CoffeeTime Science: New Year’s Resolutions

Wishes for 2016 reveal what scientists want to achieve – and worry about 

It’s the week before New Year’s Eve. Narges, Katja and I are discussing our New Year’s resolutions for 2016. Mine involve getting a manuscript published that has been stuck in the works for way too long, and to continue learning new skills and figure out my next career steps. Katja also wants to publish in 2016, and she, too, is thinking about career development. Publications and our careers – seems like your typical postdoc things to worry about. “You should do a poll amongst the scientists you know to see what their resolutions for 2016 are” Narges suggests. And I did just that^*.

A couple of days later, the results were in. “So what are the main findings of your poll?” Katja asks, and I show her and Narges the results (see image below).

“I have to make a disclaimer that my sample size is relatively small, especially for PIs (n=4) and PhD students (n=2). Quite a few postdocs replied though (n=13), so I lumped the students in with the postdocs” I explain. Narges and Katja smile at my pseudo-scientific approach to the whole thing. “As you can see in the left pie chart, the two main things PIs worry about are procuring funding, and being drowned in admin and other duties that keep them from being able to focus on science.

Meanwhile, postdocs and the two PhD students shown in the right pie chart worried about a wider range of things, with the predominant worries being – Katja and I are no exception – about their careers and publications” I conclude.

“Of course, the students are also worried about their projects and exams. And there were quite a lot of food-related resolutions (included in ‘other’), as well as some calls for a punch bag in the lab, which I put under ‘frustration management’”.

Katja and Narges agree with my analytical approach and are also not surprised by the main findings of this poll. “I think it is quite telling that the PIs don’t worry that much about publications” Narges observes. “Although given your small sample size that might just be specific to those 4 PIs”. I respond that I think that it likely reflects the fact that PIs are much more worried about funding and other responsibilities so that publications seem to be lower on their list than they probably are. “So our career stage-specific worries are nicely reflected in our resolutions for 2016” Katja concludes. “It will be interesting to compare our resolutions for this coming year with those we will have for the year after, and if they have changed or are still the same”. Easy enough to do.

For now, let’s hope everyone’s resolutions – or more precisely their list of targets to achieve – are fulfilled, and that 2016 will be a little less about our career-specific worries and a little more about science. Cheers to that, and happy 2016 to everyone!

^* No scientists were harmed in this study.

My name is Christine, and I am an immunologist. After my undergraduate studies in Oxford, I moved to London for my PhD and first postdoc. After 7 years in this magnificent city, I was ready for an adventure and decided to go to Boston for a second postdoc. Six years later, I’ve made Boston my permanent home, but I am currently on an 8-month sabbatical back in London, where I am learning new things at The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine before returning to Boston. In addition to doing research, I write a series of blogs about conversations and discussions I have had with other scientists, with topics ranging from the inane to career goals and options, our research, new techniques and technologies and the like. I would like to share some of those topics with you in this blog. Want to join in? Grab yourself a cup of your favorite caffeinated beverage, read along, and leave comments. You can read my other blog posts here.