Fostering Tobacco Regulatory Team Science through a Multisite, Virtual Fellowship Program for Early-Career Researchers

Background: It is estimated that over 46 million individuals have atrial fibrillation (AF) worldwide, and the incidence and prevalence of AF are increasing globally. There is an urgent need to accelerate the academic development of scientists possessing the skills to conduct innovative, collaborative AF research. Methods: We designed and implemented a virtual AF Strategically Focused Research Network Cross-Center Fellowship program to enhance the competencies of early-stage AF basic, clinical, and population health researchers through experiential education and mentorship. The pedagogical model involves significant cross-center collaboration to produce a curriculum focused on enhancing AF scientific competencies, fostering career/professional development, and cultivating grant writing skills. Outcomes for success involve clear expectations for fellows to produce manuscripts, presentations, and—for those at the appropriate career stage–grant applications. We evaluated the effectiveness of the fellowship model via mixed methods formative and summative surveys. Results: In 2 years of the fellowship, fellows generally achieved the productivity metrics sought by our pedagogical model, with outcomes for the 12 fellows including 50 AF-related manuscripts, 7 publications, 28 presentations, and 3 grant awards applications. Participant evaluations reported that the fellowship effectively met its educational objectives. All fellows reported medium to high satisfaction with the overall fellowship, webinar content and facilitation, staff communication and support, and program organization. Conclusions: The fellowship model represents an innovative educational strategy by providing a virtual AF training and mentoring curriculum for early-career basic, clinical, and population health scientists working across multiple institutions, which is particularly valuable in the pandemic era.

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Positioning for success: building capacity in academic competencies for early-career researchers in sub-Saharan Africa

Global Mental Health ◽

10.1017/gmh.2019.14 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 6 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

C. Merritt ◽

H. Jack ◽

W. Mangezi ◽

D. Chibanda ◽

M. Abas

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Capacity Building ◽

Low Cost ◽

Early Career ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Training Experience ◽

African Countries ◽

Early Career Researchers ◽

Academic Competencies ◽

Sub Saharan

Background. Capacity building is essential in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to address the gap in skills to conduct and implement research. Capacity building must not only include scientific and technical knowledge, but also broader competencies, such as writing, disseminating research and achieving work–life balance. These skills are thought to promote long-term career success for researchers in high-income countries (HICs) but the availability of such training is limited in LMICs. Methods. This paper presents the contextualisation and implementation of the Academic Competencies Series (ACES). ACES is an early-career researcher development programme adapted from a UK university. Through consultation between HIC and LMIC partners, an innovative series of 10 workshops was designed covering themes of self-development, engagement and writing skills. ACES formed part of the African Mental Health Research Initiative (AMARI), a multi-national LMIC-led consortium to recruit, train, support and network early-career mental health researchers from four sub-Saharan African countries. Results. Of the 10 ACES modules, three were HIC-LMIC co-led, four led by HIC facilitators with LMIC training experience and three led by external consultants from HICs. Six workshops were delivered face to face and four by webinar. Course attendance was over 90% and the delivery cost was approximately US$4500 per researcher trained. Challenges of adaptation, attendance and technical issues are described for the first round of workshops. Conclusions. This paper indicates that a skills development series for early-career researchers can be contextualised and implemented in LMIC settings, and is feasible for co-delivery with local partners at relatively low cost.

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Tradition and Innovation in Cataloguing Medieval Manuscripts

Anglia - Zeitschrift für englische Philologie ◽

10.1515/ang-2021-0003 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 139 (1) ◽

pp. 32-58

Author(s):

Orietta Da Rold

Keyword(s):

New Technologies ◽

New Technology ◽

Early Career ◽

Digital Environment ◽

Digital Form ◽

Postgraduate Students ◽

Medieval Manuscripts ◽

Early Career Researchers ◽

History Of ◽

And Training

Abstract In this essay, I offer a brief history of manuscript cataloguing and some observations on the innovations this practice introduced especially in the digital form. This history reveals that as the cataloguing of medieval manuscripts developed over time, so did the research needs it served. What was often considered traditional cataloguing practices had to be mediated to accommodate new scholarly advance, posing interesting questions, for example, on what new technologies can bring to this discussion. In the digital age, in particular, how do digital catalogues interact with their analogue counterparts? What skills and training are required of scholars interacting with this new technology? To this end, I will consider the importance of the digital environment to enable a more flexible approach to cataloguing. I will also discuss new insights into digital projects, especially the experience accrued by the The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220 Project, and then propose that in the future cataloguing should be adaptable and shareable, and make full use of the different approaches to manuscripts generated by collaboration between scholars and librarians or the work of postgraduate students and early career researchers.

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Introductions to the Community: Early-Career Researchers in the Time of COVID-19

Cell Stem Cell ◽

10.1016/j.stem.2021.01.012 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 28 (2) ◽

pp. 184-186

Keyword(s):

Early Career ◽

Early Career Researchers

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Fast, Free, and Targeted

Social Science Computer Review ◽

10.1177/0894439316650163 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 35 (4) ◽

pp. 537-549 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

Itamar Shatz

Keyword(s):

Early Career ◽

Retention Rates ◽

Online Research ◽

Large Samples ◽

Early Career Researchers ◽

Potential Source ◽

The Social ◽

Current Article ◽

Conducting Research ◽

Untapped Resource

Recruiting participants is a necessary step in many studies. With the advent of online research techniques, scientists are looking for new places where participants can be recruited online, in order to overcome the limitations of current sources and avoid the issues associated with sample overuse. The social media website “Reddit” is a potential source for recruitment, as it allows for free and rapid data collection from large samples, while enabling researchers to target specific populations when needed. The ability to recruit for free is especially important because it enables students and early career researchers, for whom even low recruitment costs can be prohibitive, to benefit from the opportunity of conducting research that they otherwise would not be able to. The current article therefore aims to bring this prospective, untapped resource to the attention of the research community. The article discusses current online recruitment sources and their limitations, provides an overview of Reddit, validates its use for research purposes, examines participation data from previous studies which recruited through Reddit, highlights its advantages and limitations as a participant pool, and suggests guidelines that can improve recruitment and retention rates for scientists looking to use Reddit for their research.

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