's important to have time to yourself in retirement and is something that needs to be discussed and worked out by retiring couples. My husband and I "work" at home but in separate areas of the house (we often text or email each other to minimize interruptions). We both have our "projects" and separate activities that keep us quite busy on a day to day basis. We then get together in the evening to have dinner, to watch the news, and to talk about our day. This arrangement is very similar to our pre-retirement life, which may be why it works so well for us.<br />
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Once you've decided to retire, the next decision is when to announce it….the subject of the next post.<br />
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<br />DrDoyennehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01923421604660796579noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1817425618078186784.post-9665526248934216962014-06-30T10:48:00.000-05:002014-06-30T10:48:00.377-05:00Retirement of a Scientist: Do I Want To Stop Working?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Visitors who have stumbled upon this website through a Google search for retirement information may be flummoxed at the question posed in the title of this post. Is she kidding? Who doesn't want to stop working? Well, the answer is: those people who love their work. And scientists often adore doing their research—thinking of an important question, designing a rigorous experiment to answer it, meticulously conducting the study, poring over the data, and putting it all together in a brilliantly-written article. It's just all the other stuff they dislike and that makes them dream about being free of arcane bureaucratic regulations, short deadlines, interminable office meetings, pompous or toadying colleagues, bullying or incompetent bosses, laggardly graduate students/post-docs, increasing pressure to publish, dwindling grant funds, scathing journal reviews, and many other annoyances (insert yours here) that one experiences over a scientific career. I'm not complaining, you understand. Just trying to describe the Satisfaction Balance Sheet that ultimately determines whether a scientist continues working or voluntarily calls it quits. As one progresses through a career, the balance sheet changes, tipping one way or another. Also, as we age, our tolerance for the annoyances declines (faster for some of us than others). If scientists were able to do their research without the irritations, I doubt many would retire. Alas, that is never the case.<br />
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In the <a href="http://womeninwetlands.blogspot.com/2014/06/retirement-of-scientist-can-i-afford-to.html" target="_blank">last post</a>, I considered some of the financial aspects of retirement and how to determine one's monetary readiness to quit working. Once I knew that I <i>could</i> retire comfortably, I had to decide if I <i>wanted</i> to stop working. This was a very difficult question for me to answer, whereas my husband seemed to have less trouble. However, we initially had no idea how to go about making such a life-changing decision. There were so many unknowns. If we delayed retirement, would we continue to enjoy our work as much as in the past? Would leaving our jobs mean a loss of identity and purpose? Were there ways to continue doing science outside of a regular job if we wanted to continue contributing? Were there other things we wanted to do that our jobs would prevent or interfere with? Does retirement lead to increased mortality (a few of our colleagues had dropped dead or developed serious illness within a year of retirement)? On the other hand, if we continued working, would the stress be increasingly unhealthful as we aged? We made a list of such questions and tried to answer them as best we could. For some questions, there were no clear answers; however, by asking them, we became more aware of all the various ways our lives might change and even to plan ahead for them.<br />
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As I hinted above, job satisfaction ended up playing a big role in our decision. Both of us were experiencing changes in the workplace that we did not like and that increasingly interfered with our capacity to do what we enjoyed--science. I'm sure those readers who have been doing research and/or teaching for a while know what I'm talking about. And there were signs that things were going to get much worse for scientific researchers and educators down the road. This situation was a bit worse for me in a government position with endless regulations, forms to fill out, and required training. I was also getting burned out and frustrated finding research funds, especially since as an employee of a Federal science agency I was barred from applying to other government grant sources (e.g., NSF). I was even beginning to tire of doing research, writing it up, and running the review gauntlet. My husband was probably going to have to teach even more if he continued working, but he was tired of teaching. In other words, our workplaces had changed, and we had changed.<br />
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We both could have continued working and been successful at juggling all the administrative stuff along with the research and teaching obligations—as we always had. The question finally boiled down to whether we wanted to spend the next ten or twenty (if we were lucky) years doing a lot of stuff we simply did not enjoy and enduring all the stress that goes along with it….or doing only what we enjoyed. In the end, we chose the latter. By retiring we could avoid most if not all of the undesirable tasks required in our jobs but continue doing those activities we did enjoy.<br />
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In an emeritus status, one can often retain an office (and possibly lab space) and continue writing and conducting research (while no longer having to teach, attend meetings, or advise students). An emeritus professor or scientist can basically do whatever they want, work or not, or travel whenever the mood strikes. In one fell swoop, it's possible to rid yourself of all the onerous tasks you dreaded on a day-to-day basis and be left with only those activities you love to do.<br />
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Life is too short. And as you age, that remaining time seems to fly past faster and faster.<br />
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The decision may be different for you, depending on your specific situation and preferences. Some scientists never want to stop working; they love research or teaching and want to continue as long as possible. A few scientists retire from one job and take another in a related or entirely new field. I have a colleague who retired from a government research position to take a teaching job at a small college. For other scientists, retirement offers the opportunity to do those things they didn't have time for while working and building a career. I decided to pursue my interests in science videography as well as continue my interests in science communication and blogging.<br />
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In the end, the realization that I could quit working and still be an active participant in science (in some capacity) convinced me that I was ready to retire. My personal view is that retirement need not involve stagnation and boredom. I see it as a new adventure, one with more freedom and opportunity than when I was younger.<br />
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In the next posts, I'll discuss when to retire and when to tell others you plan to retire.DrDoyennehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01923421604660796579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1817425618078186784.post-26412396612344997042014-06-23T10:32:00.000-05:002014-06-23T10:32:00.385-05:00Retirement of a Scientist: Can I Afford To Quit Working?In this series of posts, I'm talking about retirement. In the next few posts, I'll consider some questions that a scientist contemplating retirement needs to answer. Even if you are early- or mid-career, it's important to ponder these questions because they will help you plan ahead for this important stage in your life.<br />
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Science is unique, I think, in that many (most?) of its practitioners actually enjoy what they do and would continue doing science even with little or no pay. At least, that is how I've always personally viewed scientific research. This attitude is unlike that of someone who has worked in retail or in a factory making widgets and who cannot wait to retire and never handle another sale or build another widget. Loving what you do makes the decision to retire difficult for some of us in science. Whereas the sales person or factory worker wants to retire as early as it is financially feasible, the scientist may never want to retire…at least not completely.<br />
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So what should you consider in making the decision to retire?<br />
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Obviously, finances need to be taken into account. When can you afford to stop working? How do you determine this? How do you plan for it? My husband and I began planning and saving as soon as we left graduate school and got jobs—toward the time when one or both of us could no longer work. We weren't really thinking in terms of voluntary retirement back then because we planned to continue working as long as possible. We were young, enthusiastic, and loved doing science. It never occurred to us at the beginning of our careers that we might change our minds about retirement as we got older. We set up the usual savings, investment, and pension plans. Then we didn't think about it much over the next thirty years (although we did make periodic adjustments as our circumstances changed).<br />
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As I'll explain more fully in the next post, our attitude toward retirement changed as we aged. Whenever a colleague retired, we would discuss the possibility of our own retirement. When we began talking seriously about retirement, our first step was to see a financial planner who could tell us if and when it would be feasible for us to retire. We did this about six years before the date we tentatively targeted. At this point, we had not yet made the final decision to retire. We just wanted to see if it was feasible to stop working. The answer was that yes, we could retire on that date and live comfortably for the rest of our lives. It's probably much wiser to do this check at least ten years before retirement so that you will have time to make adjustments: increase savings, decrease spending, or delay retirement to get a larger pension. As your situation changes, it's wise to revisit your retirement plan—at least every five years or so. You also want to have a good idea of what level of retirement income you will need to be comfortable. For example, someone who plans to travel extensively in retirement will need more than someone who will stay home and play with the grandkids. There are lots of other considerations such as what the stock market is doing…you may need to delay retirement if markets fall. Also, it's wise to look at your portfolio and revise it as you approach retirement. A financial planner can help with all of this, especially if you are not very good at financial matters.<br />
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Here is a good list of (mostly financial) <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/finance/retirement/signs-ready-to-retire-early-6.aspx" target="_blank">signs that you are ready to retire</a>:<br />
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1. You can follow your targeted retirement budget for at least six months (do a trial run to find out).<br />
2. You have reliable health insurance coverage (keep in mind that Medicare (U.S.) won't be available until age 65).<br />
3. Your children are financially independent.<br />
4. You have little debt or are close to it.<br />
5. Your investment portfolio is large and sufficiently diverse to weather a market downturn.<br />
6. You are emotionally ready to quit working (more about this in the next post).<br />
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Anyway, our planning exercise told us that finances were not an impediment if we wanted to stop working. Even if the answer had been that we needed to work a bit longer, the financial planner would have been able to tell us when we could retire at our desired retirement income level. In any case, knowing that earliest retirement date is very helpful in planning. You don't necessarily have to select that date; you may decide to delay retirement for other reasons than financial.<br />
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Once we knew we could afford to retire, we then had to decide whether to retire. And that wasn't easy.DrDoyennehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01923421604660796579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1817425618078186784.post-75495397370930146672014-06-19T09:31:00.000-05:002014-06-19T09:31:31.224-05:00I'm Retired, Not Dead<br />
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What do you think when you hear that a scientist has retired? Do you assume that they're no longer contributing to science or to society? Do you imagine them sitting in a rocking chair, staring out the window, and waiting for their pension check? Heading to the nursing home? Do you wonder what retired scientists do all day? Do you wonder what you'll do when you retire?<br />
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At a recent conference, my husband and I had dinner with a group of colleague/friends, all of whom could be considered "senior scientists". The topic of retirement came up, which was not unusual given our group's makeup. Rather what struck me was how many of the group had not thought that much about retirement and were fuzzy about what someone in our profession might do in retirement.<br />
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Although those of us in science expend a lot of effort planning and building our careers, we give little thought to the last phase—the retirement years, which for some scientists can be as productive as the on-the-job years. Almost no one thinks about retirement when they are just starting out; it is so far in the future and, for some, depressing to ponder. Some say they will never retire; you will have to carry them out feet first. Others have a vague notion that they'll retire at some point but don't make any effort to plan ahead. A (very) few realize that retirement, like any other career stage, benefits from advance planning and will begin to map out their route to retirement as much as ten years before.<br />
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When I was in my forties, I could not imagine myself retired and always thought I would do research until I dropped dead. I recall running into an older colleague who announced that he planned to retire the next year when he turned fifty-five and start a Christmas tree farm. I politely congratulated him and said, "That sounds great." Actually, I was thinking, "Is he crazy? How can any self-respecting scientist retire so early….and no longer do science?"<br />
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Fast-forward twenty years. I no longer think that the colleague who retired "early" was so crazy. In fact, I decided to retire myself and did so almost two years ago (although I did not make it known on this blog). My husband also retired from his professorship a month later. We did not come to this decision easily; however, once we analyzed our professional and financial situations and what we wanted to do with the rest of our lives, the decision seemed obvious.<br />
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Both of us are currently in "emeritus" status with our respective institutions, which means we are still active but doing what we want and when and where we want to do it. Although I'm still writing and publishing scientific papers (I've got a file cabinet full of data that will last me another twenty years at least), I've become more active in science communication and videography, which lets me combine my love of science with my more artistic side. I find this new activity challenging and fun; also, my new focus aligns nicely with the growing emphasis on <a href="http://www.centerforcommunicatingscience.org/communicating-science-to-the-public/" target="_blank">scientists being better communicators</a>. More importantly, it gives me a sense of purpose and identity, which is something that retirees often struggle with. My husband still has funded projects and students, but those will finish soon or be transferred to colleagues. Both of us regularly receive invitations to participate on panels, to give seminars or plenary talks at conferences, to collaborate/advise research groups in other countries, and similar activities, which we accept or decline depending on our preferences and schedules. In addition, we started a non-profit foundation, which provides travel grants to students in our field. Actually, we set it up six years ago with the idea that it would give us another way to continue contributing directly to science and education in retirement. For us, it was important to continue having a real purpose in life…something to look forward to and be responsible for. Other retired scientists may feel differently and simply wish to spend time with family or doing hobbies. It's a very personal decision, and no one approach is better than another.<br />
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What I don't like about retirement is the change in other people's perception of me. It's clear from their comments that some people assume that I have not only retired from my job but have no further interest in research and education. A few are clearly shocked and puzzled that I would retire, even though they offer congratulations and good wishes. These colleagues assume that being retired means that I've quit science altogether, when it just means I've quit working for pay. I guess I shouldn't be surprised given my reaction twenty years ago to my colleague's decision to retire. When I run into someone who knows I've retired, they invariably ask, "How's retirement?", usually in a jovial voice, indicating that they believe I'm spending all my time sipping wine on my back porch. At first, I didn't know how to answer the question; I somehow felt I should correct their misperception and explain that I was still working and contributing. Now, I usually say something like, "I'm really enjoying it. Being able to work on what I'm interested in, on my own schedule, is great." If they ask what I'm working on, I provide more detail.<br />
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Now that I have some idea of what "retirement" is like, I thought I would write a series of posts about it. If you are a late-career scientist/professor and thinking about retirement, you may find my experience of interest. If you are early- to mid-career, you may benefit from hearing about how other scientists plan for and conduct their retirement. I wish I had thought about retirement much earlier than I did. There are actually quite a few questions to consider in planning for retirement, which will be the topics of those posts:<br />
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How do I decide if and when to retire (and when to announce it)?<br />
Can I afford (financially) to retire?<br />
How can I ease the transition gracefully (wind down projects, deal with students and staff)?<br />
How do I sustain my sense of identity and purpose in retirement?<br />
Do I want to continue making scientific contributions (for example, as emeritus), focus on a new activity, or just kick back and take it easy?<br />
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There may be others, but those will do for starters.DrDoyennehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01923421604660796579noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1817425618078186784.post-16107164947627004572014-06-03T17:04:00.000-05:002014-06-03T17:04:46.502-05:00Presentation Myths: Hand-wringing and Other Nervous Hand Gestures<i>Samantha was nervous as she looked out at the audience. She thanked the organizer of the symposium and began her talk. Nothing in her delivery or sound of her voice gave away the fact that she was not only uncomfortable being on stage but was uncertain about how her paper would be received. She had carefully practiced her talk and so was able to articulate her points with a steady voice and only minor stumbles. A few minutes into her talk, however, she began wringing her hands. She did this unconsciously in between other nervous hand gestures: Wring, wring….wave at screen….wring, wring….push back hair…wring, wring….straighten blouse….wring, wring…. The audience for the most part did not "see" the hand-wringing and other fidgety gestures but sensed that Samantha was nervous and uncertain. A few people squirmed in their seats and looked at their watches, hoping it would soon be over.</i><br />
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I attended a conference a week ago and saw all the usual mistakes that presenters make, some of which I've talked about before <a href="http://womeninwetlands.blogspot.com/2013/07/presentation-myths-i-need-laser-pointer.html" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="http://womeninwetlands.blogspot.com/2013/04/myths-about-giving-presentations-never.html" target="_blank">here</a>, and <a href="http://womeninwetlands.blogspot.com/2013/08/presentation-myths-tell-joke-to-lighten.html" target="_blank">here</a>. One issue that I've not addressed is what do you do with your hands while presenting? As my fictional example above indicates, your hand gestures can totally undermine an otherwise good speech and make the audience wish they had gone to that other talk in a competing session. I've heard people suggest clasping your hands or the podium to avoid fidgeting (the myth), but that prevents natural hand gestures, which can help you appear calm and confident.<br />
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Hand-wringing is a gesture that people engage in because it is a self-soothing behavior. Other people rock in place or jingle the change in their pockets (although I've not seen this one in years). If you tend to be a hand-wringer, then one easy solution is to hold something (the remote, for example) in one hand, which makes it more difficult to rub your hands together. However, this won't work if you fidget with whatever you are holding—another bad habit to avoid.<br />
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I know it's difficult to think about your hands and what you are doing with them while giving a talk, but paying attention to how and when you gesture can pay off. Most experts advise varying your gestures and then letting your arms fall to your sides (avoid smacking them, however). Here are a few more dos and don'ts:<br />
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1. Gesture with both hands, together and alternately, in a natural rhythm.<br />
2. Vary how "broad" your gestures are, but don't overdo the arm-waving.<br />
3. Avoid fidgeting with pens, laser-pointers, paper, phones, the remote, or other objects.<br />
4. Don't touch your face, hair, or other body parts (!).<br />
5. Don't cross your arms over your chest, clasp your hands in a "fig-leaf" posture, or keep your hands in your pockets.<br />
6. Don't flap your hands unnecessarily; remain aware of why you are gesturing.<br />
7. Practice gesturing in front of a mirror, particularly how it looks and feels to drop your hands at the end of a gesture.<br />
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Finally, here's a good video that shows how to manage your gestures when speaking:
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A colleague recently mentioned that her department is considering whether to require graduate students to have at least one paper from their dissertation or thesis research published in a peer-reviewed journal in order to receive their degree.<br />
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This is not a new idea. Such a requirement has been implemented or is being considered in a number of graduate programs in the US and elsewhere. In some cases, the requirement is different depending on the degree. Here are a couple of examples found on university websites:<br />
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"<span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">Graduates from the M.S. and Ph.D. programs are required to publish in the archival literature of their research fields. The requirement is as follows:</span><br />
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 18px;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; vertical-align: baseline;">Graduation with the M.S. degree requires 1 publication in submission to a journal or conference by the time of the thesis defense.</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; vertical-align: baseline;">Graduation with the Ph.D. degree requires 1 accepted journal publication and 1 submitted journal publication (or a 2nd paper) by the time of the dissertation defense."</li>
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<span style="color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica Neue, HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">"</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;">The process of bearing first author responsibility during the entire publication process from submission, through reviews and resubmission, and on to final acceptance, provides unique and valuable professional training.</span></div>
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To ensure that all …..students have this experience, as a requirement for graduation, each ….student must have at least one first author, peer reviewed journal article published, in press, or accepted."</div>
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As you might imagine, there is quite a bit of disagreement and debate underway about such publication requirements. One of the strongest arguments against the publication requirement is that the student has no control over the publication process and is therefore unfair. On the other side of the debate is the argument that navigating the peer-review process is a fair test of an essential skill (ability to publish in scholarly journals) and, moreover, will ensure the student graduates with at least one peer-reviewed publication. <a href="http://www.katiephd.com/publish-or-perish%E2%80%A6or-at-least-forfeit-your-phd/" target="_blank">Here is a blog post</a> that summarizes views on both sides of the debate, mostly from the student's perspective.<br />
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My view is that this is not an outrageous requirement and something any graduate student should be capable of achieving. It just requires some additional planning and preparation. I base my opinion partly on my own experience as a student. When I submitted my dissertation, one of the chapters had already been published in a peer-reviewed journal and four more were almost ready to submit (and were in better shape than most manuscripts I review today); these were submitted for publication soon after I graduated. I was also co-author on several other papers that were published or submitted during this period (I was working on several additional projects not related to my dissertation).<br />
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Was it difficult to get one paper published before graduation? No. I began writing that paper as soon as I had the data in hand; it was based on a preliminary set of experiments and an exploratory field survey that turned out sufficiently well to warrant publication on its own. My plan was to have it accepted by the time I defended. My thinking at the time was that my committee would have a difficult time failing me if I had a publication in hand—in the event I performed poorly during my defense. I also figured I would have an easier time defending my work if it had already passed peer review at a good journal (it worked; I had no questions about that chapter). I gave myself enough lead time to resubmit in case the first journal rejected the paper or required substantial revisions or additional analyses. As it turned out, that paper was accepted with minor revision on the first go-around.<br />
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Would I have done anything differently had there been a publication requirement? Possibly. I might have readied a second paper for publication to increase my chances of getting at least one accepted before graduation. I would have designed several short-term experiments that could be written up before my long-term experiments were done. I also would have started writing much earlier than I did. If I were to do it again, I would begin writing as soon as I started each experiment--sketching out the introduction and writing at least the methods and then results as they came in. No one ever advised me to do this, but I wish they had.<br />
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Do I think a publication requirement is unfair to students because they have no control over the review and publishing process? Not really. I don't agree that a student (or any author, for that matter) has no control over whether their paper gets published. While it's true an author has no control over who reviews their paper, they have quite a lot of control over how their paper fairs in the review process (see list below).<br />
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What if your department has a publication requirement? Here are ten ways that a student author can exert some control over the process and increase the chances of getting a paper published by a deadline:<br />
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<b>1. Get Your Ducks in a Row.</b> Plan ahead to ensure plenty of time to deal with co-author foot dragging, toxic reviewers, extensive revisions, or requirements for additional analyses. Set specific deadlines to have a first draft done, a submission date, etc. Based on those dates, plan the details of your writing project. Go over this plan with your advisor and any other authors and make sure the timing works with their schedules.<br />
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<b>2. Get a Statistical Review.</b> Get input or advice from a statistician to ensure that the experimental design and statistical analyses are solid and that the statistical methods are written properly. If there are reviewer criticisms related to the statistics, this same person can to help counter those criticisms, if unfounded, or help you redo the analyses, if needed.<br />
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<b>3. Get Peer Reviews. </b>Prior to journal submission, have your manuscript read by committee members or anyone who has a lot of publishing experience to identify potential flaws in logic or writing. Follow their advice, unless there is a good reason not to. Pay particular attention to any problem mentioned by more than one person.<br />
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<b>4. Get an Editorial Review. </b>Consider hiring a professional editor (or ask your advisor to) to go over your manuscript, especially if you are a non-native speaker.<br />
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<b>5. Select the Right Journal. </b>Carefully select an appropriate journal for your work or get advice from the committee or other professors if you are not sure. Do your homework; don't just select a journal at random or because your advisor publishes there. Match the quality/novelty of your paper with the journal and its acceptance rate. Scrutinize recent papers in your target journal and try to match their writing style, length, and organization. Avoid journals with long or inconsistent review times.<br />
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<b>6. Follow Author Instructions.</b> Follow the journal formatting and submission instructions to the letter. This includes not only the narrative structure and bibliography, but also figures and tables. Some journals will automatically reject a paper that does not conform.<br />
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<b>7. Write a Good Cover Letter.</b> Submit a carefully written cover letter explaining why your work is important and why it's appropriate for that journal (don't, however, rehash all your paper's findings).<br />
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<b>8. Suggest Reviewers. </b>Provide a list of appropriate reviewers and any people with a conflict of interest (ask your advisor for suggestions if you are unsure).<br />
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<b>9. Be Proactive But Professional. </b>Contact the journal if you do not hear anything in a reasonable period of time and ask when you can expect a decision. If the paper is accepted with revision (minor or major), don't delay. Quickly make those revisions and provide a point-by-point reconciliation for the editor to show that you've made the suggested changes; if you disagree with something, explain fully why you think the change is not needed. Be professional in your response and thank the reviewers for their input, especially if the final acceptance hinges on a second round of reviews.<br />
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<b>10. Have a Backup Plan.</b> Be prepared for rejection and don't panic if it happens. Have a second journal pre-selected in case the first one rejects your paper and quickly turn it around (don't waste time fuming or whining to your office mates). Take the first reviewers' comments into account when revising for resubmission or you may see those criticisms again. If possible, have a second paper in the works to double your chances of publishing by your deadline.<br />
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These suggestions won't guarantee your paper gets accepted by your defense deadline but will help you stay on track and avoid some of the reasons papers get rejected.<br />
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<br />DrDoyennehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01923421604660796579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1817425618078186784.post-76933444271723891812014-01-10T16:34:00.001-06:002014-01-10T16:34:54.424-06:00A Slight Case of Sexual Harassment<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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What would you do if someone made an inappropriate remark (of a sexual nature) to you—for example, during a professional meet-up to discuss something that might help advance your career? What if that someone is a very influential person in your field? What if they persist even after you express dismay and discomfort with their behavior? <br />
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This is what one woman did: She posted a description of the incident online and asked others who may have experienced something similar to contact her.<br />
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That description is not one of my hypothetical situations but a real one involving a well-known science blogger, Bora Zivkovic (<a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/" target="_blank">A Blog Around The Clock</a>), who resigned as blog editor for Scientific American after <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/17/bora-zivkovic-sexual-harassment_n_4117277.html" target="_blank">being accused of and admitting to sexual harassment</a>. This event stirred up a firestorm in the blogosphere back in October (I started this post then, but got sidetracked). Anyway, in case you missed it, here's a recap: Zivkovic's victim (Monica Byrne) described what happened in a <a href="http://monicacatherine.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/this-happened/" target="_blank">detailed blog post here</a> (9 October 2012); initially, she did not identify her harasser by name but only that he was a "prominent science editor and blogger". Her post has since been amended to name him. Another female victim, upon hearing about the reaction of disbelief and anger from some bloggers about the incident, <a href="https://medium.com/ladybits-on-medium/857e2f71059a" target="_blank">posted her own story</a> about an encounter with Zivkovic. Then <a href="https://medium.com/the-power-of-harassment/3e809dfadd77" target="_blank">yet another woman</a> detailed her interactions with Zivkovic extending over several years in a blog post, along with a series of emails (they do come back to haunt you) she received from him. Others chimed in on various blogs with reactions to both the revelation of the harassment itself as well as to how it was revealed. A <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/how-sexual-harassment-changed-the-way-i-work-1.14293" target="_blank">more recent description</a> by another victim, Kathleen Raven, was published in December by Nature (World View). <br />
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I first read about this event in an editorial in <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/end-harassment-1.13991" target="_blank">Nature News and Comment</a> (22 October 2013). The gist of the editorial was that "we have not adequately addressed the problem of harassment, perhaps because it is difficult to quantify". The editorial describes such harassers in the scientific community as "Dr Inappropriate", someone who makes inappropriate sexual remarks or has wandering hands. Many of us (in science) have either observed Dr Inappropriate in action or been his victim. It may be the professor who has a reputation of making comments of a sexual nature to female students or colleagues. Or it may be a lab director who gives new meaning to the phrase "a hands-on kind of supervisor". <br />
<br />
Those who have never been on the receiving end of sexual (or other) harassment sometimes have difficulty understanding what all the fuss is about ("The guy's a loser; just ignore him"; "He's just teasing; don't get your shorts in a twist."). If you read the encounters in the links given above, you saw that some of these incidents were subtle and downright difficult to describe in concrete terms. So it's not surprising that the reaction might be to think that the victim is being overly sensitive. The picture gets even murkier when the harasser is generally well-liked and has a lot of good qualities (as was apparently the case with Zivkovic).<br />
<br />
What bystanders often fail to grasp, however, is the power dynamic that is at play here. If someone who has no power over you or your career makes an inappropriate remark to you, it is easy to ignore them or to challenge their behavior. This is how most people view such situations—from their bystander viewpoint, not the victim's. However, if the harasser is your superior or otherwise has the power to help or hinder your career, then you quickly find yourself between a rock and a hard place. Speaking up, even only to express discomfort with a superior's behavior, can have serious professional repercussions. If you are just starting out, the wrong move can end your career before it even gets off the ground.<br />
<br />
The women mentioned above were vulnerable because their harasser was someone with the power to help them in their careers. Otherwise, they might never have agreed to meet him/interact with him. In hind-sight, they probably realized that they should have left/broken off the relationship as soon as things began getting weird. They did not, however, probably because of a combination of things in addition to wanting his support: they likely did not want to be rude, hoped that the encounter would get back on a professional track, wondered if they were imagining things, etc. Some women in particular are vulnerable in such situations because they don't want to offend anyone, even someone who has put them into an uncomfortable position. Young people who are taught to respect their superiors are also reluctant to call out someone like this. Harassers (<a href="http://womeninwetlands.blogspot.com/2012/06/how-to-spot-con-artist-part-1.html" target="_blank">like con artists</a>) rely on other people's reluctance to offend (and on bystanders' reluctance to intervene).<br />
<br />
When I was in my twenties, I encountered sexual harassment much worse than what Zivkovic did, but I was afraid to confront my harasser or report it. That changed after I became more experienced and more confident that I would be taken seriously. If someone made me feel uncomfortable, and I could not redirect the conversation/encounter, I would just leave. I didn't make excuses; I just got out. If I could not avoid the person, I took steps to document their actions.<br />
<br />
Sometimes, all it takes to stop all but the most determined harasser is to let them know that you've initiated documentation of their behavior. I've short-circuited harassment simply by sending an email saying something along the lines of, "I was very uncomfortable with our conversation this morning and the comments 'x, y, and z' you made during our meeting [date/time] or "I would like to summarize my reaction to our conversation on [date/time]....If I've misunderstood, then please explain what you meant by x, y, and z." Often, such an email will prompt an immediate apology or an attempt to explain what they "really meant".<br />
<br />
Even if the harasser ignores such an email and does not respond in writing, the email will create a dated record, which establishes (1) a timeline, (2) what happened or was said (from the victim's viewpoint), (3) that the behavior was unwelcome, and (4) that it is negatively impacting the work environment. Establishing that the behavior is unwelcome is a critical element in making a case for sexual harassment, should that be necessary. Note: it's important to forward such email documentation to yourself at a private email address or print out copies to keep on file at home, not in your office. Such documents can be critical in any subsequent adverse actions or litigation.<br />
<br />
Back to the Zivkovic scandal. I think everyone can learn something from this unfortunate event. It seems that these women and perhaps a lot of young women like them (and men) are not certain what constitutes sexual harassment. By not being aware of what harassment looks like (or thinking that it no longer occurs), makes people vulnerable to sexual predators. For women in science, an early negative experience or repeated experiences can lead to their departure for another line of work.<br />
<br />
Those clueless people who engage in such unwelcome behavior risk their jobs and careers—possibly their families. Maybe they'll get away with it for a while or maybe they'll end up like Zivkovic. Employers who fail to deal with harassers risk lawsuits, loss of good employees, tarnished reputations— and so on.<br />
<br />
I'm not sure what can be done to make things change, but being aware of the problem is a start.DrDoyennehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01923421604660796579noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1817425618078186784.post-31652641883890445042013-12-18T16:35:00.000-06:002013-12-18T16:35:45.298-06:00It Is Important To Note That…And Other Unnecessary Phrases<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwkRcZvfL88Sal53UqVOU_4E_X2Rx5yIGc496NnEffWhjMqXvI7_z7dZ1ZRLUSjEkGOLRqPzsnV8SgGj4nqUJopzRhOi1i4dOJXKr8pzo4qgU80tW2QtFH9o73casEQvd5tsp6AWq8f0eD/s1600/writing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwkRcZvfL88Sal53UqVOU_4E_X2Rx5yIGc496NnEffWhjMqXvI7_z7dZ1ZRLUSjEkGOLRqPzsnV8SgGj4nqUJopzRhOi1i4dOJXKr8pzo4qgU80tW2QtFH9o73casEQvd5tsp6AWq8f0eD/s320/writing.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
I recently received a manuscript that was overly wordy. Throughout the paper, the author had sprinkled completely unnecessary phrases or phrases that could be expressed with a single word. For example, here is a list of phrases that can be replaced with the word "because":<br />
<br />
<i>-due to the fact that</i><br />
<i>-owing to the fact that</i><br />
<i>-in view of the fact that</i><br />
<i>-the reason why is tha</i>t<br />
<br />
This particular manuscript was unusually encumbered with these and other annoying phrases (<i>it is important to note that, it is of interest to the reader that, it is indeed of significance that</i>). I pointed out a few of these overblown phrases and explained why the author might want to eliminate them (and perhaps be on the alert for them in future writings). Inexperienced writers often are unaware that wordiness is not a virtue. They repeat the important-sounding phrases they've read in other papers. Unfortunately, they add nothing to the paper, except length. In other cases, I suspect that it is simple laziness. Lazy writers know better but don't make the effort to search out and remove extraneous words—perhaps expecting others (co-authors, reviewers, editors) to do it for them. For some, flowery writing is a habit; they see nothing wrong with their pet phrases.<br />
<br />
Sometimes I slip and use a wordy phrase when writing a first draft; however, I usually catch them during revision. Here are a few ways to help purge your writing of wordiness:<br />
<br />
1. Make at least one thorough reading of a manuscript to look specifically for such phrases (as well as convoluted wording that could be stated more simply).<br />
<br />
2. Some of these phrases are innocuous and easily overlooked. It takes a fresh eye to spot them. Putting the draft aside for a few days or weeks can give you some distance and make it easier to root out those obnoxious phrases.<br />
<br />
3. If you have a habit of using certain phrases, one easy solution is to do a word search for them.<br />
<br />
4. Read your manuscript aloud; problematic phrases and awkward sentences become more obvious.<br />
<br />
5. How do you determine if a phrase is unnecessary? See if the sentence or paragraph is understandable without it (or with a one-word substitute).<br />
<br />
Want more? Here's a list of <a href="http://webwriterspotlight.com/stanley-fish-how-to-write-a-sentence-book-gems" target="_blank">30 obnoxious phrases</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />DrDoyennehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01923421604660796579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1817425618078186784.post-20871504657218661362013-12-05T10:58:00.000-06:002013-12-05T10:58:15.431-06:00Bizarre, Sexist Advert for Scientific EquipmentIn the "what were they thinking?" category: <a href="http://ika.com/owa/ika/catalog.video?iProduct=dispersers">http://ika.com/owa/ika/catalog.video?iProduct=dispersers</a><br />
Be sure to watch until 1:13 min.DrDoyennehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01923421604660796579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1817425618078186784.post-68666806540604040992013-10-25T12:43:00.001-05:002013-10-25T12:43:10.919-05:00Where's The Best Place To Be A Woman?The <a href="http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2013/" target="_blank">Global Gender Gap Report (2013)</a> is out if you want to check. Or there is a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-24650912" target="_blank">nice interactive graphic</a> on the BBC World News site that summarizes the gender gap in five categories (health, economics, politics, education, and overall). You can scroll over countries to see the names and individual ranking.<br />
<br />
The gender gap (overall average) is narrowest in the following ranked countries:<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="set1 low3">
<span class="country">1. Iceland </span><br />
<span class="country">2. Finland</span><br />
<span class="country">3. Norway</span><br />
<span class="country">4. Sweden</span><br />
<span class="country">5. Philippines</span><br />
</div>
<div class="set2 high3">
<span class="country">6. Ireland</span><br />
<span class="country">7. New Zealand</span><br />
<span class="country">8. Denmark</span><br />
<span class="country">9. Switzerland</span><br />
<span class="country">10. Nicaragua</span><br />
<span class="country"><br /></span>
<span class="country">The UK, Canada, and the U.S. ranked 18th, 20th, and 23rd, respectively. Nordic countries made a near clean sweep of the top five. However, I don't think I'll be moving; just can't take the light deficit and cold.</span><br />
<span class="country"><br /></span>
<span class="country">Thanks to Chris S. for the link.</span></div>
DrDoyennehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01923421604660796579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1817425618078186784.post-34079048464377134972013-10-04T17:24:00.000-05:002013-10-04T17:25:18.186-05:00Dashed and Confused<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgabm1-WIPMoFbH85_QywhuT5iJrRMJXk_ecd6NZiGIRjWCy7RAmF-wjClu4I4KuWEZV9568d7J3RFyswGU2Yx_c6ZSQ80NvOy_xmADVnOiFSLAkpnxdL6juunSlKJZMwYdr9WD3DImuTEC/s1600/analretentive.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgabm1-WIPMoFbH85_QywhuT5iJrRMJXk_ecd6NZiGIRjWCy7RAmF-wjClu4I4KuWEZV9568d7J3RFyswGU2Yx_c6ZSQ80NvOy_xmADVnOiFSLAkpnxdL6juunSlKJZMwYdr9WD3DImuTEC/s640/analretentive.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Confused about how to use hyphens, dashes (en, em), and minus signs?<br />
<br />
I receive lots of manuscripts to review and often see that the author has no clue about when to use a hyphen or a dash (or even that there is a difference). In a few cases, they may realize that the hyphen (-) is too short to use in a place where the en (–) or em (—) dash is required and attempt to recreate it by using two hyphens (--).<br />
<br />
There are lots of arcane rules for using these symbols in particular situations, but here's a brief overview that generally holds for most uses.<br />
<br />
<b>Hyphen</b> (-): use to join words (e.g., in a compound modifier), with certain prefixes, or to separate syllables of a word (e.g, in a line break). Sea-level rise, how-to book, un-American, science com-<br />
munication. Note that compound phrases require a hyphen only when they precede the noun they modify—not when they follow: "The well-known researcher..." vs. "The researcher is well known."<br />
<br />
The hyphen key is located on the keyboard between the 0 and = keys.<br />
<br />
<b>Minus sign</b> (−): use to indicate a mathematical operation (subtraction). The minus symbol is longer than a hyphen and similar in length and height to the plus and equals sign symbols.<br />
<br />
In word processing programs, you can find the minus sign in the symbol browser.<br />
<br />
<b>En dash</b> (–): use to indicate a range of values or in certain word combinations. 5–10 meters, pp. 51–65, Houston–Dallas route, Comet Hale–Bopp.<br />
<br />
The en dash is created on a Mac by holding down the option key and pressing the hyphen key. On a PC, you can can create it by holding down the ALT key and typing 0150 on the numeric keyboard. Also found in the symbol library in MS Word.<br />
<br />
<b>Em dash</b> (—): use to set off or emphasize a strong break in thought in a sentence. "We all piled into the car—not stopping to worry about our wet clothes—and drove straight back to the city." It's also acceptable to use the en dash in this case, but with spaces: "We all piled into the car – not stopping to worry about our wet clothes – and drove straight back to the city."<br />
<br />
The em dash is created on a Mac using shift-option while pressing the hyphen key. On a PC, you can get it by holding down ALT and typing 0151 on a numeric keypad. You can also find it in the symbol library.<br />
<br />
For more detailed guidance in the use of dashes and hyphens (and other interesting writing tips), see <a href="http://www.copywritingtipsguide.com/copywriting-guide-hyphen-vs-dash/" target="_blank">this post</a> at The Belligerent Copywriters' Guide.<br />
<br />
<br />DrDoyennehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01923421604660796579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1817425618078186784.post-28966574735136012412013-09-23T11:56:00.000-05:002013-09-23T11:56:00.724-05:00How To Write A Boring Scientific Paper<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSoMSfU3CE6MbhpLH-l5O6kRTEbvu23Qt7_SqjlY8eBih2rzSntlTjgLZ8uVPbaSBDfNw6GcMGdDuMy_Szprfcom-JUkL2I3NfXdOrByLzq1o7nLUymYm3WHWpwSu6VW3lLkEUalNZlMoa/s1600/Hell_drdoyenne.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSoMSfU3CE6MbhpLH-l5O6kRTEbvu23Qt7_SqjlY8eBih2rzSntlTjgLZ8uVPbaSBDfNw6GcMGdDuMy_Szprfcom-JUkL2I3NfXdOrByLzq1o7nLUymYm3WHWpwSu6VW3lLkEUalNZlMoa/s320/Hell_drdoyenne.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Someone sent me a link recently to a 2007 paper entitled, <i>"How to Write Consistently Boring Literature"</i>, by Kaj Sand-Jensen (Univ. of Copenhagen). I met the author many years ago and can quite imagine him writing such a tongue-in-cheek article.<br />
<br />
The first line of the abstract reveals his motivation for writing it: <i>"Although scientists typically insist that their research is very exciting and adventurous when they talk to laymen and prospective students, the allure of this enthusiasm is too often lost in the predictable, stilted structure and language of their scientific publications."</i><br />
<br />
The paper is divided into four sections:<br />
<br />
How to turn a gifted writer into a boring scientist<br />
Why are scientific publications boring?<br />
Ten recommendations for boring scientific writing<br />
Alternative writing style and variable outlets<br />
<br />
The first two sections are quite short and serve to introduce the main content in the third section. Here are the ten recommendations guaranteed to make your writing dull, incomprehensible, and impersonal:<br />
<br />
1. Avoid focus.<br />
2. Avoid originality and personality.<br />
3. Write l o n g contributions.<br />
4. Remove most implications and all speculations.<br />
5. Leave out illustrations, particularly good ones.<br />
6. Omit necessary steps of reasoning.<br />
7. Use many abbreviations and technical terms.<br />
8. Suppress humor and flowery language.<br />
9. Degrade species and biology to statistical elements.<br />
10. Quote numerous papers for self-evident statements.<br />
<br />
I find most of these suggestions to be quite useful if your goal is to write a boring paper. Not so sure about the "flowery language". I find that boring writers are adept at producing ornate and excessively verbose narratives. Perhaps what is meant is "colorful", "entertaining", or "provocative"?<br />
<br />
There are some additional recommendations I might add:<br />
<br />
11. Include all data collected, no matter how irrelevant, and describe it in excruciating detail.<br />
12. At the beginning, fail to articulate your questions, objectives, or hypotheses.<br />
13. At the end, fail to address the questions, objectives, or hypotheses posed at the beginning.<br />
<br />
The latter two are essential if your goal is to be incomprehensible.<br />
<br />
In the final section, the author suggests some alternative outlets for scientists who wish to have more freedom in their writing styles: books and essays. To those suggestions, I might add: blogs.<br />
<br />
Although the article is humorous, it has a serious message, articulated in the last line: <i>"In an atmosphere of increasing competition among educations and scientific disciplines, I argue here that we desperately need more accessible and readable scientific contributions to attract bright new scientists and produce integrated understanding."</i><br />
<br />
If you would like a good laugh (and also learn something about how to avoid being so boring in your scientific writing), you might take a look at this paper. Here's a <a href="http://www.philippeweil.com/links/BoringWriting.pdf" target="_blank">link</a> to it.<br />
<br />
In the next post, I will talk about a new app and book (by Randy Olson) for communication-challenged scientists.<br />
<br />
<br />
Image Credit: photograph by DrDoyenne; quote from the paper reviewed in this post.<br />
<div>
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DrDoyennehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01923421604660796579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1817425618078186784.post-75070230497578327272013-09-06T10:35:00.000-05:002013-09-06T10:35:03.553-05:00How to Read a Scientific Paper<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBfN90_YDoz3jRCvJwmIbmdYwGYr-8aUvOOaGsWogEXgFpGbk47RmgLEcquo4duMGTg9OLxCodkD4ZRohobYCCCBpZAJhTXuGYFJBK2p3bf_kTBWei16aPfhYLDg-GeGaA_LHZTPBJXhFv/s1600/howtoread_drdoyenne.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBfN90_YDoz3jRCvJwmIbmdYwGYr-8aUvOOaGsWogEXgFpGbk47RmgLEcquo4duMGTg9OLxCodkD4ZRohobYCCCBpZAJhTXuGYFJBK2p3bf_kTBWei16aPfhYLDg-GeGaA_LHZTPBJXhFv/s320/howtoread_drdoyenne.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
I remember the point in my graduate training when I realized that I was capable of reading and understanding scientific articles outside my field, even those that involved methods and terminology I was not familiar with. This was quite a revelation to me at the time because I was under the misapprehension that, once I completed my training, I would only be able to critically review papers in my own field or closely related fields.<br />
<br />
What changed my mind was a course I took (plant biochemistry) in which the professor assigned published articles on a variety of topics to us to read and discuss. Quite a few of the papers involved molecular and other techniques that were as mysterious to me as the process of flying might be to an elephant. Being a conscientious student, however, I endeavored to teach myself how to read and understand scientific papers about unfamiliar topics. To make a long story short, I developed a procedure not unlike the one recently posted by Jennifer Raff, a Research Fellow in Anthropology at the University of Texas (which I'll get to in a moment).<br />
<br />
With my method, I was able to effectively critique all the assigned papers and to enthusiastically participate in class discussions (we were graded on our class participation). I discovered that not only could I hold my own with the rest of the class (mostly biochemistry grad students who were more familiar with such articles), I was able to point out critical flaws in the studies that no one else saw. My strong background in statistics was particularly useful in poking holes in experimental designs (to my surprise, most of the assigned papers reported no statistics whatsoever, not even standard error bars). When the professor began calling on me for my assessment of a paper's experimental approach and whether the conclusions were supported by the data, I knew I would never wonder again whether I could understand any scientific paper and whether its findings were valid.<br />
<br />
If someone with scientific research training can feel inadequate when faced with an unfamiliar topic, imagine how non-scientists must feel–particularly science writers who are assigned the task of writing a newspaper or magazine article about a new discovery reported in a scientific journal. To help such folks, Jennifer Raff has written a nice blog post called "<a href="http://violentmetaphors.com/2013/08/25/how-to-read-and-understand-a-scientific-paper-2/" target="_blank">How to read and understand a scientific article: a guide for non-scientists</a>".<br />
<br />
Her post is not only a good guide for non-scientists, it is an excellent primer for science students and even scientific researchers wanting to improve their skills at reviewing papers.DrDoyennehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01923421604660796579noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1817425618078186784.post-40299431034049321122013-08-25T15:08:00.000-05:002013-08-25T15:08:32.362-05:00Presentation Myths: Tell a Joke to Lighten the Mood<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSYtH9Vd3OwaGgWSFXxe3Rs6Hee1fLm3rkH34Tl98V1w5DD94k0lqya4PQG9nBr6THoAdoviZEeJTL41WUstkxDbBAHITwfODmbv7DLyphUKhs2eKELVNhHnqLTpSYrh-MSaPdCCBk9ftr/s1600/joke_audience_drdoyenne.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSYtH9Vd3OwaGgWSFXxe3Rs6Hee1fLm3rkH34Tl98V1w5DD94k0lqya4PQG9nBr6THoAdoviZEeJTL41WUstkxDbBAHITwfODmbv7DLyphUKhs2eKELVNhHnqLTpSYrh-MSaPdCCBk9ftr/s320/joke_audience_drdoyenne.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
In this latest series of posts, I've been talking about myths surrounding public speaking, specifically focusing on the scientific talk. In this post, I thought I would tackle the idea that a speaker should tell a joke or a funny story during professional presentations to put the audience at ease. Is this a good idea or a disaster waiting to happen?<br />
<br />
There is nothing inherently wrong with being funny during a formal presentation, especially when the material being presented is deadly dull. God knows, the audience is likely desperate for something to break the monotony or seriousness of the meeting. The problem is that this is sometimes very difficult to pull off.<br />
<br />
Some speakers are naturally funny or have a knack for telling amusing stories. I know colleagues (and students) who could easily become successful stand-up comedians. They are not the problem. It's the rest of us scientists who are so serious and, let's face it, deadly dull. Of course, it's always possible to be so dull as to be hilarious, e.g., Ben Stein in the movie <i>Ferris Bueller's Day Off</i>:<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/dxPVyieptwA" width="640"></iframe><br />
<br />
By the way, that stint as an economics professor in this movie launched Stein's career in film (before that, he was a speechwriter for Presidents Nixon and Ford, among other things).<br />
<br />
But back to professional talks. The problem comes in when a speaker tells a joke or a funny story that really has no bearing on the speaker's topic. It almost always falls flat. Some even tell highly inappropriate jokes that worked on their beer-buddies (so everyone must like it, right?). The most recent, public example of of a joke-gone-wrong was the <a href="http://youtu.be/ZiI5bVurSo0" target="_blank">knock-knock joke</a> told by one of George Zimmerman's attorneys during the opening statements.<br />
<br />
The biggest sin is often not that the joke is inappropriate but that it isn't funny.<br />
<br />
Sometimes it's just the wrong audience. A memorable example occurred at a botanical conference and during a talk about gravitropism in plant roots (how plant roots grow in a downward direction). The speaker explained that he had figured out that the chemical signal guiding root growth was dependent in part upon a mucous coating on the root tip (that facilitated ion movement, I think). He had tried all sorts of media in an attempt to replicate this mucous material, but the only one that seemed to work was the "personal lubricant", K-Y jelly (interestingly, the main ingredient is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methyl_cellulose" target="_blank">methyl cellulose</a>). He then proceeded to describe his experience buying up large quantities of this product at his local Walgreens and the exchange he had with the checkout clerk. It was hilarious. However, no one laughed, except me, as I seem to recall. The audience was composed of mostly botanists (who are not known for their sense of humor). Upon further reflection, I suspected that this particular audience failed to find this story funny, not because they thought it was inappropriate but because they did not get the reference to K-Y jelly and what it is commonly used for. At least that's my working hypothesis. Perhaps some botanist readers would like to rebut?<br />
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The botany story might have gone over much better with another audience. But it was the high point of that meeting for me. In fact, it's been over twenty years since I heard that talk, and I still remember it (both the technical and the humorous aspects)....which relates to my previous post about <a href="http://womeninwetlands.blogspot.com/2013/08/presentation-myths-tell-good-story.html" target="_blank">telling a good story</a>.<br />
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My own experience with using humor in professional talks is mixed. Humor only seems to work for me when it is unplanned. All the times I planned to tell an amusing story or make a humorous aside, the audience did not laugh. However, when I have added something on the spur of the moment, even when I was being serious, I've gotten a big laugh.<br />
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For example, I was once giving a talk at a conference on restoration of tropical forests and was describing my field site. It was located in Florida adjacent to a golf course. I showed an aerial photo of the site and described how I and my students had to trek across the golf course to get to our study site and were sometimes stopped by the groundskeeper who thought we were illegal aliens (we were dressed in field clothes and carried garbage bags). I thought that would get a laugh. It didn't. Then I later mentioned, off-handedly, that my students, on their first excursion to this site, always expressed fear of snakes, alligators, spiders, or some similar beast. I told the audience that I tried to allay their fears by telling the student that the most dangerous creatures out there were senior citizens lobbing golf balls into the forest. I was serious...getting beaned by a golf ball was much more likely than encountering a dangerous animal. It was a spur-of-the-moment statement that got a tremendous laugh. Go figure.<br />
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I suppose the take-home message is that humor can be used in a professional talk but it takes good timing, the right audience, and perhaps some comedic talent (but not always) for a successful outcome. If you have an example (successful or not), please share. We scientists need a good laugh now and then.DrDoyennehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01923421604660796579noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1817425618078186784.post-9658945973742507892013-08-12T21:48:00.000-05:002013-08-12T21:48:48.832-05:00Presentation Myths: Tell a Good Story<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Most of us plan our scientific talks the same way we write our technical papers. We use the typical paper format of introduction/objectives, methods, results, and conclusions–in that order–to design our seminars and conference presentations. This approach is the one that is expected by a technical audience and that the presenter usually finds most logical and convenient, especially when designing a presentation based on a paper in preparation. We simply follow, in a linear fashion, the steps we took in conceiving and conducting the study.<br />
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Some would argue that a traditional format is the correct (and only acceptable) way to give a formal talk about scientific research.<i> Here are my objectives: 1, 2, 3; here are my methods: 1, 2, 3; here are my results: 1, 2, 3; here are my conclusions: 1, 2, 3. Any questions? </i>Anything else is unprofessional. I would like to play devil's advocate here for a moment and consider whether this viewpoint is totally justified and whether there is another approach that might work better–and that is to tell a story. This idea is not a new one. Many experts advise speakers that the best way to capture and hold an audience's attention is to tell a story. The idea of storytelling as a professional presentation device has become fairly widespread in business circles. Maybe even to the point of attaining myth status (hence, my title).<br />
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Audiences love stories–presumably even audiences composed of scientists. We enjoy a good story just as much as regular folks. But should we use a story to present scientific information? What kind of story are we talking about? Let's explore the idea a bit.<br />
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Some of you may have heard of Nancy Duarte, the guru of presentations. If not, you might want to check out her books, <a href="http://www.duarte.com/book/slideology/" target="_blank">Slide:ology</a> and <a href="http://www.duarte.com/book/resonate/" target="_blank">Resonate</a>. Anyway, she suggests that there are three things you must do to ensure a successful presentation: 1) keep the audience in mind, 2) understand your role as the presenter, and 3) tell a good story. Her point is that to really connect with an audience, a speaker needs to tell a compelling story...one that appeals to that particular audience and that ensures all audience members hear and understand the message. A good story helps a speaker connect with the audience and helps the audience understand the content of the presentation.<br />
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In a scientific presentation, we are presenting facts and figures, for the most part. I'm sure there are scientists out there who want to present only the facts and sneer at the suggestion that those facts might be presented in the form of a story or in a way that helps the audience follow the material being presented. You've probably heard such speakers. They jump right into their talk without providing any background or stopping to explain complex concepts or terminology; they assume that the audience understands why their research is important. If someone in the audience is not up to speed, then too bad. This example sits at one extreme along a continuum in the connection between speaker and audience. At the other extreme is the situation in which the speaker has made not only an intellectual connection with the audience, but an emotional one as well.<br />
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This is where storytelling comes in. Its purpose is to enhance the connection between speaker and audience. A story will elicit some type of emotional reaction: surprise, intrigue, laughter, curiosity, excitement. But does a more compelling, humorous, or interesting storyline really help make our information more appealing, understandable, or memorable for an audience?<br />
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I've been pondering this question and how to go about telling a good story in a scientific presentation for some time. For example, is it possible to make slight changes in the traditional format of scientific presentations so that the speaker addresses all three of Duarte's suggestions? The idea is to capture the audience's attention right from the beginning and make them pay attention through to the end. I don't think it requires much of a change in the traditional format to turn what could be a boring presentation into one that makes the audience sit up and pay attention. There are a few ways to do this. Some presenters tell a personal story, e.g., how they became interested in their topic or what their motivation was. Other speakers use humor, either by delivering a "tongue-in-cheek" talk or by telling an opening joke or amusing story (that relates to the topic; just telling a random joke usually falls flat).<br />
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Another approach is to spark the audience's curiosity by posing the work in the form of a broader question or a deeper mystery. You might even combine the <i>mystery</i> and <i>personal story</i> approaches by starting your presentation this way: "I was at my field site (or in the lab), finishing up measurements, and made an interesting observation.....I wondered what was going on....so I decided to conduct a little side-experiment....the results of that experiment turned out to be the most important discovery of my career."<br />
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That is telling a story....and one that will get the immediate attention of everyone in the room. They will want to hear how the story turns out.<br />
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If your research result is not so career-changing, you might say, "That experiment led to a most surprising conclusion about [insert research topic]." Or you might say, "That experiment led to the most interesting aspect of my dissertation research." Then you can proceed with the typical format of introduction, methods, results, and conclusions to describe your study. At the end, you would return to your "story" and perhaps explain how this has led you into an exciting new area of research or to new research collaborations. Variations on this theme might be: ...that experiment opened up a whole new area of research for me....that experiment led me to question my whole approach to [insert science topic]....that experiment made me question the well-known theory of [insert theory]...that experiment showed me how I had gone wrong in previous attempts....etc.<br />
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Most audiences will find such personal comments not only acceptable but will remember your talk because you injected some emotion into it (in contrast with all the dry, passionless talks they will attend at that conference).<br />
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You may have heard that there are only 7 (or 20 or 36, depending on the source) basic plots in storytelling. Here is a list of 20 (from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/20-Master-Plots-Build-Them/dp/1599635372" target="_blank">20 Master Plots by Ronald Tobias</a>) that might be fun to ponder as a possible storyline for a scientific presentation (note: I'm not necessarily recommending these; this is just a mental exercise to get us thinking about story lines):<br />
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1) Quest<br />
2) Adventure<br />
3) Pursuit<br />
4) Rescue<br />
5) Escape<br />
6) Revenge<br />
7) The Riddle<br />
8) Rivalry<br />
9) Underdog<br />
10) Temptation<br />
11) Metamorphosis<br />
12) Transformation<br />
13) Maturation<br />
14) Love<br />
15) Forbidden Love<br />
16) Sacrifice<br />
17) Discovery<br />
18) Wretched Excess<br />
19) Ascension<br />
20) Descension<br />
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The example I gave above might fall into the Riddle, Metamorphosis, Transformation, or Discovery type of plot. Some of these plots seem tailor-made for science (e.g., Rivalry, Sacrifice), whereas others may be inappropriate or inadvisable to use (e.g., Forbidden Love (although this might work for research on reproduction!)).<br />
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If you are a student, you might begin your talk by saying that you knew next to nothing about your topic or had a preconceived notion about it....then you conducted your research....and ultimately learned x, y, and z. This approach uses the "Maturation" story plot. If your research involved traveling to Antarctica or to a deep sea vent, then you might be able to use the Adventure plot and interject some interesting side notes about your experiences or the difficulties in acquiring your data. I know that such aspects appeal to scientific audiences because in my own presentations, I often get unexpected comments about the data that I've collected worldwide. The most common comment I get is not about how impressive my dataset (and scope of inference) is, but instead something along the lines of, "Wow, I'm impressed with all the exotic places you've traveled to and worked in." I'm always taken aback by such comments, but it tells me something about what people find interesting and memorable about my work (hopefully, they also find my results interesting).<br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Not everyone recommends this <i>personal story</i> approach, however, because it puts the speaker at the center of attention instead of the topic of the talk. As Duarte advises, <i>"</i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;"><i>So many people feel like they’re the central figure — kind of like the hero of the story — because they’re the one talking the most. But in reality, your role is that of a mentor — you should be giving the audience a magical gift or a special tool, or helping them get unstuck in some way."</i> </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;"> I agree. In any professional presentation, the topic should be center stage–although it is possible to use a personal story that compliments or enhances the science story, as the examples above illustrate. </span></span><br />
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I think a much better (and safer) approach is to tell a story about the science. So how do you tell a story about your research using the science topic as the basis of the plot?<br />
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You might begin by considering your research question or hypothesis and then design your story around it. You likely conducted an experiment (or a series of experiments) to test some hypothesis. Try to think of a popular analogy that relates to your hypothesis and use it to introduce your talk. Let me give you an example...one that I saw someone use in a conference presentation. The topic was ecosystem restoration, and the title was something along the lines of "Field of Dreams: If You Build It, Will They Come?" The talk opened with a picture of a baseball field, and the speaker briefly referred to the movie, <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097351/" target="_blank">Field of Dreams</a></i>, and then described how it related to her question about ecosystem restoration: whether recreating the physical landscape or framework of a particular habitat would naturally lead to colonization by plants and animals typical of that habitat and eventually to restoration of key ecosystem functions. Her research tested this idea. She used the baseball analogy to put a clear image in the audience's mind....one that most movie-goers could immediately relate to. The speaker then used a baseball diamond (and the bases) as a framework to make various points throughout the talk. It was very effective from several standpoints. First, the baseball analogy captured the audience's attention and told them that this was not going to be a typical talk....that the presenter had gone to extra effort to help the audience understand her topic (meeting Duarte's first point about keeping the audience in mind). Second, the baseball analogy provided a framework for the talk and put the speaker into the role of a guide or mentor who helped the audience understand the overall concept of her research (meeting Duarte's second point about the role of the speaker). And third, the baseball analogy created an effective storyline (meeting Duarte's third point about telling a good story).<br />
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Another effective way to tell a good science story is simply to describe how the research relates to humans. For example, imagine that you conduct research on how to model sea-level rise. Start off by explaining how sea-level rise will impact human communities living along the world's shorelines and how your research will lead to more accurate identification of the most flood-vulnerable areas. That's a story that causes an emotional reaction or emotional connection between the audience and your topic–and only takes a few seconds to relate. Now, people in the audience will understand at a gut level why your research is important, even if they cannot follow all the technical details of your modeling work. Everyone should be able to use this <i>human-interest</i> approach to tell a story about their research. It just takes a bit of effort to make the connection for your audience. Don't assume they will know it; and even if they do, they will appreciate your pointing it out, especially if you tell it well.<br />
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You can also tell a story by putting your research into a historical perspective. Describe how previous discoveries or insights have led up to your question or hypothesis. The audience will then wonder how your story will turn out. Will your work add to that history? Will it overturn long-held dogma? Audiences always appreciate having things put into a historical perspective, even those who are intimately familiar with the topic (and especially those who contributed to that history).<br />
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Similar to the historical perspective approach, you can also present what is known and what is not known about your topic and then explain how your research attempts to fill that information gap. You can use facts and figures to support your story, but it will still be a story. How will it turn out? Will your data be sufficient to bridge the gap or will more work need to be done?<br />
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So does the advice about telling a good story extend to scientific presentations? Or is it just a myth? Well, think about which presentations you've heard that really stuck with you. Did they tell a good story?<br />
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<br />DrDoyennehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01923421604660796579noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1817425618078186784.post-68954338512260395712013-07-21T17:03:00.000-05:002013-07-21T17:03:10.494-05:00Presentation Myths: I Need a Laser Pointer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I've been periodically writing about presentation myths (see <a href="http://womeninwetlands.blogspot.com/2013/05/myths-about-giving-presentations.html" target="_blank">previous posts</a>), and today I thought I would tackle another one: the need for a laser pointer. Everyone seems to want to use one, even those speakers who clearly cannot hold the light point steadily enough for the audience to pick out what it is the presenter is trying to emphasize. I know a few colleagues whose hands are so unsteady that the laser light point literally jumps all over the screen and momentarily touches on every datapoint in view. Which one are we supposed to focus on?<br />
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Actually, the laser user I describe above is only one of several categories and subcategories. The category I call <i>Unsteady Hands</i> includes people who are nervous and are literally shaking from fear; people whose hands have a modest, involuntary tremor (either pathological or not); and those unfortunates who suffer from both. There is really not much these groups can do to eliminate the shaking. You would think that such people would say to themselves that this bit of technology just isn't working for them. But you'd be wrong. Instead, they resort to maneuvers such as holding the pointer with both hands or steadying the hand holding the pointer against the podium. This often doesn't work and draws attention to the fact that they can't manage with one hand.<br />
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Then there are the speakers who use the laser pointer as a reading aid by running the light along the text on the screen while they read the text to the audience. Let's call them the <i>Readers</i>. This group not only commits the sin of filling up their slides with a bunch of text, they add to the audience's suffering by painstakingly reading what the audience members are already perfectly capable of reading...AND they highlight the torture with their laser pointer.<br />
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Related to the <i>Readers</i> are the <i>Circlers</i>, who endlessly circle points on their slides while they are talking. Sometimes, they circle things for no good reason. I recall a colleague once commenting during a presentation that he didn't know why he was circling a particular point. Seriously? I imagine the answer is because this is a self-soothing behavior similar to the distracting habit of some speakers who jingle the change in their pockets or who rock back and forth. It's just a visual distracting behavior instead of aural.<br />
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The most dangerous are the <i>Wavers</i>, who wildly wave their laser light around the room like Obi Wan Kenobi, sometimes pointing at the ceiling, the walls, or directly into the audience's eyes. My husband is one of these. He's totally oblivious to the fact that he's doing it. He gets carried away with what he's talking about, excitedly points out some key piece of data on the screen with the laser point, then turns to the audience for their reaction....unfortunately while keeping his finger pressed on the laser button. Does he wonder why the audience is ducking?<br />
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I'm sure there are other types and variants, but these are the main ones that come to mind. The remote controllers that are used by a speaker to advance to the next slide are often outfitted with laser pointers, which only encourages these laser-challenged users. I say, get rid of them. Or at least invent one that automatically shuts the light off if the laser pointer is moved too erratically or for too long. Any inventors out there?<br />
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In the meantime, those of you who cannot hold the laser light point rock-steady should use another means to emphasize your point. For example, use animation to highlight things on your slides. An animated arrow or circle is an effective way to point out a key datapoint. Or animate in important numbers or text in a contrasting color. Don't get carried away, though, or my next post will be about overuse of animation. You should be designing your slides so that it is rarely necessary to point out a key piece of data or text. Important information or data should already be obvious without additional emphasis. If it's extraneous, it shouldn't be on the slide in the first place.<br />
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Stay tuned for more presentation myths....DrDoyennehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01923421604660796579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1817425618078186784.post-19746107603025658172013-07-18T12:45:00.001-05:002013-07-18T12:45:36.134-05:00It's a Jungle Out There<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This morning I cleaned out my inbox, deleting without opening, three invitations (to submit manuscripts) from journals I've never heard of. Such invitations have become a weekly occurrence. Even though I've set my spam filter to block emails from repeat offenders, I continue to get new ones.<br />
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Coincidentally, I received a link <a href="http://blogs.nature.com/soapboxscience/2013/07/17/predators-in-the-publishing-jungle?WT.mc_id=GPL_NatureBlogs" target="_blank">to a blog post about predatory publishers by Ian Woolley writing for Soapbox Science</a>. He goes into detail about the practices of these journals, how to identify them, and about <a href="http://scholarlyoa.com/2012/12/06/bealls-list-of-predatory-publishers-2013/" target="_blank">a website that purports to be a watchdog of predatory publishers</a>. You might find it interesting and thought-provoking.DrDoyennehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01923421604660796579noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1817425618078186784.post-22983842215957983302013-06-14T15:11:00.001-05:002013-06-14T15:11:44.465-05:00Double-Blind Peer Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Nature Geoscience</i> recently announced they are offering the option for authors to remain anonymous to reviewers (here is a <a href="http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v6/n6/full/ngeo1853.html" target="_blank">link to a</a>n editorial). Actually, both <i>Nature Geoscience</i> and <i>Nature Climate Change</i> are testing this option. The editorial that describes this new option explains that the journal's editors are convinced that this double-blind process will remove unconscious bias. In particular, the editorial states that "One of our motivations for setting up a double-blind trial is the possibility that female authors are subjected to tougher peer review than their male colleagues–a distinct possibility in view of evidence that subtle gender biases affect assessments of competence, appropriate salaries and other aspects of academic life (<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, 'MS Pゴシック', 'MS ゴシック', Osaka, 'MS PGothic', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23px;">(</span><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1211286109" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(24, 79, 24); color: #5c7996; font-family: arial, helvetica, 'MS Pゴシック', 'MS ゴシック', Osaka, 'MS PGothic', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23px; text-decoration: none;"><i>Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA</i><b>109</b>, <span class="start-page">16474</span>–<span class="end-page">16479</span>; <span class="year">2012</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, 'MS Pゴシック', 'MS ゴシック', Osaka, 'MS PGothic', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23px;">)." </span><br />
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As the editorial mentions, some reviewers will attempt to guess the identity of the authors. There will be clues in the paper, no matter how careful the author is. A few reviewers will be certain they have guessed correctly (even though they likely will be flat wrong). To what extent this guessing will influence the review, is not clear. Hopefully, most reviewers will simply shrug and focus on the paper's content, which is what they should be doing anyway.<br />
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Coincidentally, I just completed a double-blind review (my first) a few days ago for a different journal. Interestingly, the journal did not explain that the paper's authors would not be revealed to me. Instead, I was provided the usual links to the paper, which contained no mention of the authors or their affiliation. Not finding that information anywhere, I finally realized that this was a double-blind review.<br />
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Did not knowing the author's identity affect how I conducted the review? Not really. In fact, I liked not knowing who the author was quite a bit more than I expected. I wonder if other reviewers will feel the same way?DrDoyennehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01923421604660796579noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1817425618078186784.post-70545952399719230502013-05-10T10:14:00.002-05:002013-05-10T10:14:39.334-05:00Myths About Giving Presentations: Imagine Your Audience Is Naked<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I've been discussing myths about giving presentations. A lot of myths deal with fear of public speaking. The recommendation to imagine your audience naked or in their underwear or sitting on the commode is meant to allay the speaker's fear of being on stage. Supposedly, a naked audience is less intimidating. Rumor has it that this idea came from Winston Churchill, who used this technique (among others) to overcome his fears of speaking in public (he also apparently recommended that people practice their speeches in front of a mirror). I could not find confirmation that Churchill was the source of this advice, but it has certainly been repeated extensively.<br />
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This is one recommendation, however, that I've never even considered following, even though it has been suggested to me on a number of occasions throughout my career. I've also heard well-meaning teachers and advisors give this advice to students. First off, it sounds incredibly silly. I have enough trouble trying to remember what I should be saying without the extra mental effort that would be required to envision the audience without their clothes on. I could see myself walking onto the stage, turning to face the audience, trying to picture a roomful of naked people, and then blanking out completely on my speech as my head filled with unsavory images of my colleagues in their birthday suits. How would I face them later and carry on a conversation with a straight face?<br />
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No, no, no. This is bad advice not only because it's disrespectful of your audience but because it puts a barrier between you and them. Just the opposite of what you should be doing: Connecting with your audience. If you are afraid or contemptuous of your audience, then you are not connecting with them. If you are not connecting, then it's likely they are not paying much attention to what you are saying. Putting up barriers between you and your audience (huddling behind a podium, reading your speech and never looking up, looking at the screen with your back to your audience) makes for a bad presentation. Audience members will understand at a gut level that you are not confident about yourself or your message. People are incredibly skilled at reading body language, even if they are not quite aware of it at an intellectual level.<br />
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Along these same lines, I've heard about another "trick" that some speakers use to avoid looking into the audience members' eyes (but appear to be doing so). The trick, apparently, is to look at people's foreheads instead of their eyes. They supposedly cannot tell that you are faking eye contact. I'm not so sure that's true. If you are faking eye contact, you likely are giving off other subtle hints that you are afraid or insincere, which the audience will spot. Avoiding eye contact tells another person that you are not trustworthy and have something to hide. Faking eye contact is also bad advice because it means that you are missing important feedback from your audience. If you are not looking, you don't know if your audience can hear you, can understand you, or is interested in what you are saying. If you see negative expressions, maybe you can't do anything during that speech but it will be valuable information to help you improve your next talk.<br />
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Whenever I see someone in the audience frown or shake their head–it is disturbing–but I try not to dwell on it. I continue to look around the room until I see someone nodding or smiling. Another thing to keep in mind is that the audience members could be mirroring your expressions and body language. If you are exhibiting nervous tics or even fear, your audience is going to be uncomfortable and fidgety. If you are relaxed, smiling, and looking straight into your audience's eyes, they will likely feel comfortable and good about themselves and you.<br />
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Being nervous is no excuse for failing to make a connection with your audience. In fact, on the few occasions when I've heard a really nervous speaker admit to the audience that they were terrified of speaking, the audience immediately became sympathetic and encouraging. Most people want you to succeed and can empathize with your nervousness. If you have to imagine your audience in any condition, imagine that they admire you and are there to learn something from you.<br />
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<br />DrDoyennehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01923421604660796579noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1817425618078186784.post-28742793557071867472013-04-19T12:38:00.000-05:002013-04-19T12:42:55.444-05:00Coming Soon to a Journal Near You: Video Abstracts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv6ZnkNargNtRb3TAvOmfH8BbbA_E38fml7HGDXyEClrq10zlt3hwDTrzPYZR-xYMhVYxNH53J94qmk6afup3V1UgiEjPTYlr_ljE73EB5ijSeVhlSjBmr8IcUzWt_FRyEnJeeRxTNoNH4/s1600/viralvideoabstract.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv6ZnkNargNtRb3TAvOmfH8BbbA_E38fml7HGDXyEClrq10zlt3hwDTrzPYZR-xYMhVYxNH53J94qmk6afup3V1UgiEjPTYlr_ljE73EB5ijSeVhlSjBmr8IcUzWt_FRyEnJeeRxTNoNH4/s320/viralvideoabstract.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Some of you may be familiar with a new trend at some science journals: video abstracts in which the authors explain their findings on camera, sometimes enhanced with animations or other visually-rich media. A few journals routinely accept and publish video abstracts prepared by authors. Two of these are the <a href="http://iopscience.iop.org/1367-2630" target="_blank">New Journal of Physics</a> and <a href="http://www.cell.com/" target="_blank">Cell</a>, and you can see examples of their video abstracts by going to their websites.<br />
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These video abstracts are typically short (3-5 minutes) and often published on a video-sharing site such as YouTube, rather than on the journal website. By providing video summaries on such accessible and popular video-sharing sites, authors make their work widely available. Anyone can access these media without having a subscription or paying a fee.<br />
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In addition to the above journals, several other journals are currently "experimenting" with video abstracts. This movement reflects the overall trend in multimedia communication of information on the internet, in combination with the availability of digital devices and software for creating and sharing video.<br />
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What are the advantages for an author? By using video, authors can explain their work in a way that they are not able to do in print, such as showing footage of their laboratory setups or methods, field sites, and/or study organisms. The authors are able to provide a more personal explanation of their findings and put them into a broader perspective. By posting a video on the internet, the author can raise the visibility of themselves and their research because search engines rank video high in comparison to text-only descriptions (especially if it's the only video out there on the topic). People searching for information on a topic will be more likely to find their video abstract, and the video will lead viewers to the technical paper. Also, if the video is published on YouTube, the authors are free to embed their video abstract on their own websites, something they often cannot do with their journal publication because of copyright restrictions.<br />
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What are the advantages for the reader? Video can provide a richer, more interactive experience for a reader. For non-specialist readers, a video in which the authors explain their work in everyday language would provide greater insight, spark their curiosity about the topic, and possibly encourage them to learn more about it. For example, as a scientist, I'm interested in keeping up with major discoveries in other fields. Although I'm not likely to read a technical paper about the Higgs boson, I would watch a video that explains what's been discovered and what it means.<br />
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Are video abstracts just a fad or will it become a common practice at science journals? Hard to say.<br />
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Some video abstracts are well-done:<br />
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Others are pretty awful:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/8h1-GW-sTNc" width="640"></iframe><br />
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Some science disciplines (physics) seem to be getting on the multimedia bandwagon faster than others. Whatever the future of video abstracts, we are clearly in a learning phase. Many of my colleagues have never even heard of video abstracts and expressed no interest in doing one, even if offered the opportunity. Students seemed to be more receptive to the idea, and I suspect this is because they are more technically-savy and accustomed to watching YouTube videos than most of their professors.<br />
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If video abstracts become standard practice, authors will need to either develop some skills at creating such videos or will need access to multimedia specialists who can help them. My guess is that most authors will end up paying someone, either at their institution or a free-lancer, to produce a video abstract. Possibly some journals will offer the service at a price. It will be interesting to see how this practice evolves.<br />
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For more on the video revolution in science communication, see this video:
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/HboNzrq0MKE" width="640"></iframe><br />
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Image Credit: modified photograph from USAIDDrDoyennehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01923421604660796579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1817425618078186784.post-3817199821108987232013-04-03T09:26:00.000-05:002013-04-03T09:26:31.057-05:00Myths About Giving Presentations: Never Apologize for a Bad Slide<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We've all heard or read advice about how to give presentations, or more specifically, how not to screw up in front of your peers. It's sometimes worthwhile, however, to revisit sage advice to see if it is really germane or if it needs some clarification or modification.<br />
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One recommendation I often hear is, "Never apologize for a bad slide." Yet many of my colleagues seem not to have ever heard this one. They continue to put up slides with long tables filled with data in font so small that it's impossible to read even from the front row. These presenters apologize for the busy slide, then say that they just want to point out one or two data points and that the audience should just ignore the rest.<br />
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Well then why not just create a slide with those one or two important data points in large font? It's easy enough in PowerPoint. The audience will be able to read the values and can concentrate on them. Better yet, add a graphic or photo that emphasizes the relevance of those data to the point you are trying to make. See the following example.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6FVCwSwpYv0k8G7eKxtqnayhlHvVSWpSXgtcPD_1Su586Kv6gOh466r1wFjYmvwlJUhw-C4Wf3z_AjZ_kAI9R3oLytQr6U314640aqcM81gahR3jPTtJ6lXtoFYxrnCFN3vauXWDgrPg_/s1600/fishsize.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6FVCwSwpYv0k8G7eKxtqnayhlHvVSWpSXgtcPD_1Su586Kv6gOh466r1wFjYmvwlJUhw-C4Wf3z_AjZ_kAI9R3oLytQr6U314640aqcM81gahR3jPTtJ6lXtoFYxrnCFN3vauXWDgrPg_/s320/fishsize.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Much more effective than a dense table. So why do people persist in presenting bad slides? Part of the reason is sheer laziness. They cut and paste the table, graph, or diagram from one of their papers (or someone else's paper). They think that to do anything else requires more time and effort (which is usually not true). The other reason is that they collected all those other data and so must show it....right? Wrong. The audience will be aware of the effort you went to to get to that key data point. Showing extraneous data has the opposite effect of annoying, rather than enlightening your audience.</div>
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Showing a slide that is impossible to read or understand is also insulting to the audience. It sends a clear message that you don't care about them. And if you apologize, it means that you are well aware of the poor quality of the slide but didn't care enough about the audience to fix it.<br />
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The advice about never apologizing for a bad slide suggests that it's OK to use bad slides as long as you don't acknowledge it. Actually, most of us realize that this advice means never use a bad slide. No slide is better than a bad slide. However, it's easy for novices to misinterpret this advice....which is why I bring it up. I should mention here that using tables and complicated graphs or diagrams in posters is OK (because the viewer has the time to digest them and likely wants to see the data), but you should still design them well so that your point is clearly made.<br />
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I would amend this recommendation to be, "You should never HAVE to apologize for a bad slide. If, while practicing your presentation, you find yourself saying, "Now, I realize you can't see the data on this slide, but I just want you to focus on this number...", delete that slide and create a new one. Your audience will thank you.DrDoyennehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01923421604660796579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1817425618078186784.post-36918273348155255072013-03-12T14:04:00.000-05:002013-03-12T14:13:56.111-05:00The Scientist Who Happens To Be a Woman<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR9rRHBKTtewq_xmuITffLSwD-9K-H92ZRf6zuMb-nSEzQOLFFIiIZIVQrWEc2l_iM9sWheFn2qH3Hp9-TdjBns1isNuhoFfbkn31hBbbUnWmIvWyOfqPnD3JuEqKws5jhvfDj9xCjkP8c/s1600/astronauts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR9rRHBKTtewq_xmuITffLSwD-9K-H92ZRf6zuMb-nSEzQOLFFIiIZIVQrWEc2l_iM9sWheFn2qH3Hp9-TdjBns1isNuhoFfbkn31hBbbUnWmIvWyOfqPnD3JuEqKws5jhvfDj9xCjkP8c/s320/astronauts.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
This month is <a href="http://womenshistorymonth.gov/" target="_blank">Women's History Month</a>, and last Friday was <a href="http://www.internationalwomensday.com/" target="_blank">International Women's Day</a>. Such celebrations are set to recognize and pay tribute to the contributions made by women throughout history. Many of those contributions were by women in science.<br />
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A growing number of women, however, are becoming increasingly uncomfortable with efforts to highlight women in science because such emphasis may lead to the conclusion that there is something unusual about female scientists or that we need "special help" to succeed (special awards, fellowships, grants).<br />
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The problem seems to be exacerbated by news stories in which the female gender of the story subject is emphasized over whatever it is she has accomplished. Articles about women scientists invariably talk about the fact that they are women (".....she's one of a handful of women to work on this topic.") and about family matters ("....she had to leave her three-year-old for a month to do field research in the Antarctic"). Some focus on special challenges they face as women in a male-dominated field ("....she had to accomplish twice that of her male colleagues to be acknowledged as competent").<br />
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I came across <a href="http://www.doublexscience.org/the-finkbeiner-test/" target="_blank">this post by </a><em><a href="http://www.doublexscience.org/the-finkbeiner-test/" target="_blank">Christie Aschwanden</a>, </em>who suggests the <a href="http://www.doublexscience.org/what-im-not-going-to-do/" target="_blank">Finkbeiner</a> Test for articles profiling women in science. It's similar to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechdel_test" target="_blank">Bechdel Test</a>, which assesses gender bias in film, which I've <a href="http://womeninwetlands.blogspot.com/2011/01/more-feminism-and-movies.html" target="_blank">described here previously</a>. To pass the Finkbeiner Test, the article cannot mention any of the following:<br />
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<li>The fact that she’s a woman</li>
<li>Her husband’s job</li>
<li>Her child care arrangements</li>
<li>How she nurtures her underlings</li>
<li>How she was taken aback by the competitiveness in her field</li>
<li>How she’s such a role model for other women</li>
<li>How she’s the “first woman to…”</li>
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I agree that over emphasis on gender can backfire and send the wrong message. But I also understand the journalists' viewpoint in trying to make a technical topic more attractive to readers (especially female readers) by emphasizing gender and/or the unusual. To get people interested in reading about a topic, the journalist has to find a "hook", and anything unusual works well to attract readers. Look at the recent media buzz about <a href="http://www.nascar.com/en_us/news-media/articles/2013/02/17/danica-patrick-is-first-woman-to-win-nscs-coors-light-pole.html" target="_blank">Danica Patrick</a>, the first female NASCAR driver to win the pole position in the Daytona 500 competition. Even though media attention is focused mostly on her gender, she's edged out male competitors to become the most popular NASCAR driver, especially among female fans of the sport. Her crew chief said that he's given out "more lugnuts to young girls this week than he's given to anyone in his career". </div>
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I do wish that we could just write and read about the accomplishments of a scientist or race car driver who just happens to be a woman. But that's not going to happen as long as the subject's gender is seen as something unusual. Journalists can help things along by de-emphasizing gender in articles about female scientists (as Aschwanden and Finkbeiner suggest). As scientists, we can decline to provide answers to gender-based questions in interviews and refocus attention on the science. </div>
DrDoyennehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01923421604660796579noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1817425618078186784.post-87137680819005132452013-02-27T14:10:00.001-06:002013-03-12T14:06:07.513-05:00Can You Write Me a Reference Letter, Preferably a Good One?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>You've carefully put together your application package for that internship, fellowship, or dream job, including a compelling statement about your research or teaching goals and a list of all of your publications, awards, grants, and other accomplishments. You think you are well qualified, with achievements that are above average for someone at your career stage. You submit your application and then wait anxiously for that email telling you that you've been invited for an interview or selected for that fellowship or internship.</i><br />
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<i>When it finally comes, the news is not good: "Dear Candidate, we regret to inform you that your application was not successful. There were many excellent candidates this year but....". At the end is a personal note that says, "You might want to rethink your list of references."</i><br />
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<i>Huh? What could that mean? You are not sure, but it sounds as if one of your reference letters was not exactly glowing or perhaps even negative. You think about the three people you asked to write a letter of support for you. They all were people who you thought would write an excellent recommendation. They all agreed to prepare a letter for you. What could have gone wrong and was this what sunk your application?</i><br />
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Reference letters have been on my mind recently since I just participated as a panelist for a student award. I was struck by the huge discrepancy among reference letters, even those written for the same student. Here are some excerpts (modified slightly to hide any identifying information) followed by my assessment:<br />
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<i>"I strongly recommend Ms. X for this award. She is hard-working, eager to learn, and quite intuitive. Her academic record is outstanding with a 4.0 grade-point average. She routinely asks penetrating questions in class and shows a more in-depth grasp of the topic than most students. She has developed a unique angle for her thesis research project, which puts it at the cutting edge of the field. Among the 100 or so graduate students I have interacted with as professor, I would rank Ms. X in the top 5%." </i>The letter goes on for several paragraphs to extol the many virtues of this student, providing detailed examples and heart-felt opinions. My opinion: there is no doubt in my mind that this student is held in high esteem by her professor and deserves serious consideration.<br />
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<i>"I wish to recommend Ms. X for this award. She is a student in our department and has taken a couple of classes with me. I understand that her advisor is also writing a letter for her. She is conducting thesis research in an area related to mine, which is ...."</i> This letter then goes on to describe the author's area of research, rather than the student's. This professor states no opinion about her abilities or skills or qualifications for this particular award. The letter ends with, <i>"If you need any more information, please don't hesitate to contact me."</i> My opinion: this person has no idea how to write a letter of reference and/or did not want to (or have time to) write a positive, substantive letter for this student (but agreed to write one anyway). The student made a serious mistake asking this professor for a letter.<br />
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<i>"I am writing this reference at the request of Mr. Y who is applying for this award. I have been acquainted with this student for a short time. He is about to complete his second semester in our department and I believe he has just initiated his field research. Based on his undergraduate record and the accomplishments he lists in his CV, I can recommend him to receive this award. Feel free to contact me for further information." </i>My opinion: this person knows next to nothing about this student and should not have been asked to write a letter.<br />
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<i>"I am writing to offer my enthusiastic support for Mr. Z's application for this award. He has made excellent progress on his thesis research and is excelling in all his coursework. He has all the personal qualities of the most successful graduate student, and I expect him to make important contributions to our understanding of [research topic]. Mr. Z is a bright, motivated, and energetic young scientist that I am pleased to have in my lab. He is a worthy candidate for this award, and I strongly encourage you to consider him. I would be happy to provide additional details about Mr Z's qualities should you need more information. I unreservedly recommend Mr. Z to you for this award."</i> The letter goes into great detail about the student's research and his role in its design and novel ideas for experiments. My opinion: this is a student whose professor has no reservations about recommending him for the award and deserves serious consideration. <br />
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The above examples should give you some idea of how varied real reference letters can be. In no case was there a letter that stated anything negative or described any perceived weaknesses. Yet it was easy to categorize letters as outstanding, good, fair, and poor. At the one extreme were the letters that contained glowing, but detailed, comments and that stated flat-out their unreserved recommendation of the student. At the other extreme were the shortest letters that contained no positive comments or even a single opinion about the student.<br />
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Some people were clearly outstanding writers of reference letters and understood the importance of providing detailed information and personal opinions about a candidate. Perhaps ten percent of the letters fell into a category I would call "glowing". In several cases, we got letters like number 3 above and even a couple that were from the student's major advisor, who had had them in their lab for five or six years. Yikes. In those instances, it was sometimes clear that the advisor did not hold the student in high regard but still agreed to write a letter. In one case, the letter from the (very busy, very famous) advisor was three sentences long and basically said "I recommend this person for this award". In other cases, it seemed that the letter-writer had no idea that their letter, which lacked any observations or opinions, positive or otherwise, would be perceived as a bad reference.<br />
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In the cases where the student got a glowing letter from one person and a poor letter from someone else (like Ms. X above), it was possible that the second letter-writer had some beef with either the student or the advisor. Even so, we could not discount it because at a minimum it showed that the student had not done their homework in selecting people to write a letter for them. Also, their overall rating would suffer in comparison with another student whose letters were all outstanding.<br />
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So what can you do, if anything, to ensure that your reference letters are all good ones? I'll explore that in upcoming posts.<br />
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Image credit: modified photo from morguefile.comDrDoyennehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01923421604660796579noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1817425618078186784.post-58551565832584410652013-02-11T13:07:00.000-06:002013-02-11T13:21:21.265-06:00Can Movies Provide a Model for Assigning Scientific Credit?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Imagine if the credit for a scientific publication was ascribed the same way movie credits are.<br />
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What got me thinking about this was a reader comment on a <a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.0050018" target="_blank">paper published in PLoS Biology</a> about author sequence and how to calculate credit for author contributions in multiauthor publications.<br />
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Determining author contributions to a scientific paper is an increasingly important topic as the number of multiauthor papers has increased over time. The reason this issue is of concern is because evaluation committees may use author position on a person's publications (along with other measures) as a criterion to gauge their scientific worth and leadership abilities. The commenter suggested that the solution (to the dilemma of calculating credit) might be resolved by using the movie credit model. A <a href="http://blogs.plos.org/plos/2007/11/roll-credits-sometimes-the-authorship-byline-isnt-enough/" target="_blank">post on the PLoS blog</a> also makes the argument for a movie credit-style approach:<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">"Such a research credit system would have huge benefits for one’s career prospects; and it might encourage more effective collaborations. Moreover, these credits could easily be tracked by scientist or project in a database akin to the</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #0066cc; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Internet Movie Database (IMDB)</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">. It could provide an alternative to the ever-so-important citation factors as a means of assessing one’s scientific impact. And maybe one day there will even be an Academy Awards of Science."</span><br />
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Those of you who read this blog know I like movies and often use them to discuss, among other things, how women in science are perceived by society. So, of course, I found this suggestion intriguing and decided to delve a bit further. It's not as crazy as it sounds, so bear with me while I explore this idea a bit.<br />
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In a movie, there are producers, actors, set designers, cinematographers, screenwriters, and so forth. The credits that roll during the closing sequence list everyone who contributed to the making of the movie. Some contribute more than others and are listed first in the credits, but everyone is listed, from the director down to the lowliest person who held the lead actor's cigarette during takes. Relevant to our discussion is the fact that a movie is the end result of a technological effort involving a team of people making different contributions to the end product, very similar to a modern scientific paper. The movie, however, is never solely credited to a single person or category of filmmaker professional. The success of the movie, which depends on all of these people performing their jobs well, clearly cannot be ascribed to a single person or group of people such as the screenwriters (although some, such as the director, make a more substantial contribution than others). The Oscars and other awards, which are given to honor not only screen actors but also cinematographers, costume designers, and others, reflect the fact that filmmaking is a joint effort of a variety of film professionals.<br />
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Unlike other publications that are the result of the sole efforts of a single author (e.g., novels), modern scientific publications often reflect the work of a team of scientists, technicians, statisticians, graphic artists, and others in much the same way a movie is made. So why do all the people working on a movie get credit (which they claim on their resumes), while not everyone who contributes to a scientific paper can claim credit for it?<br />
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Interestingly, early movies (before 1960) listed only the director and actors (and maybe the costume designer if it was a period movie), and these came at the beginning of the film. Someone who worked as an illustrator would never get credit; only the art director might be given onscreen credit. The change to listing everyone who had anything to do with the making of a film was due to trade unions. The unions argued that their members should get credit because it was essential for getting jobs on future films and because non-actor artists should be able to list the movie on their resume. Nowadays, virtually everyone who is in filmmaking belongs to a trade union, which looks out for its members....hence, the 15 minute long credit sequences we see at the end of movies.<br />
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In scientific publications, the authors are really the only individuals who receive credit for the work and who can list the paper on their resume, even though a number of non-authors may have contributed to the final product, and in some cases, may have made a critical contribution (for example, a statistician who helped with the experimental design). Such people usually are mentioned only in the acknowledgements, where their contributions are lumped all together in what is essentially a footnote. Because of this, non-authors cannot list the publication on their resume....and can describe only their general role ("In 2012, I assisted in field sampling during a study of coral reefs in Indonesia"). In contrast, a cinematographer, an animator, a sound technician, or even a gaffer can list on their resume the movies they've worked on.<br />
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The assignment of credit for a scientific work in part reflects the nature and history of scientific research in which the early discoverer of new knowledge, who was the sole author of the paper, got the credit. This pattern held until the early 1900s when more scientists began collaborating and tackling complex projects requiring teams of people. The numbers of authors on a paper increased while each author's contribution became less clear and quantifiable. Scientific studies increasingly involved technicians and others whose contributions were considered insufficient to count as authors. The tradition of all credit going to part of the scientific team via authorship has persisted despite the increase in non-author contributors to scientific research. Some perhaps suggested the idea for the study; others provided the laboratory space or other essential logistics; many collected data or provided technological expertise; a few gave statistical guidance....none enough to warrant authorship or credit for a scientific discovery but who played a role in the ultimate outcome.<br />
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Many scientific publications today are produced by multi-disciplinary teams, each with many people contributing in much the same way as teams of animators or set designers on a film. Papers in some disciplines such as genomics can list 100 authors, a situation that is likely to <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/history/full/nature06243.html" target="_blank">increase in the future</a>. There is even <a href="http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-0221/3/08/S08003/" target="_blank">one recent paper </a>describing the Large Hadron Collider that lists 2,926 authors. In such cases, how do you know who did what and who, other than the first author, made a major contribution? Although some journals (e.g., Nature journals) require an author contributions statement, these are often awkward and potentially lengthy. Would it be more feasible to use a movie credit model in such cases or would that lead to even more confusion? <br />
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Could the movie credit model even work for scientific publications? Well, I can see some problems with it, not the least of which would be resistance from scientists accustomed to getting all the credit. At issue would be who should get credit for the scientific discovery reported in the paper and how would this be indicated in the credits? Of concern, also, might be that someone listed in the credits, but with a minor contribution, would claim a greater role on their CV. I don't think the latter would be any more of an issue than it is in the movie business (a lighting technician is not going to claim she made the movie). In fact, it might reduce this possibility. With the current model of listing multiple authors (using an often unspecified method of assigning position*), minor contributors can get undue credit.<br />
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Another stumbling block might be how to sequence the credits to indicate relative contribution. The credits could be listed in a sequence of decreasing contribution, much like they are today in author lists, except that their role would be clear (Principal Investigator, co-Principal Investigator, Laboratory Director, Field/LaboratoryTechnician, Statistician, etc.), and people who often are inappropriately listed as "authors" today would be more accurately credited for their actual role in the study. The Principal Investigator(s) (who conceived and designed the study, conducted the research, and wrote the paper) would be appropriately credited as the discoverer(s) of new knowledge. A movie credit-style listing might add to the length of a paper, but concern about length is likely to be less of an issue as we move to primarily electronic publication of scientific papers and away from printed journals.<br />
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The biggest obstacle, perhaps, would be coming up with a standardized system that everyone agrees upon and then how to get everyone to adopt it. It would likely take some of the major journals making the move first and showing how it might work. Several have already implemented the requirement for an author contributions statement, which is an attempt to go in this direction.<br />
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I'm sure there would be other objections to the movie credit model, and one could argue that it would not resolve the issue of how to quantify credit for a scientific paper. However, spelling out the roles that each person played might make it easier to quantify credit than using some formula based on the author's position in the author list (as proposed by the paper in PLoS Biology). The other thing such a change would do, which seems to be an improvement over the current model, is to allow those contributors who are now mentioned only in the acknowledgements to claim credit for their contribution to the work. <br />
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I'm not necessarily advocating a change from the traditional model to the movie credit model. Possibly, such a change would introduce unforeseen problems and perhaps add to the bickering that already occurs in some research groups as to author sequence and who should get credit for a discovery. However, it's an interesting exercise to contemplate how it might work and who might benefit.<br />
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The problem of how to quantify scientific credit is not going to go away and will only worsen as the average number of authors per paper increases. We eventually may be forced to consider a radically different credit system that better reflects the complexity of modern scientific research.<br />
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<i>*Someone unfamiliar with how authorship position on scientific papers is determined might assume that the lower the position in the list, the lower the contribution and, thus, the less credit deserved. However, that logic does not always match how author position was determined, which can vary from discipline to discipline and even from lab to lab. Although the first author position is typically occupied by the person who deserves most of the credit (but not always), the ranking of the succeeding authors may have been determined alphabetically, for example, when there are collaborating groups. In some cultures, the last author position frequently goes to the person who deserves substantial credit; this is typically the PI who got the funding and who designed and oversaw the project. In others, the last position may go to the person who contributed the least. Consequently, some may benefit unduly from their position while others may be underrated, depending on how the author sequence is assessed relative to how it was actually determined. </i><br />
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Image Credit: modified image from morguefile.com<br />
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<br />DrDoyennehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01923421604660796579noreply@blogger.com1