Jan 2011
Maybe You're Born With It?
27/01/11 21:46 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Blogger The Meandering Scholar wondered whether grantsmanship is a task that can be mastered from training or is primarily a more ingrained skill set. Bloggers ChemicalBiLOLogy and BrooksPhD argued that grant-writing is a skill that can be improved upon and adapted to become competitive. S. Pelech wryly comments that it is highly unlikely that some of our ancient ancestors sitting on the plains in Africa were selected for survival and reproduction based on their ability to write research grants. Grant writing is just not an innate ability that one is born with. Read More...
Journal Impact Versus Paper Impact
26/01/11 02:08 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Blogger Prodigal Academic suggested that when you are choosing where to submit a manuscript, it is important to consider the target audience of who is most likely to actually read it rather than just the overall impact factor of the scientific journal. S. Pelech comments that the speciality focus of a journal now has relatively little impact on whether members of the scientific community will notice a publication. Rather, most researchers find scientific papers through PubMed, Google and other search engines and those publications with open-access are likely to receive the widest dissemination. Read More...
Stupendous! Amazing! 'Astonishing!'
07/01/11 16:58 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Blogger Zen Faulkes at NeuroDojo described as depressing a 2005 report on the state of US science (Rsing Above the Gathering Storm) and its recent followup, while Beryl Benderly in Science predicts that more American corporations will be increasingly out-sourcing their research work overseas leaving few prospects for PhD scientists in the US outside of academia. S. Pelech observes that nearly 60% of biomedical research in the U.S. is funded by industry, so this is a legitimate concern for American jobs. He advocates that one solution would be to provide a markedly increased number of fellowships awards available from government and charitable agencies for post-doctoral fellows to work in U.S. biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Read More...