Positive and negative feedback in science: Scientists as social animals

At a recent meeting at the University of Manchester, the keynote speaker was Prof. Helen Gleeson OBE. She gave an informative and interesting history of her career and the lessons she has learned. One thing she said resonated with me (paraphrasing):

“As a scientist, you get lots of rejections, but not a lot of supportive comments.”

I had had similar thoughts before, but never articulated them in the succinct way that Prof. Gleeson did. My idea was that we rarely receive any feedback on anything we do as scientists, even negative feedback.

When was the last time you got an email from someone who read your recently published article and had a question about it? Or, they just wanted to drop a note to say how much they enjoyed reading it?

When was the last time a colleague sent you a link to a recently published paper that you might have missed on a topic that you may be working on?

I wouldn’t change being a scientist for anything. I love my job. But, I worry that by not interacting with others, supporting our friends with positive assurance, and challenging our colleagues to be better, we deprive ourselves of the human experience. Even a note to someone you never met before saying how much you enjoyed reading their latest article can be a start to developing a new friendship, or even a coauthor.

Interestingly, several students over my career have told me that they were avoiding a career as a research scientist because they didn’t want to sit in an office and not interact with people. I can probably speak for many of us at this stage in our careers where we wish we had more time to sit and work peacefully alone in our offices for even just an afternoon!

Interaction is a big part of what we do as we advance in our careers. I think the (sometimes) isolating experience that we see (or imagine) grad students to have can be a big factor in this perception.

So, I recommend that everyone reading this, at some point over the next few weeks, send just one email, make one phone call, say just one nice thing to one of your colleagues. Be a supportive and encouraging person…for the betterment of our field.