DISCUSSION 3

1. DISCUSSION 3 Personal/Research statement CV/Biosketch Databases Reference managers

2. Why are personal and research statements important? The “picture” you draw of yourself or your laboratory should be how you want to be seen by others

3. Research Statement/Summary • Emphasize uniqueness • Answer questions • What do you study • How do you study it • Why is it important • Carefully craft (few words that say a lot) • Mechanism to advertise • Have <50, <100 word versions.

4. EXAMPLE: Stamer Lab Research Program Goal: To investigate/understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms that regulate aqueous humor outflow such that novel targets can be identified and used for the development of therapeutics to effectively lower intraocular pressure in people with glaucoma (36 words).

5. What is a Curriculum Vitae, and what is it used for? • Academic Research Position • Annual Reports • Award applications • Graduate program websites • Seminar announcements • Promotion/job applications

6. What do you put in a CV? • Date updated • Contact information • Mission statement/research interest • Education/specialized training • Employment/experience/academic appts. • Teaching experience • Honors/awards/accomplishments • Peer-reviewed publications • Review articles/book chapters/editorials • Affiliations/professional societies • Invited presentations • Published abstracts • Professional service • Administrative responsibilities • Inventions/patents • Funding Bottom line is that it is a chronicle of your professional life

7. 10 items to keep in mind when scanning a CV- The Scientist, February 2006 • Career progression makes sense • No unexplained gaps in dates between jobs • Education progressed in logical time sequence • Simple, readable presentation- answers questions rather than raises them and doesn’t distract the eye: This person understands basic communications

8. 10 items to keep in mind when scanning a CV- The Scientist, February 2006 • Applicant failed to describe a company or institution not well known, taking it for granted that the reader will know the organization: This indicates the person may be a poor communicator or not able to see themselves objectively. • Inconsistency in time sequence between jobs • Red flag is raised when doctorate degree takes longer than six years • Fonts are too elaborate; raises the question: What’s more important here, the presentation or the content?

9. 10 items to keep in mind when scanning a CV- The Scientist, February 2006 • Color CVs say one thing: Frivolous • Publications listed should be restricted to peer-reviewed journals; this person listed letters to the editor, presentations, etc. This indicates an inability to self-edit and streamline thoughts.

10. Curriculum Vitae • Examples: Ross Ethier, Grant Sumida

11. How does a biosketch differ from a CV? • Brief summary of your professional / educational accomplishments • Length and format limits • Highlights your experience in relation to a particularapplication/program.

12. BIOSKETCH CONTENTSNIH STYLE • Name/title • Education/Training • Personal Statement • Positions and Honors • “Selected” peer-review publications • Research support (within last 5 years)

13. Biosketch Example: Stamer

14. Dan’s tips….. • Keep CV on your desktop…should be a living document • And update regularly!

15. SCIENTIFIC WRITING IN THE ELECTRONIC AGE • Databases/searching strategies • Citation index • Web of Science • Reference managers

16. DATABASES • NLM • NCBI • MEDLINE • PubMed • GenBank • Entrez • OMIM • Many others…

17. ACCESS TO DATABASES:Arizona Health Science Library www.ahsl.arizona.edu

18. JOURNAL IMPACT FACTORS • What do they mean? • What do they mean for you? • How do you find them?

19. CITATION INDEX • AHSC WEBSITE • Databases tab • Browse database (A>Z), choose J • Go to Journal of Citation Reports www.ahsl.arizona.edu

20. PURPOSE(S) FOR LITERATURE SEARCHES • Ideas • Foundation for hypotheses/future experiments • Avoid redundancies/waste of time • Make sure credit is assigned properly • Make sure grant/manuscript is up to date (especially upon resubmission)

21. SEARCHING TIPS • Be sure to use more than one database and search strategy • Subject area • Tissue • Disease • Technique • Process • Author • Text word • Search before manuscript goes out, especially revision • Search before seminar/oral qualifying exam • Set-up automatic updates (myNCBI)

22. WEB OF SCIENCE • Search number of citations for a particular paper and specifically by whom • AHSC website www.ahsl.arizona.edu • Databases tab • Choose “W” • Go to Web of Science • Click “search by author” • Click “create a citation report”

23. ASSIGNMENTS • Put together your CV • Pick 4 Journals that is in your field of interest (one you may send your paper) and find their impact factors in Journal of Citation Reports; be sure and have a spread of impact factors. • For grins, look up your advisor on Web of Science and see how many citations/paper he/she is getting and what kind of H-index

24. REFERENCE MANAGERS • Endnote, Reference Manager, etc. • Personal electronic reference database • Journal Templates • Formatted Bibliographies • Database interface