It’s week four
of our YSP career tips for success series and we are now looking at projects,
and which ones we should do , this time with Atte Meretoja from Helsinki
University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.
Choosing your
first research project is not the most critical decision you make, but choosing
the next few will be. Successful researchers always have multiple projects
going on simultaneously. Many, if not most projects will fail, some will became
moderate successes, and some will make your career. As there is no certain way
of telling which project will go bust, you need to throughout your career 1)
diversify the risk, 2) consider cost-effectiveness, and 3) seek mutually
beneficial collaborations.
Diversifying
risk relates to combining high risk and low risk research. High risk projects,
typically interventional trials or long-term prospective observational cohorts
of rare cases, will take years of full time work to complete, will test a
single novel hypothesis which if proven will change clinical practice globally,
but if negative will be of little interest to anyone. Low risk projects,
typically retrospective observational studies, will collect over a few months
or a year a dataset of consecutive patients in routine clinical practice and
then report numerous hypothesis generating observations of associations in that
dataset. Earlier in one’s career, with less opportunity to bear failed
projects, it might be wiser to emphasize low risk.
Cost-effectiveness
relates to the ratio of time invested per scientific output. Output can be
measured with quantity and quality, but in reality measuring the former is
easier. Therefore early in one’s career one has to emphasize quantity. Getting
a few papers out will prove that you can write and publish, which will then get
you a little funding to buy you time to do a few more projects, with an aim of
getting on to the first solid ground of a few years of secure funding. For this
reason, you need to think quick returns initially. Start off with multiple
projects that can be completed in a year. Congress abstracts and articles in
stroke journals will give you hints on topics others find worthwhile just now,
then find your own twist to these.
As quantity is
not everything and we need to compete in an increasingly competitive funding
environment, it is crucial to include in your first half-a-dozen or dozen
papers some that will be clearly novel and original. Systematic literature
reviews may be helpful in identifying areas with little or no previous
observational work. Over time it might be wise to increase the number of high-risk
projects, as these when successful will get you to faculty positions.
The most
cost-effective studies are those done in collaboration. Once you have collected
a dataset, be that observational or trial data, make sure you reach out to
others working in the same field. Most people will be happy to share their data
for a chance of publishing a research project together, especially if you will
do the analyses and write the first draft. You might find it much easier to
publish research that comes from multiple sites due to external validity.
Inviting others into your projects will often result in counter-invitations.
In summary, do
not put all of your eggs in one basket but rather diversify by taking many
projects early on, emphasizing first those with likely quick returns and then
making sure you have some with totally novel outputs. In the long run
collaboration will be most cost-effective approach.
Atte.Meretoja@hus.fi
