Survival Skills For Scientists

by Federico Rosei, Tudor Johnston

This book provides young scientists, from physicists through to sociologists, the counsel and tools that are needed to be their own agents and planners, to survive and succeed, hopefully even thrive in science. Making a good career based on peer-reviewed science means navigating many stressful phases from graduate school through to permanent employment. Performing artists pay agents to help them in this effort. In effect, this book is designed to allow you to act as your own agent. You are counseled to analyze yourself deeply to know clearly what you want and whether you can live with it, how to make career choices and what you should then keep in mind, when to fight and when to yield. The unwritten rules of the "science game" are explained, including how to become published and known, the pitfalls of peer review and how to evade them, papers and posters, job interviews and getting your science funded. Interspersed with this are illustrative anecdotes and a fair amount of humor. While the book is aimed at young scientists, from graduate students and beyond, more senior scientists will benefit from seeing the world from the point of view of rising scientists and become aware of the preoccupations of people in a system which has changed much from when the present senior scientists were rather younger.

Genres: Science

228 pages, Paperback

First published July 17, 2006

Reviews

[5ermán ۷ogel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quite useful collection of perspectives and tips for those into scientific research, which would otherwise take 5-10 years to conclude by rough first-hand experience. If your supervisor was your best friend and had unlimited available time, these are the things he would be telling you and how he would be preparing you for your career.

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a student who has just begun it's PhD I found this book quite good for guidance. It's not a very thorough guide but it covers most of the aspects that concern grad students and young scientists. The anecdotes where very interesting and the authors made a great job of being concise on every step of this guide.

[Steve Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a pretty interesting read (in parts), but it was clearly targeted towards academics in Europe and North America (which wasn't relevant to me personally). I definitely got a couple of things out of it, but most of it was pretty irrelevant.

[David Bickel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting personal experiences of academics and tips on writing papers and attending conferences.

[Matt Jans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great motivational/perspective read for any researcher.