eLife supports early-stage scientists through a variety of initiatives, from event sponsorship to involvement in our pool of reviewers. Our Early-Career Advisory Group (ECAG) has been the driving force behind these projects and we’re looking to broaden the community whose voice shapes the direction of our future initiatives.
From inception, the community behind eLife – including the research funders who support the journal, and the editors and referees who run the peer review process – have been keenly aware of the pressures faced by junior investigators. That is why we invited a collective of 14 enthusiastic and forward-thinking early-stage scientists from across the life sciences, to join the eLife Early-Career Advisory Group, or ECAG. Their role has been to guide our work to create a more positive publishing experience that will, among other things, help early-career researchers receive the recognition they deserve.
The group includes graduate students, postdocs, and junior group leaders from laboratories across the world. Together, the ECAG members have made vital contributions to our work in reshaping research communication and encouraging responsible behaviours in science.
As they move forward in their careers, the valuable service of some of our ECAG members is soon coming to an end. We would like to use this opportunity to invite more early-career researchers to make their voice heard in our community, and to consider nominating themselves or others in the upcoming elections to the ECAG next year.
Fig 1. The current Early-Career Advisory Group. Not pictured above is founding member Pedro Carvalho (Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG), Spain, ECAG member 2014-2016).
In the first five years of eLife, the ECAG members have been our sounding board and have seeded initiatives including a series of webinars about funding opportunities, and our travel grants scheme to help early-career eLife authors gain recognition in their field. They inspired us to involve early-stage researchers in the peer-review process, resulting in our pilot pool of early-career reviewers launched earlier this year. They continue to bring projects alive with their suggestions and ideas, including the Working Lives and Early-Career Researchers interview series.
"We are living through a time of rapid change in the way we conduct, publish and discuss research in the biological sciences. I was really excited to join the ECAG because I felt that this gave me the chance to play a part in shaping how we build a rigorous and fair scientific community for the future. I have really enjoyed thinking up new initiatives with the other ECAG members, and sharing my opinions on new ideas for the journal. Seeing some of these ideas, such as early-career peer reviewers and a webinar series for early-stage scientists, become a reality has been very rewarding." – Jeanne Salje, ECAG chair
We are now looking for enthusiastic and engaged early-career researchers who would like to make a difference and be part of the eLife ECAG in the future, or would simply be interested to hear about and comment on new initiatives.
We invite all early-career researchers who work in the life sciences or biomedical science domain to be a part of the eLife community. Whether you are new to eLife, or you have already interacted with us, it is important that you let us know your current situation when applying to join our community.
Registering as an early-career researcher with eLife will enable us to share news with you about current and new initiatives designed to support you and your career. We will also contact you in January, when we launch the ECAG nominations process.
Only early-career researchers who have let us know their current status will be eligible to participate in the nomination and election of the new ECAG members. We define early-career to mean being no more than five active research years into an independent position, taking into account periods of absence from research, such as parental or sickness leave. We deem an independent position to be one where you have secured your own funding and have supervisory responsibilities.
