Meet a scientist 

virtually
Meet a Scientist sessions take place in person in our gallery, but as not everyone can
make it to the Crick in-person, Meet a Scientist on Instagram Stories allows you to meet
and ask questions to the researchers at the Crick wherever you are!

Crick scientists are taking to Instagram Stories to share behind-the-scenes insights into
daily life as a research scientist, how they got to where they are today, and the big
research questions that get them out of bed in the morning.

Bring your curiosity, submit a question and tune in over on our

Instagram account where we post the questions and responses!
Not all young researchers are lucky enough to immediately start working in a strong
academic community with excellent researcher traditions. Young scientists, especially from
developing countries, often first have to learn to avoid many obstacles, such as predatory
journals or “zombie science,” in order to finally touch the high-quality peer review. This
initiative tears away this veil of mystery from peer review, and therefore I believe that it will
enable many researchers to improve their academic writing and peer review skills,
regardless of where they start their research career.

As a community of scholars, we each take responsibility to provide critical but fair comment
on manuscripts submitted for publication in the journals that represent our research
disciplines. We do so on a voluntary basis which for some represents a significant
investment of time and effort. I have long felt that this effort should be recognized in a
formal way as a valued contribution to the literature with a measure equivalent to that of a
published citation. The “Publish your Reviews” initiative offers just such a measure of credit.
Most publishers and many authors have embraced pre-print posting on an archive. Similarly,
the transparency of the review process will be enhanced by wide adoption of published
reviews.
I believe the confrontation of ideas is the most important aspect of scientific research.
Hiding evaluations and actors behind secretive journal processes kills the free exchange
and foster a climate where exchange of expertise becomes conflicting to the advance of
ECR careers. I believe that we should start seeing our reviews as a service to our colleagues
instead of a gatekeeping mechanism for journals. By sharing my reviews of preprints, I
expect to switch the balance from gatekeeper of a manuscript to a colleague interested in
discussing and hopefully help to improve their science.

Early career researchers are naturally early adopters of revolutions in the academic culture.
Yet, we often don’t have the structure (funds, material, leadership, training) to actually
practice what we think is good for science, such as reproducibility, pre-registration or open
peer review. I signed the Publish Your Reviews pledge because I am an adopter of preprints
and preprint reviews myself, and I think we need to encourage preprint reviews more than
ever, as we see a rise in publication and use of preprints. I want to be a piece of the
infrastructure that benefits the next generation of ECRs, so they feel like they are
contributing to a bigger movement when reviewing preprints.