Use your middle initial. Appear smarter.

A coauthor on a paper and I ended up discussing whether scientists should use their middle initial on a paper. An article entitled “The impact of middle names: Middle name initials enhance evaluations of intellectual performance” in the European Journal of Social Psychology addresses this issue. The abstract reads: Middle name initials often appear in […]

The importance of communication skills in the National Weather Service

As part of an online discussion forum, Wes Browning, Meteorologist in Charge of the National Weather Service Forecast Office in St. Louis, had this to say about the importance of communication skills. …as an NWS hiring official, I’d like to point out the critical importance of communications skills and training in operational emergency management (NIMS). […]

23 Things for Research

This is a list of 23 things that you scientists should be doing to help promote your research. It provides a good list of things to be thinking about as you aim to develop your career.

Can you list acknowledgements in your CV?

From reader Ivan comes this question: “I would like to hear your comments about the practice of mentioning people in the Acknowledgement section of the reviewed papers. E.g. Can acknowledged person add this information in its CV? My impression is that this would motivate people to assist their peers more often and relax some of […]

Book Review: Navigating Graduate School and Beyond

I just finished reading a great new book on career guidance for graduate students by Prof. Sundar Christopher: Navigating Graduate School and Beyond: A Career Guide for Graduate Students and a Must Read for Every Advisor. Written by the Chair of the Department of Atmospheric Science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, this book […]

Code of Conduct for Scientists Who Engage in Advocacy

The AAAS hosted a workshop sponsored by the National Science Foundation to address the issue of scientists expressing their opinions to influence an action, such as a political process. The results of this workshop can be downloaded from this web page. The bottom line is the Code of Conduct for Advocacy in Science by Nicholas […]

How to choose a scientific problem and nurturing young scientists

I discovered the following article a while ago, yet only have gotten around to writing about it now. Alon, U., 2009: How to choose a good scientific problem. Molecular Cell, 35, 726-728. [PDF] [HTML] Why the paper resonated with me is that it brought me back to choosing my research topic for my PhD. I […]

How To Choose a Good Scientific Problem

I have not found a more concise and clear statement about how to choose a good scientific problem for someone at various stages in their career. Enjoy! Alon, U., 2009: How to choose a good scientific problem. Molecular Cell, 35, 726-728. DOI: 10.1016/j.molcel.2009.09.013. [PDF]

Lessons for scientific writers from Leonard Cohen and Tony Bennett

I’ve been laid up with the flu for the past few days, so I’ve been watching more TV and DVDs than I normally do. One DVD that I’ve had for some time, but only got around to watching the other day was Leonard Cohen: Live In London. The concert was recorded just a few months […]

English Communication for Scientists

The journal Nature has on its Scitable page a link to an online book English Communication for Scientists by Dr. Jean-luc Doumont (that’s him on the right). I haven’t read through it all, but it seems to have mostly good advice, albeit a bit short. The online book has six units: Communicating as a Scientist […]

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