Newest Resources in "Career Guide for Scientists"
» Newest resources on the site
» Newest resources in "Career Guide for Scientists"
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» Newest resources in "Career Guide for Scientists"
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Understanding current causes of women’s underrepresentation in science
- Ceci and Williams, PNAS. "We conclude that differential gendered outcomes in the real world result from differences in resources attributable to choices, whether free or constrained, and that such choices could be inuenced and better informed through education if resources were so directed. Thus, the ongoing focus on sex discrimination in reviewing, interviewing, and hiring represents costly, misplaced effort: Society is engaged in the present in solving problems of the past, rather than in addressing meaningful limitations deterring womens participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers today. Addressing todays causes of underrepresentation requires focusing on education and policy changes that will make institutions responsive to differing biological realities of the sexes."
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Career Advice: Advice for Grad Students, part II - Inside Higher Ed
- Stephen C. Stearns outlines writing issues facing those in doctoral programs.
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To Choose an Adviser, Be an "Armchair Anthropologist" - Science Careers
- "Choosing a research adviser is as critical as any decision you will make during your scientific training. To choose wisely, you'll need to ferret out some information, both scientific and cultural."
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Choosing a Thesis Advisor
- "Choosing a thesis advisor is the most important decision of your life--perhaps more important than choosing a spouse--because your choice affects everything you will do in your career. Indeed, choosing an advisor is similar to getting married: it is making a long-term commitment."
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PLoS Computational Biology: Ten Simple Rules for Getting Grants
- "At the present time, US funding is frequently below 10% for a given grant program. Today, more than ever, we need all the help we can get in writing successful grant proposals. We hope you find these rules useful in reaching your research career goals."
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PLoS Computational Biology: Ten Simple Rules for Making Good Oral Presentations
- "Continuing our Ten Simple Rules series [15], we consider here what it takes to make a good oral presentation. While the rules apply broadly across disciplines, they are certainly important from the perspective of this readership. Clear and logical delivery of your ideas and scientific results is an important component of a successful scientific career. Presentations encourage broader dissemination of your work and highlight work that may not receive attention in written form."
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PLoS Computational Biology: Ten Simple Rules for a Good Poster Presentation
- "Posters are a key component of communicating your science and an important element in a successful scientific career. Posters, while delivering the same high-quality science, offer a different medium from either oral presentations [1] or published papers [2], and should be treated accordingly. Posters should be considered a snapshot of your work intended to engage colleagues in a dialog about the work, or, if you are not present, to be a summary that will encourage the reader to want to learn more. Many a lifelong collaboration [3] has begun in front of a poster board. Here are ten simple rules for maximizing the return on the time-consuming process of preparing and presenting an effective poster."
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How to Write More Clearly, Think More Clearly, and Learn Complex Material More Easily
- by Michael A. Covington, University of Georgia
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Getting Things Done in Academia
- Advice for graduate students on creativity, scholarship, communication, and time management
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How to Get Fewer Scientists
- Washington Post, July 24, 2007. "President Bush told cancer researchers gathered at the National Institutes of Health in January that we need to 'make sure that our scientists are given the tools and encourage young kids to become scientists in the first place.' Yet his administration's stingy NIH budgets over the past five years and its threat last week to veto the appropriations bill giving the NIH a small funding boost sound more like components of a Discourage Future Scientists Act."
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The Real Science Crisis: Bleak Prospects for Young Researchers
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in HomeChronicle of Higher Education , September 2007. "[F]or many of today's graduate students, the future could not look much bleaker. They see long periods of training, a shortage of academic jobs, and intense competition for research grants looming ahead of them. 'They get a sense that this is a really frustrating career path,' says Thomas R. Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health. So although the operating assumption among many academic leaders is that the nation needs more scientists, some of brightest students in the country are demoralized and bypassing scientific careers."
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How I made my presentations a little better
- Great tips from 43 Folders.
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Giving a Kick Ass Presentation
- Great tips from the organizers of PubCon
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NIH BUDGET: Boom and Bust
- Couzin and Miller 316 (5823): 356 -- Science "Biomedical facilities are expanding after a growth spurt in the budget of the National Institutes of Health. Yet individual scientists say that it's harder than before to get their work funded." (subscription to Science required)
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Watching a Train Wreck, Part 2 - Engineering Science Blog
- "We've seen the effects of the NIH budget doubling on the grad student population. What about postdocs? ... From 1998-2003, the number of life sciences postdocs increased by 4,015. These new postdocs were all non-citizens. In fact, over the same time period, the number of US citizen / permanent resident postdocs decreased by 255."
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Watching a Train Wreck, Part 1 - Engineering Science Blog
- "Given that concerns about NIH funding levels have only recently hit the press, it's likely that we will see continuing increases in first-year graduate enrollments through at least 2007. This means increasing numbers of new PhDs for another 6-8 years and probably another decade of sizable increases in the ranks of postdocs. A whole crop of new PhDs is walking right into an already troubled labor market, and things probably won't start to improve for 10+ years."
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The Scientist : 'Looming crisis' from NIH budget
- "Four years of flat funding causing major shifts in US biomedical research, university officials and senior scientists warn Congress"
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Troubling Doubling
- A great presentation by Paula Stephan on the NIH budget doubling.
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What the NIH Bought With Double the Money
- Chronicle of Higher Education "After five years, $13.6-billion has produced few major new treatments and little spreading of research wealth, but the agency's leaders and supporters counsel patience" (subscription required)
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Be Careful What You Wish For
- ScienceCareers.org - "Between 1998 and 2003, the budget of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) rose from $13 billion to more than $27 billion in a plan known as "the doubling. Now that the tsunami of cash has receded, many life scientists--especially those in the early phase of their careers--have found conditions no better, and in some ways worse, than before the process began."
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A Guide to NSF Success
- ScienceCareers.org - "This article provides suggestions and ideas about how to make your next National Science Foundation (NSF) proposal more competitive."
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The NIH R01 Tool Kit
- ScienceCareers.org | "We can help you avoid those few pitfalls in preparing your application, greatly improving your chances of success. Many researchers know their science inside and out but don't take the time to learn about the intricacies of the proposal-reviewing process, so they end up making mistakes. Indeed, intricacies aside, many applicants lack even a basic notion of what proposal writing is all about, what a grant proposal ought to accomplish. The more time you get to spend on your science, the better, but succeeding in research requires more than just ingenuity and a deep knowledge of your field. We aim to make the process of learning about those other concerns--such as writing grant proposals--as short and painless as possible. If you're reading this, that's half the battle."
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Inside Higher Ed :: Tenure and the Unspoken Rules
- "Now that I have successfully achieved tenure at an R1, I feel the need to speak about what I have learned in the process. Some of this drive to write is because I want to share important lessons, but I also am compelled by the frustration and fear my junior colleagues share in facing the lack of clarity in expectations for tenure."
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Uncertain Principles: How to Survive the Tenure Process
- Advice from physicist Chad Orzel at ScienceBlogs
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Galactic Interactions : Advice for junior faculty at a research university
- "My advice here is specifically for faculty at a research University, most specifically Vanderbilt. It's primarily for physics and astronomy (indeed, primarily the latter), but will apply to a lesser extent to anybody in the physical sciences. I would hope that the two new hires in astronomy at Vanderbilt will at least read and think about this, even if they decide thereafter that I'm full of it."