Breakout Groups YSM

Breakout Groups

  1. Social media for scientists
  2. You only live once: Finding the right balance between research and private life
  3. Career path: Exceptions are the rule
  4. Be a part of the climate change solution
  5. Stand up for the climate (relevance of paleoscience for politics)
  6. ECN: The next generation of PAGES
  7. What is the future of the scientific publication?
  8. Grant funding agencies
  9. Manuscript preparation and submission strategies
  10. Managing research data/results and software tools/programs
  11. Scientific (online) oral presentation strategies
  12. Academic CV writing and building a personal webpage

1. Social media for scientists

Social networking platforms are powerful means for scientists to share their research both with other scientists and non-experts, and stay up-to-date with both advances in the field and current job openings. Participants in this breakout group will discuss how social media can be used effectively to enhance academic careers, including strategies for outreach and the importance of social media in job applications.

2. You only live once: Finding the right balance between research and private life

How do you find the right balance between research and private life? Should there be a well-defined boundary? Within the professional sphere, how do you divide your time with research, publications, teaching, reviews, outreach, social media, and the many other aspects of working in academia? What are effective strategies for prioritizing? How do you juggle all of this and still maintain good mental health and well-being?

3. Career path: Exceptions are the rule

Not everyone will follow a traditionally conventional academic career path. How can you prepare for other possibilities? What transferable skills do you have as an ECR? Do you have any PhD-holding role models outside academia? What degree of job security exists within and outside of academia? Pros and cons of a career in academia versus industry or government? What strategies exist for planning the next steps in your career? Possible discussion points include what you think is needed to start a career outside academia, how research can help in other professional domains, and how to manage career breaks.

4. Be a part of the climate change solution

Do climate scientists have a responsibility to act as role models for the rest of the world? Many of us travel to remote field sites and international conferences, and additionally, mobility is highly prized (for better or worse) in the world of research, such that many of us will be required to move between countries at least once. What high-emission activities can/should be sacrificed and/or replaced by lower-emission alternatives? How can we personally reduce our carbon footprints? How has this changed with the COVID pandemic? And how much of this responsibility should be borne by early-career researchers?

5. Stand up for the climate (relevance of paleoscience for politics)

As climate scientists, we may feel that on top of our "regular" research jobs we must also moonlight as science communicators, but this extra responsibility is not shared by all research fields. As an expert in this politically-charged field, is it my job to be politically/socially active in the climate change movement? What relevance does research in paleo science have for politics? How can I contribute to society? How can I prepare myself to address non-expert audiences, and how much of my time should I devote to this? In this break-out group, participants may discuss how they would describe their research to their peers, and how that contrasts with how they would describe their research to non-scientists, as well as how important they think it is to communicate their work to e.g. the media, politicians, the general public, and how to go about this.

6. ECN: The next generation of PAGES

Tomorrow's science will be determined by today's early-career researchers (ECRs). The PAGES Early-Career Network was established in 2017 after the YSM in Spain, but the expectation of what ECRs want from the PAGES ECN may have changed during this time, and the global research environment has certainly changed over this period! What can the ECN do to help you in your career? How could you contribute to the ECN? What should the role of the ECN be? What are possible strategies or visions for the next 10 years? the next 20 years?

7. What is the future of the scientific publication?

Peer review has long been viewed as the best method to ensure high quality publication, and publication metrics (e.h. H-index) are still used as key ranking criteria by many universities when assessing applicants for mid- to late-career level positions. But is there more to science than just journal articles? Publishing and accessing scientific articles is expensive, and yet the authors and the reviewers are not paid. Should that be changed? Are there other models that could work better, such as open-access online platforms for publications? But what are the downsides to this? Scientific research is often conducted with public funding - should the results of that research be freely accessible for all, and what are the best ways to disseminate our work?

8. Grant funding agencies

How is your research funded? Do you know how your lab research is funded? Which funding is available in your country? How can you apply for funding? What is important in the application or in an interview for funding, and how does this vary between countries/continents?

9. Manuscript preparation and submission strategies

Preparing your first (or even second!) first-author publication can be a daunting prospect. How do you go about turning your data and/or results into a journal article? How do you decide where to submit your work? Who should be on the author list? We will discuss strategies for the best ways to present your work, as well as tips for the manuscript planning, writing, and preparation process. We will also discuss what happens after submission: what are the best ways to approach paper rejection, and how to most efficiently address reviewer comments?

10. Managing research data/results and software tools/programs

Many scientific journals now require that all data used or presented in a journal article is freely accessible. Where are the best places to archive your data? What formats are best for different types of data? How do researchers working in "proxy data" space make their data useful to researchers working in "model data" space and vice versa? Large, internally standardised databases of paleoclimate records (e.g. PAGES2k, Temp12k, Iso2k, SISAL) are becoming increasingly common - these enable scientists to answer a much broader range of scientific questions, but raise the issue of how to "funnel" database citations to the component datasets. Participants will discuss ways in which this may be addressed as paleoclimate data become increasingly freely available.

11. Scientific (online) oral presentation strategies

Presenting your research in conferences and seminars is a vital part of your career as a scientist - oral presentation is one of the most efficient ways to share your work, as well as being an important networking tool. We will discuss tips and tricks for effective scientific presentations, and how these differ (or not!) between in-person and online seminars & presentations, as well as differences between longer talks (seminars), shorter talks (at conferences), and even shorter talks ("pitch talks" given live at virtual conferences with pre-recorded talks), as well as presentations given to topic experts versus more generalist audiences.

12. Academic CV writing and building a personal webpage

Every job that you apply for will ask for a CV, but it can be difficult to know how much detail to include on a CV, and indeed what information should be included, and in what order. We will give examples of academic CV layouts, with perspectives from senior researchers who have experience in assessing job applicants based on their CV. Participants should bring their current CV, and will workshop these amongst themselves, with input from the session moderators.