An “awesome”-style, curated list of resources for graduate students, postdocs, and group leaders in the life sciences.
This can be improved so please contribute with resources.
Read an interview about this project.
X min– reading time (average reader - 240 words per minute).- 🧵 thread
- 📄 article
- 📑 article, but as direct link to .pdf
- 📘 book
- 📚 collection of articles
- 🎥 video
- 🎙️ podcast
- 🛠️ tool, for example a template, database, or app
03 min| 📄 | It matters who does science - About seeing scientists as people and about diversity.03 min| 📄 | 🔒︎ Academia is just a job - Mentally separating the science from the stressful aspects of academia can reduce stress. Table1 concrete measures to lower workplace stress for individuals, groups, and institutions.04 min| 📄 | Decisions, decisions) - About hiring decisions.05 min| 🧵 | The Tao of Cheese - Words of wisdom for how to navigate science and your career.05 min| 📄 | Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) - Evaluate research without journal-based metrics.05 min| 📄 | Why scientific criticism sometimes needs to hurt - The value of getting criticism.06 min| 📄 | 🔒︎A person before a PhD - Strategies to prevent loosing identity from overworking.06 min| 📄 | What’s a failed experiment? - Experimental design and "negative" or inconclusive results.07 min| 📄 | You need to make AI guidelines for your lab - Reflection on how to work with ai assistants.07 min| 📄 | Early-career researchers want empathy - Supervisory practices that help and hurt, based on a survey of 2,600 trainees. Preprint with the full survey results.09 min| 📄 | 🔒︎Health tips for research groups - Ideas to make science more productive, rigorous and happy.09 min| 📄 | How Diversity Makes Us Smarter - Diverse teams: better decisions and higher-impact science.10 min| 📄 | 🔒︎How lab heads can learn to lead - Leadership experts on running more effective groups.11 min| 📄 | The Thrill of Defeat - What history can teach us about open science and being "scooped".16 min| 📄 | Ten simple rules towards healthier labs - Nurturing, collaborative, and people-centered.16 min| 📄 | Ten simple rules to cultivate belonging... - Inclusiveness in data science teams, applies generally.20 min| 📄 | Ten simple rules to improve academic work–life balance - For individuals and environment.20 min| 📄 | A field guide to cultivating computational biology - For better integration with biology.22 min| 📄 | Science, narcissism and the quest for visibility - About narcissistic personalities in science.22 min| 📑 | One hundred research rules of the game - 100 "rules" for making your research "world class".26 min| 📚 | Modest Advice for Graduate Students ('87) Acynical Reply ('87) Pragmatic Rebuttal ('94) - Three essays, 30+yrs old, some truths and insight into thinking of older generations.60+min| 📘 | Collaboration & Team Science: Field Guide - A "field guide" for members and leaders of research teams.60+min| 📘 | 🔒︎Managing your Mental Health during your PhD - Gives tips and examines environments.60+min| 📘 | 🔒︎Mastering Your PhD - Covers many of the topics that one confronts during a PhD.60+min| 📚 | Diversity in Academia - Hub collecting resources on diversity in academia.60+min| 📚 | 🔒︎How to grow a healthy lab - Collection of articles for a healthy research environment.
01 min| 🧵 | Features of good mentors - Aspects to consider in good mentoring.03 min| 📄 | How I learned to nurture relationships in academia-and be more kind.05 min| 📑 | Mentorship Malpractice - Some stereotypes in bad mentorship and coping strategies.07 min| 📄 | Ten simple rules for mentor–mentee expectations - Clarify lab culture, roles, and boundaries.08 min| 📑 | Landis Mentoring Award Letter - Thoughts on which principles could help to be a good mentor.09 min| 📄 | A guide to mentoring undergraduates in the lab - Specific advice on advising and mentoring undergraduates.09 min| 📄 | On being an advisor to today’s junior scientists - How advisors can help train and educate.11 min| 📄🛠️ | Yearly planning meetings: individualized development plans... - Using yearly PI–trainee meetings to set goals, give feedback, and support trainees’ research and career development.19 min| 📄 | The Making of a Scientist - A Nobel Prize awardee on mentorship and "pedigrees".20 min| 🎥 | Precision & Plasticity in Mentoring - Normalizing failure, leading by example, using conflict-management tools, and yearly development meetings.
01 min| 🧵 | Learning to "fail fast" in research - Prioritize tasks that evaluate the projects potential.03 min| 📄 | Just quit - Why we should quit projects more often and earlier.03 min| 📄 | Kill Ideas Quickly - Quickly sorting out bad ideas.04 min| 📄 | The importance of stupidity in scientific research - Essay on "feeling stupid" when doing research.05 min| 📄 | 🔒︎Make science disruptive again - Include idea-finding into graduate programs.08 min| 📄 | How to choose a good scientific problem - What is a good problem, and how do you choose one?13 min| 📄 | Theory in Biology: Figure 1 or Figure 7? - How theory allows us to form hypotheses.16 min| 📄 | Philosophy of Biology: The analysis of living systems... - Six categories of experiments.60+min| 📚 | Night Science articles - Approaches to develop new hypotheses and ideas.60+min| 🎙️ | Night Science Podcast series - Each episode explores science's creative side with a guest scientist.120 min| 🎥 | Planning Your Scientific Journey - Choosing research questions and project management.
03 min| 📄 | When I stopped... - Stop having all the answers so the team can learn to find their own.08 min| 📄 | 🔒︎How to create a lab-group logo... - To communicate your lab’s research and workplace culture.18 min| 📄 | Ten Simple Rules to becoming a group leader - Rather ten tricky steps than simple rules.18 min| 📄 | Becoming a Principal Investigator - Lab culture, planning, recruiting and mentoring.31 min| 📄 | Setting Up and Managing a Lab... - Equipment, negotiations, team building.47 min| 📄 | State of the lab - Yearly blog posts on leading a lab, from junior to more consolidated.50 min| 📑 | Staffing the Lab - Which postdocs and technicians to hire.60+min| 📑 | Tips for running your own research group - Funding, hiring and mentoring, etc.60+min| 📘 | Making the Right Moves - 200+ pages, applying, management, lab organization, mentorship.60+min| 📘 | The Human Side of Lab Leadership - 60+ pages, hiring, mentorship, performance. With forms.60+min| 📚 | Lab Management Guides - Two lab management guides.----| 🛠️ | Example group websites - A collection of noteworthy research group websites.
04 min| 📄 | 🔒︎The key to a happy lab life is in the manual - Save time and promote a positive lab culture.05 min| 📄 | How to write a lab handbook - Includes a meta handbook with twenty common topics.10 min| 📄 | Why every lab needs a handbook - It will benefit all the members of a group.17 min| 📄 | The SAFE Labs Handbook... - 30 documented commitments any PI can use.32 min| 📘 | Inside the Duolingo Company Handbook - How Duolingo builds their company, culture, and brand.
03 min| 📄 | 🔒︎Axes, ticks and grids - Make navigational elements distinct and unobtrusive.03 min| 📄 | 🔒︎Negative space - About negative space and how to use it.05 min| 📑 | Guide to designing conceptual figures - Guiding principles for conceptual visualizations.05 min| 📄 | What to consider when choosing colors... - Essentials of choosing colors.06 min| 📄 | Same Stats, Different Graphs - How summary statistics can have different underlying distributions.08 min| 📑 | Graphics principles cheat sheet - A single-page reference sheet for creating effective graphs.13 min| 📄 | Friends don't let friends make... - Which plots to avoid and how to plot it instead.17 min| 📄 | Ten Simple Rules for Better Figures - Improve figure design and avoid common pitfalls.17 min| 📄 | Ten simple rules for designing graphical abstracts - Also applies to concept figures.19 min| 📄 | Reveal, Don’t Conceal - Primer to improve data visualization in publications.19 min| 📄 | Choosing Suitable Color Palettes... - How to choose colors.22 min| 📄 | 🔒︎Community-developed checklists... - For publishing microscopy images and image analyses.60+min| 📚 | Blog helenajamborwrites - A collection of how-to's on data visualization and microscope images.60+min| 📚 | 🔒︎A view of every "Points of View" column - 35+ articles on data viz 📑.pdf's.60+min| 📘 | Fundamentals of Data Visualization - Graphs that reflect the data and look professional.----| 🛠️ | Color Oracle Software - Free color blindness simulator for Windows, Mac and Linux----| 🛠️ | Default fonts, sizing, dimensions, linewidth... - Use these parameters to satisfy most journals.----| 🛠️ | Figure Guidelines - EMBO Press - Technical requirements and layout dimensions.----| 🛠️ | Figure Guidelines - Nature - Technical requirements and layout dimensions.----| 🛠️ | Find the graphic you need - Classification of all possible chart types.----| 🛠️ | The Data Visualisation Catalogue - Guide and library of different data visualizations.
02 min| 📄 | (Box/Dot/Violin) Showing distributions - Choosing plots to show data distribution.02 min| 📄 | (Microscopy) Microscopic Images - Color choices for individual channels.02 min| 📄 | (Microscopy) Microscopic Images 2 - Color choices for overlays.02 min| 📄 | (Tables) Tables - data in the spotlight - How to present data from a table.03 min| 📄 | (Heatmaps) Dos and don’ts for a heatmap color scale - Colors of heatmaps.04 min| 📄 | (Estimation plots) 🔒︎Moving beyond P values - Move from asking “does it?” to “how much?”.05 min| 📄 | (Box/Dot) Leaving the bar... - How to construct box & dotplot instead of bar plots.05 min| 📄 | (Tables) How to... tables - How to improve tables.05 min| 📄 | (Estimation plots) What is estimation? - Why and how to construct estimation plots.11 min| 📄 | (SuperPlots) Communicating reproducibility and variability -.14 min| 📄 | (Box/Dot) Beyond Bar and Line Graphs - Advice on presenting continuous data.28 min| 📄 | (Microscopy) Clear and informative image-based figures - Publishing microscopy images.
01 min| 🧵 | What makes a good story - How to recognize that you need more conflict in your story.02 min| 🧵 | McKinsey presentation framework - Ideas for structure and design of presentations.03 min| 📄 | 🔒︎Prioritize the needs of the audience... - A few mental exercises to keep the audience in mind.04 min| 📄 | 🔒︎ How to give a bad talk - Common misconceptions and advice on how to fix them.05 min| 📄 | Delivery and Q&A - Tips on delivering a talk.05 min| 📄 | 🔒︎How to tell a compelling story in presentations - Main finding in title, and use ‘but’.05 min| 📑 | The David Attenborough style... - Handout encouraging a storytelling style.05 min| 📄 | Structuring a Slide Presentation - Advice on how to organise slides.07 min| 📄 | How To Give a Good Talk - Commentary on how to give a good talk.09 min| 📄 | Some thoughts on how to structure a talk - How to structure a talk, advocating narrative structure.09 min| 📄 | Ten Commandments for Giving Talks - General principles (expand the page on the bottom).10 min| 📄 | Slideshow - Guidelines on building research slides.10 min| 📄 | We need to talk - Advice on how to compose and deliver a talk.11 min| 📑 | Instantly Better Presentations - Advice for better presentations.11 min| 📄 | Oral Presentation Structure - Overview of organising talks. 📑 Supplementary: Fig 1 – Structure · Fig 2 – Openings · Fig 3 – Example outline · Fig 4 – Closings13 min| 📄 | Ten simple rules for effective presentation slides - Ten rules for effective slide design.21 min| 📑 | How to Give an Academic Talk, v5.2 - Advice for academic talks: prep, structure, delivery, Q&A.58 min| 📘 | How to Give a Talk - Covering eight principles for better science talks.60+min| 📄 | Tips for Public Speaking - Advice on public speaking: planning, design, preparation, and delivery.08 min| 🎥 | The Secret to Great Public Speaking (No, It's Not Confidence) - Be a lighthouse speaker.16 min| 🎥 | How to be confident (even if you’re not) - Vocal and physical techniques for talk delivery.16 min| 🎥 | Storytelling - Ira Glass deconstructs storytelling's fundamental elements.63 min| 🎥 | How to Speak - Improve your public speaking ability in critical situations.98 min| 🎥 | Share Your Research: How to Give a Good Talk - All aspects of giving a good scientific talk.
04 min| 📄 | Elevator Pitch - Advice for successful elevator pitches.04 min| 📄 | How to perfect your elevator pitch - How do you pitch your own skills?05 min| 📄 | Elevator Pitches 101 - What are elevator pitches? How do you prepare and execute one?06 min| 📄 | Elevator Pitch - Advice for successful elevator pitches.09 min| 📄 | How to Give a Great Elevator Pitch - Pitching yourself, geared for job searching.10 min| 📄 | Ten simple rules for hitting a home run with your elevator pitch - "Ten rules" on elevator pitches.
04 min| 📑 | How to give a chalk talk - Planning and delivering a persuasive chalk talk.06 min| 📄 | Chalk talks: how to avoid 10 pitfalls - What a chalk talk is and how to give a good one.06 min| 📄 | How to give a successful chalk talk... - How to plan and deliver an engaging chalk talk.
05 min| 📄 | Poster - Advice on structure, design, and delivery.06 min| 📄 | Digital Poster - Tips for digital posters, which can contain dynamic images.06 min| 📄 | Poster - Advice on structure, design, and delivery.14 min| 📄 | How to design an award-winning poster - Advice on good structure and design.17 min| 📄 | How do you make your first scientific poster? - With visual explanations.19 min| 🎥 | How to create a better research poster - Better poster session experiences with better poster design.
10 min| 📄 | Ten simple rules for reading a scientific paper - Reading papers more effectively.60+min| 📄 | Following the scientific literature - Practical guide for tracking and reading the scientific literature.----| 🛠️ | Zotero - Free reference manager to collect, organize, and cite publications.----| 🛠️ | ZotFile - Extension for Zotero for PDF management.
04 min| 📄 | Writing a scientific paper in four easy steps - Nearly all papers have the same standard outline.04 min| 📑 | Scientific paper outline - Common outline and editing checklist for scientific papers.05 min| 📄 | 🔒︎Tips on how to write a great science paper - Minimalist, reader-friendly science writing.05 min| 📄 | Words to avoid when writing - Some examples of making one’s writing more specific.06 min| 📄 | Ten Simple (Empirical) Rules for Writing Science - Listing most common advices.07 min| 📄 | 🔒︎How to write a first-class paper - Six experts offer advice on producing a manuscript.07 min| 🧵 | Why academic writing feels so hard - Practical thread on setting concrete writing goals and habits.08 min| 📄 | Scientific writing tips - Concise checklist on structuring, wording, and visualizing scientific papers.09 min| 📄 | Ten Simple Rules for Writing Research Papers - Planning, structuring, and polishing papers.12 min| 📄 | Some Tips for Writing Science - Advice for sections, structure of paragraphs and sentences.13 min| 📄 | How to write a research paper - Writing and overcoming blocks, across disciplines.15 min| 📄🛠️ | Manuscript Template with Tips - Manuscript template (LaTeX and Word) with writing tips.17 min| 📄 | Ten simple rules for structuring papers - Advice on how to structure papers and what to focus on.18 min| 📄 | Scientific Papers - Explains the standard paper structure and how to construct each section. 📑 Suppl figures: Abstract · Introduction · Methods · Results & Discussion · Conclusion----| 🛠️ | preprint-indesign-template - Preprint manuscript template for Adobe InDesign.----| 🛠️ | preprint-word-template - Preprint manuscript template for Microsoft Word or Libre Office.
01 min| 🧵 | Abstract advice - Brief template of what needs to be in an abstract.02 min| 📑 | How to construct a Nature summary paragraph - The usual structure of an abstract.02 min| 📄 | Abstracts - Structure and criteria of a successful abstract.03 min| 📄 | How to write an abstract - How to write an effective abstract by answering "why? how? what? so?".05 min| 🧵 | Writing effective abstracts for methods papers (part 1) (part 2) - Some also applies more generally.
04 min| 📄 | How to craft a figure legend for scientific papers - Practical tips for writing figure legends.04 min| 🧵 | Writing good figure legends - Writing clear, concise figure legends.
01 min| 📑 | CRediT - Contributor Roles Taxonomy - Widely adopted system to define author contributions.06 min| 📄 | Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors - Criteria that qualify for authorship.07 min| 📑 | How to handle authorship disputes: a guide for new researchers - Good authorship practices.
12 min| 📄 | Dissertation Structure - Overview of the standard dissertation layout.
09 min| 📄 | How to write a PhD thesis introduction - Background, gap, and questions.09 min| 📄 | How to Write Significance of the Study - With examples across different fields.16 min| 📄 | How To Write A Dissertation Introduction - Step-by-step recipe.
05 min| 📄 | How to Write a Discussion Section - Interpret what your results mean and why they matter.09 min| 📄 | Discussion Chapter 101 - Explainer of each component of the discussion chapter with examples.12 min| 📄 | The Discussion - Detailed guide to planning and writing an effective Discussion section.
04 min| 📄 | How to Write a Thesis Conclusion - The conclusion should give the reader a memorable takeaway.
05 min| 📄 | Acknowledgements - Thank the people who helped you.
02 min| 🧵 | ERC Starting Grant panelist insights - How grants are evaluated and how to design good proposals.03 min| 🧵 | NIH grant proposal tips - Writing clear, well-structured, reviewer-friendly NIH grant proposals.05 min| 📄 | 🔒︎A funding adviser’s guide to writing a great grant application - Many are obvious, but unsuccessful applications fail with at least one of these.07 min| 📄 | 🔒︎It takes time and a team to win grants - Advice on grant writing.
04 min| 📄 | 🔒︎Let’s chat - How and when to talk to journal editors.04 min| 📄 | 🔒︎Going pro - What the job of professional editor entails, and more.04 min| 📄 | 🔒︎How editors edit - How the Nature Methods editorial team evaluates submitted papers.06 min| 📄 | How to reject a rejection - How to appeal or resubmit after a journal rejects your paper submission.08 min| 📑 | Simplified Guide to Submitting Your Paper - Advice on Cover Letter and misconceptions.
02 min| 🧵 | My behavior as an author and a reviewer changed... - Insights about review process and publishing.04 min| 📄 | 🔒︎End the wasteful tyranny of reviewer experiments - Arguments to shorten the revision process.04 min| 📄 | Guide for constructive peer review - Focus on being constructive in the peer review report.04 min| 📄 | How to review a paper - Advice on how to review.06 min| 📄 | How to Write a Peer Review - Quick tips for writing and organizing your report.07 min| 📄 | Ten Simple Rules for Reviewers - Ten concise rules on being a timely, ethical, and helpful reviewer.07 min| 📄 | Publishing peer reviews & open science - Why and how to support open peer review reports.08 min| 📄 | Any jackass can trash a manuscript... - Promote civil and constructive peer review.09 min| 📄 | Writing reviews of academic papers - What you have to do when reviewing a publication.11 min| 📄 | The 6 “Be's” to Success - Framework for structured, specific, constructive, and respectful reviews.11 min| 📑 | COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers - Guidance on ethical peer review.24 min| 📄 | Ten common statistical mistakes to watch out for ... - How to detect and fix them.60+min| 📚 | Peer Review Toolbox - Tips to build your peer review skillset.
05 min| 📄 | How to prepare an article for resubmission - Handling major revisions and the response letter.08 min| 📄 | Ten simple rules for writing a response to reviewers - Writing responses to reviewers.
02 min| 🧵 | What’s it like working in biotech - Some observations on the industry and differences to academia.05 min| 📄 | Career Options for Scientists - Career choices outside of academia.05 min| 📄 | Leaving Ph.D.? - When considering to "quit" the PhD.14 min| 📄 | Why you actually might want a job running a lab - Conversation between two group leaders.20 min| 📄 | Job-Seq: The Lowest Throughput Sequencing Technology - Job search after PhD.30 min| 📄 | Postdocs’ advice on pursuing a research career... - Summary of postdocs survey, US-centric.60+min| 📚 | The World’s Most Comprehensive Resource for Scientists Transitioning to Industry - Collection.
04 min| 📄 | Choosing a Good Mentor for Scientists - Choosing an advisor for a PhD or postdoctoral lab.06 min| 📄 | Power imbalance and power abuse in academia - Which environments to avoid.07 min| 📄 | Toxic academic mentors - Academic bullying in practice, how to cope and how to avoid it.21 min| 📄 | How to Pick a Graduate Advisor - Selecting a graduate- or postdoctoral advisor.
03 min| 📄 | Focus on Human Qualities when Choosing PhD Advisor - Things to consider.05 min| 📄 | How to choose a graduate school and find scholarships - Brief advice on choices and applying.05 min| 📑 | ‘what do I ask/look for’ in a PhD Advisor - Overview of possible questions and where to find infos.19 min| 📄 | Questions to Ask a Prospective Ph.D. Advisor - Includes long explanations of background.60+min| 📚 | Awesome Grad School - Advice and guidebook for thriving and surviving the Ph.D.60+min| 📚 | Awesome PhD - Advice, tips and resources to prepare for PhD/grad school.60+min| 📚 | Awesome PhD Advice - Advice for prospective and current PhD students.
06 min| 📄 | Finding a lab to do your postdoc - Perspective from an established group leader.10 min| 📑 | Choosing the best postdoctoral position - Go to "Part II: Choosing...".25 min| 📄 | How to find, apply for, and choose a postdoc - Practical advice.120 min| 🎥 | The Strategic Postdoc - Video course on finding a postdoc that fits your needs.
02 min| 🧵 | 10 tips for academic (faculty) application - A few brief points to consider.07 min| 📄 | Tips for Getting a Faculty Position - Brief list of advices.20 min| 📄 | Tips for negotiating salary and startup - Advice and resources.25 min| 📄 | Tips for Scientists on the Junior Faculty Job Search - How to get faculty position.60+min| 📑 | Obtaining a Faculty Position... - Including all the processes in detail.
02 min| 📄 | Tricks to maintain & share a CV with Google Docs - Maintain a shareable CV/Resume.03 min| 📄 | CVs - CV format, sections and headings.03 min| 📄 | CV for non-academic jobs - General advice on CV and some specifics for non-academic jobs.04 min| 📄 | CV/Resume - Advice on CV/resume.07 min| 📄 | CV/Resume - Advice on CV/resume.09 min| 📄 | Rules of the Academic CV - Expected content of an academic CV.12 min| 📑 | CVs and Cover Letters - Handbook with formatting tips and many annotated examples.----| 🛠️ | CV/Resume parser - Check how your resume will be recognized by automatic company systems.
05 min| 📄 | Dear me, I am awesome... - How to write a letter of rec for yourself.
02 min| 📄 | Cover letter for non-academic jobs - Tips for (non-)academic job cover letters.08 min| 📄 | Cover letter for a job or internship position - Advice on cover letters.06 min| 📄 | The Commandments of Cover Letter Creation - Older (1996) but some still applies.
60+min| 📚 | Career Development Guides - Collection of articles on career development.60+min| 📚 | Science Careers - Posts tagged with "science-careers".60+min| 📚 | Applying for jobs - Posts tagged with "applying-for-jobs".
60+min| 📚 | Awesome Grad School - Advice and guidebook for thriving and surviving Ph.D.60+min| 📚 | Awesome PhD - Advice, tips and resources to prepare for PhD/grad school.60+min| 📚 | Awesome PhD Advice - Advice for prospective and current PhD students.60+min| 📚 | CommKit – BE - Communicating technical information in different formats.60+min| 📚 | CommKit – Broad - Communicating technical information in different formats.60+min| 📚 | CommKit – NSE - Communicating technical information in different formats.60+min| 📚 | Help, I'm a Scientist! - A resource by scientists who've been in your shoes.60+min| 📚 | Nurturing Science - Uri Alon - Collection of resources.60+min| 📚 | Science Comms - Nature Scitable - Papers, CV, talks, posters, conferences, and more.60+min| 📚 | Ten Simple Rules - PLOS - All “Ten Simple Rules” articles.60+min| 📚 | Tools for Science - Arjun Raj and lab - How-to guides for talks, writing, reviewing, figures, and more.60+min| 📚 | Virtual Books - Claus Wilke - Scientific writing, publishing, grants, and career skills.60+min| 🎥 | Life in Academia - Channel on career, culture, communication, and more.