Publishing, communication and peer review insights that every researcher should know.

To build a successful career, early and mid-career researchers must prove more than their science skills. They also face challenges navigating the process of publishing and other venues for communicating their work to peers, funding organizations and the public.

Each of these efforts are subject to time constraints, economic pressures and competition among colleagues

and institutions unfamiliar to researchers early in their careers. Indeed, mastering these challenges requires many years.

Preparing researchers to understand the mechanisms to achieve visibility and prestige starts with opening the black box to see the processes within. What can feel like a series of arbitrary decisions and confusing expectations makes more sense when explained with a view from the inside.

That’s the role of Nature Research Academies.

These practical introductory sessions aimed at researchers from the beginning to middle of their careers provide real-world insight into skills outside the lab that will be essential to building their reputations.

These include:

• Journal article submissions
• Conveying research data
• Peer-reviewed content
• Research job applications
• Grant proposals

Understanding these processes confers an advantage to any researcher seeking wider recognition for their science.

Insights that matter on topics researchers care about

The range of topics covered in Nature Research Academies reflects the areas researchers themselves find most pressing. Standing out in their field doesn’t depend solely on the quality of the research, but also on the researcher’s ability to understand and adapt to the various systems that evaluate, disseminate and communicate the work.

These are some of the topics covered in Nature Research Academies:

Getting Published is a Nature Research Academy designed specifically to bring attention to commonly misunderstood — or completely unknown — forces at work in the publishing process, and illuminate some practical approaches that can increase the chances of publication success.

Early and mid-career researchers need an understanding of the pressures- — and challenges — faced by the editors making decisions about what gets published and what doesn’t. Many journal editors work for free and review submissions in between other professional obligations. Editors are often professors who are running a lab, managing grants and teaching. They face a number of demands that a researcher submitting work might not understand.

Helping researchers understand the mindset of these editors, and gaining perspective about the specific needs and requirements of journals, bridges the disconnect between authors and editors and clears the way for more-effective submissions.

Communicating Your Science to the Public describes why communication is so important for researchers hoping to reach an audience, and how to convey science more effectively to peers, publications and the public.

Focused on strengthening practical techniques to focus on and clearly describe research to a specific audience, this workshop helps researchers connect complex science to a broad audience.

Peer Review tackles an essential process in academic publishing that hasn’t been clearly explained to many researchers. That can lead to a spotty and inconsistent peer review process that hurts the reputation of both the reviewee and the reviewer.

This Academy gives researchers not only a comprehensive overview of the ethics and responsibilities involved in peer review, but the hard skills necessary to be a competent–and confident–reviewer.

Applying for Research Positions offers graduating and post-doc students much needed support as they identify and secure research positions that will best match their career goals.

Starting off with best practices for staying abreast of research opportunities via job databases, professional networks and publications, the workshop then explores how to prepare your research for presentation, present it to a future employer and proceed to the next steps.

Anatomy of an Academy

Academies are one- or two-day interactive workshops that are available as highly responsive webinars. Developed to meet the needs of a global research audience, and tailored to fit the particular requirements of the institution being served, these workshops are organized into specific modules that help organize complex topics into digestible components.

Led by an expert trainer, each Academy ranges in size depending on the topic and can be accessed by a small cohort or the entire research department of an institution.

Every module is run by an experienced Nature trainer, and each Academy builds on Nature’s reputation for scientific excellence and prestige. The topics are highly relevant, and the content is refined to reflect the most up-to-date and urgent developments in the field.

Early and mid-career researchers need to prepare for a world of research and publication that is fiercely competitive and can be equally confounding. Gaining perspective and skills in key areas will inform researchers’ success for the balance of their careers.