Tips to excel in scientific writing

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If English is not your native language, take a look at this 6-minute read with tips on how to write papers and grant applications

  • If you can’t find a suitable phrase in your first draft, leave a blank and move on
  • Start with the section you find easiest
  • Figures can help you to construct a narrative and add a ‘wow’ factor
  • When doing literature research, note down each paper’s core message
  • Create a crude introduction and polish it later
  • Study other people’s writing styles
  • Use tools such as ChatGPT to fine-tune sentences

Project Manager Assistant and Policy and Research Analyst – CONNECTS UK & EU

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SRUK/CERU (Spanish Researchers in the United Kingdom/Científicos Españoles en Reino Unido) are looking for a Project Manager Assistant to assist in the successful delivery of the project CONNECTS-UK (CONNecting European Communities Through Science in UK), the first pan-EU platform in the UK aimed at fostering research and scientific collaborations between the EU and the UK. They are also looking for a Policy and Research Analyst to conduct policy research and data analysis within the project CONNECTS-UK.

Two job vacancies for policy and research opportunities.

Find out more about the roles here (Project Manager Assistant) and here (Policy and Research Analyst) and apply before 10th November.

Bealls list: the dominant source of data in questionable, scholarly open-access publishers

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Beall’s lists are not without limitations, however it is widely used in empirical research on predatory publishing to identify potential, possible, or probable predatory journals and publishers – including articles in Science.

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Beall’s List:
Potential Predatory Journals and Publishers

Predatory journals are “those that tend to publish low-quality science and deviate from best editorial practices. They might use false or misleading information, or aggressive solicitation practices, and collect fees for publishing work that undergoes little editorial scrutiny” (Singh Chawla, 2021, Nature News)

It is recommended to read the available reviews, assessments and descriptions provided there, and then decide for yourselves whether to submit articles, serve as editors or on editorial boards. The criteria for determining predatory publishers are here.​ Hopefully, tenure and promotion committees will also be able to decide for themselves how importantly or not to rate articles published in these journals in the context of their own institutional standards. 

PostDoc in Environmental Mineralogy at GFZ (Postdam, Germany) within the ERC SyG “Deep Purple”

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New position as Research Associate (PostDoc) in Environmental Mineralogy at the German Research Centre for Geosciences (Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum/GFZ) in Potsdam, Germany. 

The ideal candidate a highly motivated and enthusiastic mineralogist who wants to develop her/his/their skills in a highly interdisciplinary work environment in order to obtain a holistic understanding of mineral-microbe-fluid-interactions in Earth Surface processes.
The successful candidate will contribute their specialist mineralogical skills in diffraction, scattering and spectroscopy to two main aspects related to low temperature (< 100 °C) mineral reactions:

(a) as part of the ERC Synergy grant “Deep Purple”, she/he/they will evaluate the variations in mineralogical composition of dust (and their interactions with black carbon and microbes) from surface snow and ice samples and determine the contribution of mineral dust to the darkening of the Greenland Ice Sheet.
(b) as part of the Interface Geochemistry section, she/he/they will help to elucidate nucleation, growth and transformation of amorphous and crystalline phases.


She/he/they will join an international and diverse team of researchers led by Liane G. Benning, who is very committed to fostering a fully inclusive research environment. Non-discrimination and equal treatment are integral parts of the group policy. 

For further information, please visit http://eurominunion.org/?page_id=1431.

BRIDGE BETWEEN ACADEMIA AND INDUSTRY – 8th of June – 18 h (UK time)

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The London Postdoc Network (LPN) is organising a new online event about working at the bridge between Academia and Industry, with the aim to give Academic staff/PhD student s/Postdocs a good idea of what it is like to work in those two environments in parallel and how they can be complementary and rewarding.

There will be a 10 min presentation by the leadership programme: FLIER: Future Leaders in Innovation,Enterprise and Research, a panel discussion with two invited speakers and a Q&A session where you will be able to ask your questions:

[1] https://acmedsci.ac.uk/grants-and-schemes/mentoring-and-other-schemes/FLIER  

[2] https://www.linkedin.com/in/davide-danovi-a6246a13/

[3] https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-caley-04779730/ 

Here is the Eventbrite link to register (Zoom link will follow your registration) and receive updates:

Scholarships for young researchers (degree in the last 5 yrs) to work in France

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Make our planet great again is a research stay grant program for young researchers from any nationality, except French citizens, who obtained their degree less than 5 years ago in the following fields:

  • Earth system sciences.
  • Climate change and sustainability sciences.
  • Energy transition.
  • Societal challenges of environmental issues.
  • Human, animal and environmental health.

The scholarship (application deadline: 10 January 2022) will be awarded from September 2022, for a period of 12 months. The concepts for which the aid will be received are as follows:

  • A monthly allowance of €2,500.
  • 500 euros moving allowance.
  • Aid for social security coverage.
  • Aid for medical insurance.

On the occasion of the “OneOceanSummit” to be organized in France in February 2022, special attention will be given to ocean-related applications.

Open positions at PostDoc, PhD and Technician levels to work on carbon nanotubes as fillers in polymer composites

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NANOCORE-IMDEA Nanociencia is a 15+ scientists, 3+M€, 3+ year collaboration between the group of Prof. Emilio M. Pérez at Madrid-based, Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence, IMDEA Nanociencia, and the Danish nanotech company NANOCORE. They are using a novel and proprietary technology, developed during the course of ERC StG and PoC grants, to finally unleash the enormous potential of carbon nanotubes as fillers in polymer composites.

They are seeking smart and engaged scientists at the Research Scientist, PostDoc, PhD and Technician levels (several positions available), preferably with knowledge and experience in one or several of the following areas:

  • Polymer/composites chemistry and analysis
  • Materials science and engineering
  • Structure-property relationships in materials
  • Carbon nanotubes and graphene

REQUIRED EDUCATION LEVEL: Chemistry: Master Degree or equivalent

Skills/Qualifications

1. Research Scientist: More than four years postdoctoral experience in the specific topic.

2. PostDoc: PhD in chemistry completed when the position starts. Ability to demonstrate exceptional research accomplishments.

3. PhD: Master degree courses in chemistry, materials science, engineering or related discipline.

4. Technician: Technician or Superior Technician degree, in the framework of professional training

General Application Requirements

  • Applications should be sent electronically to jobs.nanociencia@imdea.org
  • The subject of the mail should start with the profile followed by your family name and name (ie. subject: PostDoc Smith John).
  • One compressed file (in PDF format) including the following documents:
    • Motivation letter (max. 1 page),
    • Short curriculum vitae (max. 2 pages including the 5 most relevant papers and invited talks as well as the prizes or other major achievements, etc.)
    • For the Research Scientist, Postdoc and Technician position, names and contact details of at least two Referees.

Elsevier signed DORA and made articles available to support best research assessment indicators

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After one year since the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA, for ensuring fair research output evaluations), Elsevier signed it last 16th of December, in their commitment to supporting the continued improvement of responsible use of metrics and indicators in research assessment best practice. This announcement builds on Elsevier endorsing the Leiden Manifesto earlier this year, which gives the research community clarity on how they will deliver improved research evaluation tools and indicators.

As part of it, Elsevier has agreed to make reference lists for all articles published in Elsevier and their society partners, openly available via Crossref so that they are available for reuse. Sharing reference data helps to support the discoverability of content and researchers’ work in managing citations. This means other important initiatives like I4OC can draw on this metadata.

Past initiatives were, (1) CiteScore (launched in 2016), for listening to feedback from researchers, research leaders, librarians and journal editors, (2) a new calculation methodology for 2019 CiteScore values, for faster and more robust comparisons of journals while retaining the comprehensive, current and clear methodology that is appreciated so much; or (3) CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy), for acknowledging the specific contributions of each author in an article, aiming to encourage responsible authorship practices.

Information here

Citations Laureates

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You may know that each year, the Nobel Assembly confers science’s highest honours with the Nobel Prizes in Stockholm, Sweden. But did you know that Clarivate Analytics (which acquired Thomson Reuters’ Intellectual Property and Science Business) similarly selects the Citations Laureates?

https://clarivate.co.kr/category/news-rooms/2019CitationLaureates/2019-citation-laureates-key-images/

Clarivate (whose main focused is on analytics of scientific and academic research) draws on Web of Science™ publication and citation data to reveal the list of Citation Laureates™ of each year, since 2002. These are the giants of research deemed to be ‘of Nobel class’.