Career Advice for Young Scientists in Biomedical Research : How to Think Like a Principal Investigator

"Pursuing a career in biomedical research can be daunting, considering the stiffer competition and uncertain career prospects in academia. This book summarizes career advice gathered during in-depth interviews with 106 biomedical scientists who lead their own laboratories. The participating principal investigators are from 44 research institutions in 11 countries. This book is unique in that it provides a glimpse into the mindset of principal investigators. Here, the reader will learn about common thought patterns and values, as well as the range of opinions and ways of thinking to be found among a large group of active principal investigators - without having to read more than a hundred individual autobiographies. The book will benefit all PhD students who want to learn more about their supervisor's mindset in order to successfully complete their projects. It can help freshly graduated PhDs planning to pursue an academic career, and MDs contemplating a career in research, to decide whether they truly want to embark on this path. Lastly, it can offer young principal investigators a source of inspiration on how to succeed and achieve their goals."--Back cover Preface How This Book Can Help You (Become a Principal Investigator and a Successful Scientist) Acknowledgments Contents About the Author List of Abbreviation List of Figures List of Tables 1: ``Carving Your Own Path ́ ́: Shaping Your Scientific Identity Curiosity Drives All Getting Ideas for New Projects Listening to Talks Giving Talks Informal Discussions Literature Data Thinking Others Top Publishers Picking Projects How Do You Know If a Project Is Going in the Right Direction? Top Publishers What Keeps You Motivated to Continue a Project? How Do You Know When to Stop a Project? Losing Interest in the Project Is the Topic Worth Pursuing? The Tools Are Not Working Personnel Stopping a Project Later The Best Time to Stop a Project Top Publishers Reference 2: The Two Cornerstones of Academic Research: Writing Grant Applications and Publications Grants The Evaluation Process Best Practices Dealing with the Rejection of Your Grant The Suggestions of PIs to Improve the Grant System Publish or Perish: The Ambivalent Relationship of Scientists with Publications The External Functions of Publications The Internal Function of Publications The Volume of Publications The Reproducibility of Publications The Reviewing Process Practical Advice Top Publishers 3: Setting Up a Successful Research Group How Do You Know, How Do You Decide, that You Want to Hire Someone? The Procedure Pre-filters for Shortlisting What to Look for During the Personal Contacts Repeated Contact Establishing a Connection Specific Issues to Discuss How to Conduct the Interview Vetting the Person Making the Decision The Composition of Your Lab 4: Leading Your Research Group as a Principal Investigator The Relationship between PIs and Their Group Focus on the Self Versus Focus on Others Dealing with Underperforming Team Members Distributing the Work Teamwork Individual Drivers Motivation Education No Internal Competition Pros and Cons of Individually Driven Projects Hybrid Methods Dedicated Persons for Difficult Techniques Dedicated Responsible for the Project Reading or Doing Experiments? It Is Hard to Keep Up with the Literature Depends on the Career Stage Depends Also on the Project, Work Stage, and the Individual Reasons to Read Prioritizing Reading Prioritizing Experiments A Partnership of Researcher and PI Literature Bias Communicating with Your Group 5: The Daily Work of Principal Investigators Hard Work The Sources of Daily Motivation for PIs Excitement Team Members The Big Picture Immediate Tasks Keeping a Finger on the Pulse of the Lab The Lab Environment What Is the Most Important Activity of a PI? Communication Interpreting Results Managing People Steering Projects Motivating People Creating the Vision Writing Others Top Publishers Evaluating Information The Person Reproducibility Technical Quality Statistics and Size of the Effect Consistency with Other Results or Earlier Experience Results Coming from the Literature Reliability Remembering Experimental Results Most PIs Remember Results Visually Some PIs Remember a Combination of Images and Something Else Some Remember Little Movies Internal Dialogue Only Remembering Numbers Changes Over Time Results Coming Out of Your Lab or from Publications Some Don ́t Remember Results! Remembering Experimental Results that Do Not Seem to Make Sense Arguments for a Good Filing System Ways to Help Yourself Remembering Interpreting ``Grey ́ ́ Results Preamble Hypothesis-Driven Science Appreciating Greyness Relying on Experience More Repeats The Size of the Effect Follow-up Experiments Weight of Evidence Independent Confirmation Top Publishers Dealing with the Results Not Fitting the Hypothesis Not Good for the Ego Reasons to Hate Them Collecting Them Separately Are We Doing It Properly? Detail or Cornerstone? The Fails Are More Interesting Unexpected Results Can Lead to New Projects Hypotheses Are Only Tools and They Are Made to be Falsified Much Better than Uninterpretable Data Keep Your Students from Despair It ́s Normal Do You Really Need a Hypothesis? Piecing Experimental Results Together Scientific Storytelling Your Job as a PI Building the Big Picture Deduction Induction Start Early Shuffling Things Consistency When to Stop The Process Reaching Out for Help Always Collaborating Going It Alone There Is a Trigger New Methods Guidance Keep Your Threshold Low How to Ask for Help Top Publishers Planning Collaborations Communicating with Others Talking Things over 6: Dealing with Failure and Stress in Academic Research What Is a Failed Experiment? No Such Thing No Information Technical Failure Unexpected Data Failure of Hypothesis Did Not Answer the Question Irreproducible Results Dealing with Experimental Failure It Is Disappointing Move on It ́s Hard on the Experimenter, Too Part of the Business Gets Easier with Time You Can Still Learn from it You Have to Learn from it Patience Technical Problems Incompetence Irreproducible Published Results They Are Wasteful and Frustrating They Erode Trust They Are Part of the Business It ́s Built in the System Lack of Standards Pressure to Publish Too Much Focus on Positive Results No Penalty It Can Happen to Anybody There Are Cheaters What to Do about Them? If You Cannot Reproduce Other People ́s Results Educate Your Students Prevent it Fixing the System Not a Problem Science Is Self-correcting They Can be an Opportunity Reacting to Stressful Situations Dealing with Stress Not Stressed It May Get Easier with Time Stress Can be Helpful What Can You Do? Accept it Working More Being Organized Putting it in Perspective Taking Time Off Distractions Talking it Out Life Outside the Lab Family Physical Exhaustion Being Outside Stress-reduction Techniques Others Not Passing Stress on Recharging Your Batteries References 7: Thoughts of Principal Investigators about Work, Science, and Themselves What Is Important about Work to PIs? Pays for Life Enjoyment Work-Life Balance Know What Makes Being a PI Enjoyable for you A Challenging Game Contributing to Society Social Interactions Self-Realisation Being at the Cutting Edge Ethics Self-Determination Why Is Science Important to PIs? What Science Is to PIs The Role of Science in Society Engagement with the Public Basic Science and Applied Science The Importance of Science on the Personal Level Top Publishers What Do PIs Believe about themselves? Intellectual Capabilities Independence, Courage, and Decisiveness Interaction with the Team and the Institution Communicating your Results Things that they Wished they Were Better at Top Publishers How PIs Measure their Own Success The Factors Contributing to the Success of PIs The Definition of Success Probably no Single Success Factor Perseverance Passion for Science Enjoyment Mentors and Training Hard Work Delivering Results Creativity to Ask the Right Questions Collaboration Character Traits Good Group Supportive Family and Friends Luck Top Publishers References 8: Under the Hood: Common Thinking Patterns of Principal Investigators Noticing Similarities or Differences? The ``Big Picture ́ ́ or the Details? Listening Style Setting Goals Self-Talk Cheerleading Prioritizing Tasks Self-Questioning Clarifying Steadying themselves Visual Expected Results Exploring Connections Teaching Tool Finding Solutions Lists Preparing for Upcoming Events Gut Feeling Auditory In Writing Facts or Principles? Making Decisions Reason and Logic or Personal Values and Your Feelings? Acting Quickly or Making a Complete Study of all the Consequences Before Acting? Sorting by Elimination or Sorting for the Presence of Attributes Judging Competence Your Favourite Way of Getting Convinced Repeat Demonstration of Competence How Do You Know that You Have Made the Right Decision? The Toughest Decisions The Important Thing Is to Decide How Do You Know If It Was a Good Decision? If You Want Reassurance Dwelling on Past Decisions Reversing Your Decision Intuitive Decisions Rationalizing the Decision Quick Decisions The Slow Deciders 9: Epilogue 10: Methods Interview Subjects Interviews Top Publishers Figures Recommended Reading References