Review of "How to be a Modern Scientist"

As part of my masters coursework, I have had the fortune of taking PQHS432, and this book by Jeffrey Leek was one of our readings. Here, I’ll review some of the key points I’ve taken away from the book and applications to my own field.

Data Sharing and Code

Leek takes a strong position that all data should be posted to a public repository, linked in your paper, and shared for the sake of reproducibility and open science. In his words, “the reproducibility debate” is over, and data should be made available, FULL STOP.

While this may be common in other fields, I certainly have not found this to be the case in medicine and more specifically within neurology. I think there are problems with data sharing - which Leek also acknowledges - both in terms of the scientific culture and practical challenges.

One practical concern is that there may be significant concerns with patient privacy and confidentiality. There should be HIPPA-compliant data sharing services available. For example, the “Figure1” platform has been used to share patient images between doctors. The larger problem may be with convincing your institution’s IRB that a patient dataset will be shared online.

More difficult is the challenge associated with the structure of our academic institutions - specifically, criteria for career advancement being centred around number of publications. Leek acknowledges that this “[dis]incentivizes” open science, as “data generators” run the risk of being “scooped”. He argues for a method of providing credit to these “generators” for science done by others using their data sets, but I think until the culture has caught up it will be difficult for many to feel comfortable sharing data.

Social Media, Science, and Online Presence

Another main aspect of Leek’s advice is the importance of leveraging social media and building an online presence as a scientist. He argues that scientists should be advertisiting their research on social media platforms like Twitter. He argues that engaging on SM can be an effective way of magnifying your audience and making connections.

He gives some practical tips on the nuts and bolts of establishing a social media presence that I found useful. For example, he points out that one does not necessarily have to develop original content in order to engage in the conversation - sometimes, adding your commentary can be just as beneficial.

Peer Review and the Publishing Process

I have been involved in peer review since medical school and have found it surprising that I have never been required to take any formal training or even reading on the subject. Some of his main points:

• Review papers quickly or not at all
• Get credit for your reviews
• Use a structured approach (he provides his own useful template)

Overall, I appreciated many of Jeff’s practical tips and advice navigating a scientific career. I thought more than once that I wish I had read this book earlier, and I would definitely recommend for anyone early in their academic career.