Mentors: The good, the bad, and what to consider when choosing one

Nature Index Newsletter |

View this email in your browser 2 March, 2021

Follow us on:

Hello Nature Index readers, Mentoring, whether it's part of a PhD candidate-supervisor relationship or something more informal, can give young researchers a tremendous advantage in their career. This week, we feature stories that explore the qualities that render mentorship so valuable, plus some red flags to watch out for. Also this week, a sobering look at the gender imbalance in senior career stages.

ON MENTORSHIP

This simple tool shows you how to choose your mentors One of the most important predictors of career success is the choice of mentors you make when you're first starting out. NATURE INDEX  |  5 minute read

Pairing with an influential co-author gives young researchers a career-long boost Co-authorship with an established, highly cited scientist gives young researchers an advantage that lasts their entire career. NATURE INDEX  |  5 minute read

How to choose the right PhD supervisor Four tips that can help PhD candidates choose a suitable supervisor, and the red flags to watch out for. NATURE INDEX  |  5 minute read

What can your PhD supervisor do for you? Four recommendations to help students and supervisors maintain a productive working relationship. NATURE INDEX  |  5 minute read

Mentoring during the COVID-19 pandemic Colleagues facing closed labs and enforced social distancing need a different type of support. Mentors must change their approach, says Ruth Gotian. NATURE  |  5 minute read

Why seek a single mentor when you can have three — or more Anna Henschel's experience in seeking out a board of mentors enabled her to build a powerful support structure. NATURE  |  6 minute read

FEATURED VISUALIZATION

The under-representation of women at senior levels in science is stark in this visualization, which appeared in a 2020 paper led by Leslie Rissler, a biologist at the US National Science Foundation (NSF).

The analysis is based on 15 years of data from the NSF's Survey of Doctorate Recipients, which tracks individuals with a US research doctoral degree in a science, engineering, or health field. The fields seen here are social, behavioural and economic sciences (SBE); biological sciences (BIO); geosciences (GEO); computer and information science and engineering (CISE); engineering (ENG); and mathematical and physical sciences (MPS). In a system where women and minority researchers are rewarded less often for their ideas than their white, male counterparts, something has to change. Here are some suggestions for how institutions can help improve equality, diversity and inclusion.

WHAT WE'RE READING

Ah, conference buffets. Remember them? As we reported in October, conference organizers have been struggling to adapt to the pandemic-precipitated demise of these professional in-person gatherings. This week, our colleagues at The Scholarly Kitchen have been thinking about what has been lost and how virtual scientific conferences might be re-imagined to deliver the best value. Networking and deal-making are among the casualties in the shift to on-screen get-togethers (strangely, the buffet isn't mentioned); on the upside, not needing to travel means barriers to participation (expense, time) are reduced, so a wider spectrum of researchers can potentially attend. But the Indian government was having none of it. The Hindu reports that under orders issued in January, researchers were required to get prior clearance from the Ministry of External Affairs to participate in any online international seminar or conference that might touch on "India's internal matters". This included "political, scientific, technical, commercial, personal [subjects] with provisions for sharing data in any form". Happily, the order has been withdrawn after protests from peak scientific bodies to the effect that such bureaucratic overreach would hold back the country's scientific progress and capacity-building.

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS FROM OUR PARTNERS Peering under the skulls of mice New light microscopy technique can image inside the skull of a mouse. Institute for Basic Science Designer exosomes treat sepsis in mice Sepsis in mice quelled by vesicles charged with anti-inflammatory protein. KAIST Bringing clarity to disordered proteins Atomic force microscopy reveals the structure and dynamics of disordered proteins. Kanazawa University For more research highlights, click here.

Do you have a research story you'd like to share with the Nature Index audience? We welcome insights, advice, and opinion pieces from the scientific community on our core topics: the authorship, publication, and communication of natural-sciences research, and research performance and assessment. Find out more. We'd love to hear your thoughts on this newsletter. If you'd like to get in contact with the Nature Index team, you can email us at natureindex@nature.com. And if you think your friends or colleagues would like to subscribe to this newsletter, please share this link. Catherine Armitage and Bec Crew, Nature Index

Follow us on:

You have been sent this email because you have signed up to receive the Nature Index newsletter. You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time. Nature | The Springer Nature Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London, N1 9XW, United Kingdom Nature | Shiroyama Trust Tower 5F, 4-3-1 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan Nature Portfolio, part of Springer Nature. © Springer Nature Limited. All rights reserved.

Why young researchers are key to global COVID-19 exit strategy

Nature Index Newsletter |

View this email in your browser 24 February, 2021

Follow us on:

Hello Nature Index readers, The pandemic has tested the limits of research and innovation systems worldwide, and young researchers are feeling the pressure. This vulnerable group is also highly valuable, according to a new OECD report on trends that have emerged from the crisis. Also this week, why some peer-reviewers are softening their approach, and a breakdown by country of blood types.

THE LATEST

Support for new tech, young researchers is key to global COVID-19 exit strategy A new report urges policy-makers to heed the "wake-up call" of the pandemic and shore up research and innovation systems. NATURE INDEX  |  6 minute read

How COVID-19 could make science kinder Reviewers are providing more constructive feedback in a time of crisis, but how long will it last? NATURE INDEX  |  5 minute read

FROM THE ARCHIVE

China: Engineering a biomedical revolution A permissive regulatory climate and a pragmatic approach has seen China's bioscience sector soar. NATURE INDEX  |  6 minute read

FEATURED VISUALIZATION

This heat map, created by Reddit user takeasecondy, reveals the most common blood types in 50 countries. Peru and the Democratic Republic of the Congo stand out, reporting 70% and 60% of the population, respectively, as having O+ blood type. Universal donors are those with an O- blood type, as their donation can be used in transfusions for any blood type. View the underlying data.

WHAT WE'RE READING

Two appraisals of the impact of the pandemic caught our eye this week. One, a study in The BMJ, looks at why an index of countries' pandemic preparedness, which put the United States and the UK at the top before COVID-19 hit, turned out to be so wrong. They found the index was biased towards high-income countries, paid insufficient attention to the role of political leadership and geographic factors, and failed to assess the capacity of national health systems, among other reasons. Meanwhile, The Chronicle of Higher Education Trends Report 2021 considers how the higher-education landscape will be reshaped by the pandemic. It predicts wealthy institutions will emerge relatively unscathed, but cash-strapped public universities will have reduced offerings, more tightly focused on job outcomes and taught by faculty whose jobs are less secure. Ways of monitoring student health and performance added in the pandemic are here to stay, while the pipeline of academic researchers may suffer lasting damage. On the bright side, we may be going through a "watershed moment in the history of higher education and race."

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS FROM OUR PARTNERS Big-brained bees have pickier palate Bees that are fussy about their food have bigger brains Spanish National Research Council Maternal gut bacteria may protect offspring from allergy Babies born to women who have a certain species of gut bacteria could have a lower risk of developing a food allergy. Deakin University Actively counteracting corrosion A strategy used for drug delivery could prove useful for combatting corrosion. Vidyasirimedhi Inst of Sci and Technology For more research highlights, click here.

Do you have a research story you'd like to share with the Nature Index audience? We welcome insights, advice, and opinion pieces from the scientific community on our core topics: the authorship, publication, and communication of natural-sciences research, and research performance and assessment. Find out more. We'd love to hear your thoughts on this newsletter. If you'd like to get in contact with the Nature Index team, you can email us at natureindex@nature.com. And if you think your friends or colleagues would like to subscribe to this newsletter, please share this link. Catherine Armitage and Bec Crew, Nature Index

Follow us on:

You have been sent this email because you have signed up to receive the Nature Index newsletter. You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time. Nature | The Springer Nature Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London, N1 9XW, United Kingdom Nature | Shiroyama Trust Tower 5F, 4-3-1 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan Nature Research, part of Springer Nature. © 2020 Springer Nature Limited. All rights reserved.

25 of the most talked-about recent papers in the natural sciences

Nature Index Newsletter |

View this email in your browser 16 February, 2021

Follow us on:

Hello Nature Index readers, Amid the challenges of the pandemic, researchers have published important advances in areas such as quantum computing, superconductivity, and ageing. We look back at some of these stand-out studies, ranked by Altmetric attention score, which measures coverage from media outlets and social media channels. Of course, attention isn't always a positive thing - these lists include two controversial studies that drew public criticism, one related to autism and the other to AI. Also this week, a video that explores the various mutations of COVID-19.

FEATURED STUDIES

The 5 most popular scientific papers of December 2020 in the Nature Index journals Featuring a major milestone in light-based quantum computing and the possibility of reversed ageing. NATURE INDEX

The 5 most talked-about scientific papers of November 2020 in the Nature Index journals The little-studied effect of a warming climate on hurricanes, and controversial research on autism. NATURE INDEX

The 5 most popular scientific papers of October 2020 in the Nature Index journals The origin of dogs, a beetle's super-strength, and the phenomenon of room-temperature superconductivity. NATURE INDEX

The 5 most popular scientific papers of September 2020 in the Nature Index journals A Neanderthal-derived gene cluster linked to COVID-19 symptoms and a controversial AI algorithm. NATURE INDEX

The 5 most popular scientific papers of August 2020 in the Nature Index journals A gruesome escape artist and ingenious dolphin behaviour. NATURE INDEX

FEATURED VISUALIZATION

The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus seems to be acquiring mutations at a rapid rate. Sara Reardon and Dominic Smith from Scientific American explain what the new variants are, how they arise and are transmitted, and what they could mean for the new vaccines. The clip below features the N501Y mutation, estimated to have first emerged in the UK in September 2020, and the E484K mutation, first identified in South Africa. Watch the full video.

WHAT WE'RE READING

You can lead a reader to an article, but how do you make them click? This study, written up by Science, confirms that your paper getting some attention on Twitter doesn't mean that anyone is actually reading it. A review of 1.1 million Twitter links to published research articles found that half drew no clicks and only about 10% received more than 10. So even if your Altmetric score says your article has reached an audience of millions, the vast majority of this audience will probably do no more than scan a tweet about it, if that. In the case of preprints, even those who go so far as to read a journalistic write-up of your research are unlikely to appreciate that it's not been verified, because only three in five media outlets bother to mention that fact, according to this study in Health Communication, written up by Times Higher Education. The general lack of understanding of the scientific process has been a constant lament among scientists during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the hope that the crisis will lead to better understanding seems a forlorn one. This working paper from the US National Bureau of Economic Research looks at 2018 survey data from individuals who were exposed to epidemics in their country of residence between the "impressionable" ages of 18-25 in 138 countries. An epidemic's effect "significantly reduces trust in scientists and in the benefits of their work," the authors conclude. This distrust translates into lower compliance with health-related policies, such as lower rates of vaccination in children. The authors say a key reason for the reduced trust is that people with little knowledge of the scientific process see scientists disagreeing with each other, or disputing the findings of studies, and interpret these exchanges as indicators of widespread bias or dishonesty in the scientific community. It appears science has more work to do to explain itself.

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS FROM OUR PARTNERS Immune repertoire revealed Computational tool characterizes breadth of T-cell response to tuberculosis infection. University of Cape Town Watching water heat up at ultrahigh time scales Water behaves strangely when rapidly heated by pulses from the world's most powerful X-ray laser. University of Hamburg A new type of neurotoxin discovered in stinging tree Analysis of the venom of the giant Australian stinging tree has revealed a new type of neurotoxin. University of Queensland For more research highlights, click here.

Do you have a research story you'd like to share with the Nature Index audience? We welcome insights, advice, and opinion pieces from the scientific community on our core topics: the authorship, publication, and communication of natural-sciences research, and research performance and assessment. Find out more. We'd love to hear your thoughts on this newsletter. If you'd like to get in contact with the Nature Index team, you can email us at natureindex@nature.com. And if you think your friends or colleagues would like to subscribe to this newsletter, please share this link. Catherine Armitage and Bec Crew, Nature Index

Follow us on:

You have been sent this email because you have signed up to receive the Nature Index newsletter. You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time. Nature | The Springer Nature Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London, N1 9XW, United Kingdom Nature | Shiroyama Trust Tower 5F, 4-3-1 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan Nature Research, part of Springer Nature. © 2020 Springer Nature Limited. All rights reserved.