First person – Hannah Black and Rachel Livingstone

ABSTRACT First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Journal of Cell Science, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Hannah Black and Rachel Livingstone are co-first authors on ‘ Knockout of syntaxin-4 in 3T3-L1 adipocytes reveals new insight into GLUT4 trafficking and adiponectin secretion’, published in JCS. Hannah conducted the research described in this article while a PhD student in Professor Nia Bryant and Professor Gwyn Gould's lab at the Henry Wellcome Laboratory for Cell Biology, University of Glasgow, UK. She is now a postdoc in the lab of Professor Nia Bryant at the Department of Biology, University of York, UK, investigating membrane trafficking of the glucose transporter protein GLUT4. Rachel is a PhD student in the lab of Professor Gwyn Gould at the Henry Wellcome Laboratory for Cell Biology, University of Glasgow, UK, where she is also investigating membrane trafficking of GLUT4.

A Guide to Preprinting for Early Career Researchers

The use of preprints, research manuscripts shared publicly before the traditional peer review process, is becoming more common in the life sciences. Early career researchers (ECRs) benefit from posting preprints as they are shareable, citable, and prove productivity. However, the decision to preprint a manuscript involves a discussion among all co-authors, and ECRs are often not the decision-makers. Therefore, ECRs may find themselves in situations where they are interested in posting a preprint but are unsure how to approach their co-authors or advisor about preprinting. Leveraging our own experiences as ECRs, and feedback from the research community, we have constructed a guide for ECRs who are considering preprinting - to enable them to take ownership over the process, and to raise awareness about preprinting options. We hope that this guide helps ECRs to initiate conversations about preprinting with co-authors or consider whether to preprint their future research.

First person – Mira Kuzmić

ABSTRACT First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Journal of Cell Science, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Mira Kuzmić is first author on ‘ Septin-microtubule association via a motif unique to isoform 1 of septin 9 tunes stress fibers’, published in JCS. Mira conducted the research described in this article while a post-doc in the lab of Dr Ali Badache and Dr Pascal Verdier-Pinard's at Centre de Recherche en Cancérologie de Marseille (CRCM), France. Her life's vocation is cancer research.

First person – Ana Julia Fernández-Alvarez and María Gabriela Thomas

ABSTRACT First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Journal of Cell Science, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Ana Julia Fernández-Alvarez and María Gabriela Thomas are co-first authors on ‘ Smaug1 membrane-less organelles respond to AMPK and mTOR and affect mitochondrial function’, published in JCS. Ana Julia and María Gabriela (Gabi) are both Research Associates in the lab of Graciela Boccaccio at Fundación Instituto Leloir, Buenos Aires, Argentina, where they investigate the cellular biology of RNA granules.

First person – Ziyan Fang

ABSTRACT First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Journal of Cell Science, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Ziyan Fang is first author on ‘ The Salmonella effector SifA initiates a kinesin-1 and kinesin-3 recruitment process mirroring that mediated by Arl8a and Arl8b’, published in JCS. Ziyan conducted the research described in this article while a PhD student in Stéphane Méresse's lab at Centre d'Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy (CIML), Marseille, France. She is now a postdoc in the lab of Elina Zúñiga at Division of Biological Sciences, University of California, USA, where her research interests lie in studying the cellular and molecular aspects of the host immune responses during viral or bacterial infection.

First person – Masashi Nambu

ABSTRACT First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Journal of Cell Science, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Masashi Nambu is first author on ‘ Direct evaluation of cohesin-mediated sister kinetochore associations at meiosis I in fission yeast’, published in JCS. Masashi works in the lab of Ayumu Yamamoto at Faculty of Science, and Graduate School of Integrated Science and Technology, Shizuoka University, Japan, investigating the development of ‘direct’ evaluation of kinetochore association and the contribution of cohesion and its regulators.

Perspectives on Open Science and Scholarly Publishing: a Survey Study Focusing on Early Career Researchers in Europe

Background: The value of Open Science (OS) for the academic community and society has been becoming more evident recently, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, significant challenges regarding its implementation arise that are likely to affect researchers, especially those in early career stages. Hence, monitoring early-career researchers’ views, knowledge, and skills on OS and related policies, is crucial for its advancement. The main aim of this exploratory study was to gain new perspectives regarding the awareness of and attitudes towards OS and related practices having in consideration geographical, economic and research career variables. Methods: The survey was conducted during May-August 2020 as part of a collaboration between Eurodoc and the Open Research Europe project. The data from the survey were analyzed by European region, Gross domestic product, Gross domestic expenditure on research and development as a percentage of gross domestic product, field of study, and career stage. Results: The awareness and positive attitude regarding OS, specifically among early-career researchers, is high in Europe. However, there are significant career stage group differences in views and knowledge about OS. Generally, awareness and positive attitude tend to increase with increasing career seniority. Regarding European regions, we spotted three main groups sharing similar awareness levels and attitudes: researchers in Western Europe - the most informed group towards OS; researchers in northern, central, and southern Europe - a moderately informed group with some minor differences; and researchers in eastern Europe - the least informed group, whose opinions deviate the most. Conclusions: We found that there is an “evolution of needs and focus” regarding scientific publishing: researchers in most European regions are in different stages of transition from the competitive to collaborative levels, while researchers in eastern Europe are largely beginning their transition to the competitive level.