• Question: do all of you respect everyone's different research or do you think that individually that your research is better

    Asked by Ratboy2015 to Cristiane, Nicki, Nikolai, Richard, Samuel on 9 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Nicki Whitehouse

      Nicki Whitehouse answered on 9 Mar 2015:

      Generally, I’d say I respect other people’s research, there is some great research out there that I wished I had done! Of course, I like my own work but I certainly would not think my work is better than others, and in some cases other research is clearly far better than mine! There are some occasions when I think some work is perhaps a little dubious, but on the whole the peer review process works reasonably well to weed out the really bad science. Peer review is the process by which many of our manuscripts are reviewed before publication. Typically, this will involve the editor of a journal sending my manuscript out to 2 colleagues who will then read it critically. They then send comments back and make recommendations for either changing the manuscript or rejecting it. In some cases the paper will go off to a 3rd or even 4th reader. The paper then comes back to me, I revised it, and send it back to the journal. The editor then decides whether I have addressed the comments sufficiently to merit publication. The whole process can take up to a year from manuscript submission to publication. The peer review process works most of the time but occasionally poor papers slip through or its sent to a reviewer who hasn’t read the paper properly or lacks the necessary expertise. Sometimes things get published that have been rushed through or that get published for the novelty factor rather than the quality of the science!

    • Photo: Samuel Ellis

      Samuel Ellis answered on 9 Mar 2015:

      As Nicki said, the peer review process in science is pretty effective at making sure everyone’s work is at a good standard before being published and shared with the world.

      Of course like anything you put lots of effort into, you hope other people think your work is quite good! It goes both ways, sometimes I will read a research paper and not be totally convinced they used the right approach to get a useful result. But most of the time I am just very impressed by how good other’s results are (and maybe a little bit jealous!)

    • Photo: Cristiane Calixto

      Cristiane Calixto answered on 9 Mar 2015:

      I agree with Nicki. We don’t think our research is better and most of us respect everyone’s different research. The only thing my research has more than others is the fun, I have a lot of fun with it 😛

    • Photo: Nikolai Adamski

      Nikolai Adamski answered on 9 Mar 2015:

      That is an excellent question.
      When I was younger (i.e. more hot-blooded) I did feel less respectful towards other people’s research: But one of the best things about science is that the more you learn, the more you realise that you know very little. That had a very humbling effect on me and it made me realise that I don’t fully understand what scientists from other fields are doing or understand the implications of their research. The best way to appreciate and remedy that is to go to scientific conferences and talk to other scientists, as they can explain it best.
      Similarly, I guess the general public must feel the same way about scientists of any field/discipline (i.e. not fully understanding the consequences of research). So it is important for scientists to communicate with the public and tell them why they are doing their research and how it could help people.
      I hope that answers your question.
      cheers
      nikolai

    • Photo: Richard Simons

      Richard Simons answered on 9 Mar 2015:

      There is definitely an underlying respect for quality research throughout the scientific community, even though different groups will often disagree with the conclusions made by others. As scientists we all try to take an objective view of any issues we face and problems we try to solve, so it’s best not to let your ego get in the way. With new or especially complex problems (aren’t they all!) there are often many ways of looking for the answers, so disagreements are common. The special thing about science is that we don’t have all the answers, so we need to work together to find them, even if that does lead to the some rather heated discussions along the way.
      Because of the huge range of research fields no one person can know everything, so we have to place our trust in each other to solve the bits of the puzzle that we’re not looking at; even though fossilised eco-systems are of no interest to me, I trust that Nicki will be thorough in her research and respect her devotion to her field.
      However, there’s nothing wrong with taking a little pride in your work 😉

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