Women have been historically underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), both in education and in the careers that follow (see The STEM Gap for example), and one of the things that we strive to do at TL;DR is to amplify amazing contributors from across the breadth of the community we work with.
It’s fast approaching six months since the TL;DR site launched at the end of April, so we thought it was a great opportunity to look back and celebrate the amazing women who have been at the forefront of the conversation on TL;DR so far.
Here’s a look back on their TL;DR posts in 2023 to date, from our launch back in April up until today:
Featured Articles
April
Our new avenue for interesting things
The founding team of TL;DR featured three brilliant women: Dr Briony Fane, Dr Suze Kundu, and Dr Leslie McIntosh! They’ve all contributed further articles to TL;DR throughout the year, which you can find via their profile pages 🙂
May
Research Twitter – where everybody knows your name
A chance to discover the origin of the “FunSizeSuze” moniker in this discussion piece from Dr Suze Kundu on social media platforms and their role in helping to build research communities and break down barriers to inclusion and cross-disciplinary research.
Down the rabbit hole – exploring inequalities in funding of climate change research
Misha Kidambi is Scientific Communications Manager at Digital Science, and earlier this year wrote about “A tragedy of inequalities” — highlighting differences in research funding of climate change research. Find out how the article came about, and the most surprising thing she found out — that STEM fields get 770% more funding than humanities, and only 3.8% of funding is allocated to climate research on Africa.
FuturePub is back! Here’s what happened on May the 4th
Co-hosted by Dr Suze Kundu, FuturePub is our fun, informal evening event showcasing what’s new in the world of scholarly publishing tech. Find out what happened at our first such event since the pandemic started!
June
Fruit flies and maggot brains – the magic of Soapbox Science
Soapbox Science is a novel public outreach platform for promoting women and non-binary scientists and the research they do. We caught up with Isla Watton, who is responsible for recruiting and training Soapbox Science Local Organising Teams and supporting the delivery of Soapbox Science events globally, and Hui Gong, a neuroscientist at The Francis Crick Institute and one of the London speakers for Soapbox Science 2023!
July
Dr Jessica Miles: From Michael Faraday to Microbiology to AI & beyond
This is the story of how a school science fair inspired in Dr Jessica Miles a passion for science communication, a PhD in microbiology, and a valuable perspective on the current AI debate.
Mind the Trust Gap
Trust. Five letters, multiple meanings, immense power. Trust arrives on foot and leaves on horseback.1 Trust is the basis for society, but foundations are fracturing in a world of growing divides. Dr Leslie McIntosh launches the first TL;DR campaign of 2023 focused on trust in research.
Another Happy Landing for FuturePub in San Francisco!
One sunny Thursday evening in July, Dr Suze Kundu and the team headed to the picturesque Presidio in San Francisco to host our popular #FuturePub event. This was only our second in the US, and first on the West Coast!
August
Vaccine Hesitancy and the Importance of Trust
With trust in research a critical issue, a small team led by Dr Briony Fane and Dr Hélène Draux take a detailed look at a key ‘trust marker’ in research publications on vaccine hesitancy.
AI and Publishing: Moving forward requires looking backward
As with the rest of the world, the research sector is concerned about the impact of generative AI. Guest author Dr Danny Kingsley asks: Is AI the disruption scholarly publishing needs?
Navigating Trust in Academic Research: The Rise of Data Availability Statements – Part I
In an era of miscommunication and escalating pressures on academic researchers, the bedrock of credibility and trustworthiness in the scholarly world is under the microscope like never before. In this blog series, Ann Campbell and Dr Jingwen Mu venture into the realms of research transparency, focusing first on the rise of Data Availability Statements.
September
A good time to be working on AI: an interview with Professor Sue Black
She’s an award-winning Computer Scientist, Technology Evangelist and Digital Skills Expert who led the campaign to save Bletchley Park, and earlier this summer Professor Sue Black spoke to us about her experiences of AI and her hopes for the future.
Digital Science Speaker Series
The live, in-person Digital Science Speaker Series talks are back! This year we’re partnering with the Royal Institution (the Ri) to sponsor two of their public lectures in 2023, and Dr Suze Kundu kicked things off by interviewing Dr Chris van Tulleken ahead of his talk on “Ultra-Processed People”.
A multi-dimensional approach to assessing the impact of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
In this short, informal interview, Dr Briony Fane and Dr Juergen Wastl explain some of the methods behind their work on assessing how global research ties into the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
October (so far!)
A tale of two pharmas – Global North and Global South
Dr Briony Fane and Ann Campbell lead this analysis on funding & collaboration, and the localisation of SDGs in the pharmaceutical industry, using a bibliometric evaluation of scientific publications.
World Mental Health Day 2023 with Digital Science
For World Mental Health Day 2023, we spoke with Danielle Feger – Global Health and Wellbeing Manager at Digital Science – about what the day means for her, for our teams and for the broader research community.
Coming up
We also have some fantastic events coming up over the next month, including:
- Monday 30th October: #FuturePub is back for its third outing of 2023 and this time, like so many things, it has an AI flavour about it! Join us at Bounce Farringdon at 6pm on 30th October for food, drink, six amazing talks from some of the best AI wranglers in research, and perhaps a few rounds of ping pong! Register here for your free ticket. Presentations will also be recorded and shared after the event.
- Monday 6th November: #FuturePub then heads to Berlin for Berlin Science Week and the Falling Walls Science Summit! There will be a number of us from Digital Science attending in person, and we’re hosting #FuturePub on the evening of the 6th to kickstart that week. Event registration details coming soon!
- Thursday 16th November: The Digital Science Speaker Series continues on 16th November with a talk at the Royal Institution from physicist Dame Athene Donald about gender equality in science with a talk entitled Not Just For The Boys. This talk will also be recorded and shared after the event.
Plus we’ll be continuing to publish new articles, interviews and videos on TL;DR, so keep an eye out for new content and follow @digitalsci / Digital Science to be amongst the first to know!
Get involved
Would you like to get involved in the discussion and contribute to TL;DR? Please ping myself or Suze with your idea directly, or send Digital Science a message! We’d love to hear from you 🙂
