Research scientists play a pivotal role in society. Their passion for science will drive them forward, leading to new discoveries that will ultimately make the world a better place. Unfortunately, as the professional environment becomes more and more competitive, research scientists today cannot just rely on technical knowledge to carve successful careers. Besides technical skills, they will need to acquire other skills, such as how to communicate their science to the outside world. A Survival Guide for Research Scientists is a one-stop-shop that will help you to develop those core skills not often taught at school or university. The book has been written by an author with more than 20 years of scientific research experience (across different scientific disciplines). She has not only been a research scientist but also a writer, a consultant, a sole-trader and a project manager. A Survival Guide for Research Scientists takes on a holistic approach in order to help you pave the way for success. As such, it features practical guidelines on how to: • conduct your scientific research (how to: do literature review, design experiments, adopt best practice, ensure health and safety, etc.). • write and edit (reports, bid proposals, peer review publications, etc). • interact with the outside world (be a team leader, manage a project, network, deal with difficult people, do presentations, organise meetings, etc.). • look after your career (and get your dream job). • look after yourself (and how to manage stress). • look for a job (develop your CV, prepare for interviews, etc.). • become self-employed (and achieve business success). • deal with redundancy (and move forward in life, etc) Whatever your scientific background may be, this book is the perfect accompaniment, to guide you at every stage of your career.

During the course of Dutch physicist and Spinoza Prize–winner Ad Lagendijk’s long and influential career, he has published more than 300 articles, supervised over thirty doctoral dissertations, and given countless presentations and conference addresses. Over the years, his incisive consultations, tips, and rules for scientific study have proven themselves so beneficial to the emerging young scientists under his watch that he has been inundated with requests for a written version. Aimed primarily at undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students in the natural sciences, Survival Guide for Scientists presents Lagendijk’s practical how-to advice on essential topics such as the foundations for writing scientific texts, presenting data and research information, and writing and reading collegial e-mails. Each section is organized by a collection of short rules, outlined and numbered in a logical order as self-explanatory pieces of information—allowing the reader the freedom to study any number of them in any desired order. These concrete guidelines are all supplemented by an extensive index that forms a reference text of its own, with easy navigation—securing a place for the Survival Guide for Scientists on the shelves of scientific scholars and students alike.

Everything you ever need to know about making it as a scientist. Despite your graduate education, brainpower, and technical prowess, your career in scientific research is far from assured. Permanent positions are scarce, science survival is rarely part of formal graduate training, and a good mentor is hard to find. In A Ph.D. Is Not Enough!, physicist Peter J. Feibelman lays out a rational path to a fulfilling long-term research career. He offers sound advice on selecting a thesis or postdoctoral adviser; choosing among research jobs in academia, government laboratories, and industry; preparing for an employment interview; and defining a research program. The guidance offered in A Ph.D. Is Not Enough! will help you make your oral presentations more effective, your journal articles more compelling, and your grant proposals more successful. A classic guide for recent and soon-to-be graduates, A Ph.D. Is Not Enough! remains required reading for anyone on the threshold of a career in science. This new edition includes two new chapters and is revised and updated throughout to reflect how the revolution in electronic communication has transformed the field.

“This is an excellent and much needed book. It has a clear and logical structure that leads you through the knowledge base needed to critically appraise and evaluate clinical research studies … Each section has brief measurable learning outcomes to give the learning focus and particularly helpful is the “Jargon Busting” glossary placed at the end of each chapter … This is the book I wish I had written.” Christine Lorraine Carline, Senior Lecturer, Staffordshire University, Faculty of Health, UK “This short book covers all the major issues and perspectives with which health undergraduates must become familiar … It is written in plain English with clear explanations and appropriate examples, along with exercises, articles and glossaries. For those students who approach the topic of research with trepidation, this book will be a welcome and painless introduction.” David Shaw PhD CSci, The Open University, UK “The author has provided a text that is accessible to a wide range of health students and practitioners ... The discussions about how recent is recent evidence is a question that particularly vexes students and this book provides some guidance to the debate, whilst acknowledging there is no easy answer.” Alan Williams, Lecturer, University of Nottingham, UK This handy book is an ideal companion for all health and nursing students looking for an accessible guide to research. Written in a friendly style, the book takes the stress out of research learning by offering realistic, practical guidance and demystifying research methods jargon. The book takes you through the main methods, tools and approaches used by health researchers and uses examples and case studies to highlight good and bad practice in research. The book also includes: Guidance on critical thinking and writing, to assist you in interpreting research articles and judging their worth Simple exercises, discussion points and reflective opportunities to help you construct logical arguments and apply research findings to practice Useful tips for surviving and exceeding in your course of study A section in each chapter on ‘jargon busting’ to help you keep on top of the terms and language used in research A Survival Guide for Health Research Methods is a great first book for students and practitioners new to the subject. It will also be of use to staff returning to practice and those with no prior research knowledge.

Why the social character of scientific knowledge makes it trustworthy Are doctors right when they tell us vaccines are safe? Should we take climate experts at their word when they warn us about the perils of global warming? Why should we trust science when so many of our political leaders don't? Naomi Oreskes offers a bold and compelling defense of science, revealing why the social character of scientific knowledge is its greatest strength—and the greatest reason we can trust it. Tracing the history and philosophy of science from the late nineteenth century to today, this timely and provocative book features a new preface by Oreskes and critical responses by climate experts Ottmar Edenhofer and Martin Kowarsch, political scientist Jon Krosnick, philosopher of science Marc Lange, and science historian Susan Lindee, as well as a foreword by political theorist Stephen Macedo.

"Scientists embarking on a career in bench research need to develop an array of technical skills specific to lab settings. But beyond these skills they also need to learn what it means to work productively in a lab, how to manage their professional development, and how to achieve work-life balance. In this guidebook, an expert lab manager and a long-time principal investigator offer graduate students, postdocs, and other early-career scientists practical advice for developing the professional and personal skills needed to survive and thrive in lab settings. With an emphasis on issues such as healthy relationships, professional behavior, and self-care, the book coaches scientists on managing stress and avoiding burnout, factors that often interfere with the ability to carry out basic research and academic responsibilities. It also shows them how to deploy social and communication skills effectively in particular aspects of lab life, from managing research projects and collaborating with labmates to writing about their work and attending professional conferences. Born out of the authors' social media accounts, most notably @TheLabMentor and @youinthelab, the book extends their platform for advising lab workers at all levels and welcomes early-career researchers into this friendly and supportive community"--

From the acclaimed author of Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space—an authoritative and accessible guide to the most alluring and challenging phenomena of contemporary science. "[Levin will] take you on a safe black hole trip, an exciting travel story enjoyed from your chair’s event horizon.” —Boston Globe Through her writing, astrophysicist Janna Levin has focused on making the science she studies not just comprehensible but also, and perhaps more important, intriguing to the nonscientist. In this book, she helps us to understand and find delight in the black hole—perhaps the most opaque theoretical construct ever imagined by physicists—illustrated with original artwork by American painter and photographer Lia Halloran. Levin takes us on an evocative exploration of black holes, provoking us to imagine the visceral experience of a black hole encounter. She reveals the influence of black holes as they populate the universe, sculpt galaxies, and even infuse the whole expanse of reality that we inhabit. Lively, engaging, and utterly unique, Black Hole Survival Guide is not just informative—it is, as well, a wonderful read from first to last.

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.

“Empowering and thoroughly researched, this book offers useful contemporary analysis and possible solutions to one of the greatest threats to democracy.” —Kirkus Reviews Editors’ choice, The New York Times Book Review Recommended reading, Scientific American Why should we care about having true beliefs? And why do demonstrably false beliefs persist and spread despite bad, even fatal, consequences for the people who hold them? Philosophers of science Cailin O’Connor and James Weatherall argue that social factors, rather than individual psychology, are what’s essential to understanding the spread and persistence of false beliefs. It might seem that there’s an obvious reason that true beliefs matter: false beliefs will hurt you. But if that’s right, then why is it (apparently) irrelevant to many people whether they believe true things or not? The Misinformation Age, written for a political era riven by “fake news,” “alternative facts,” and disputes over the validity of everything from climate change to the size of inauguration crowds, shows convincingly that what you believe depends on who you know. If social forces explain the persistence of false belief, we must understand how those forces work in order to fight misinformation effectively. “[The authors] deftly apply sociological models to examine how misinformation spreads among people and how scientific results get misrepresented in the public sphere.” —Andrea Gawrylewski, Scientific American “A notable new volume . . . The Misinformation Age explains systematically how facts are determined and changed—whether it is concerning the effects of vaccination on children or the Russian attack on the integrity of the electoral process.” —Roger I. Abrams, New York Journal of Books