Last year, ICES Journal of Marine Science offered early career scientists a greater insight into the world of scientific publishing and editing through its Editorial Mentorship programme. This year, the Journal is launching a new themed collection of articles that will highlight what it is like to work today as an early career scientist in marine science. And they want to hear from you.
Rising tides – voices from the new generation of marine scientists looking at the horizon 2050 is a new collection of articles, jointly developed by ICES Strategic Initiative on Integration of Early Career Scientists (SIIECS) and ICES Journal of Marine Science. The new collection is dedicated to and will be written by early career scientists.
SIIECS members Okko Outinen, Finnish Environment Institute, Valentina Melli, National Institute of Aquatic Resources, Denmark and Côme Denechaud, Institute of Marine Research, Norway, have worked together with Howard Browman, Editor-in-Chief of ICES Journal to develop this latest offer.
Denechaud explains that they want to highlight the personal experiences and perspectives of early career scientists as the world of marine science evolves. “As early-career scientists ourselves, we want to get to know the upcoming generation of marine scientists and provide a platform to showcase them. It's a constantly evolving field that expands all the faster as new methods are developed: how we view marine science in 10 or 20 years may be very different from today.
In a way, we see this collection as a complementary counterpart to the Journal's Luminaries collection, but instead of looking back on what defined the careers of our senior peers, putting the focus on the upcoming generation of marine scientists and their perspectives on the future."
The call for papers is now open.
Issues for the new generation
Melli notes that marine researchers come from many different backgrounds and societies and have inequal baselines in terms of funding and resources to begin their careers. “We would like to hear about their backgrounds and education systems, but also how early career scientists perceive the development of their specific fields of marine science in the future, and if there is something that we (institutes, universities, individual scientists) should bring forward from the lessons learned in the past. We feel that it is important to deliver their messages to initiate discussions on the future of marine science.
For example, interesting aspects may include acceleration of science; unrealistic expectations; work-life balance; digitalization and its impact on marine research, and we feel that there has not been a platform to bring up such issues, especially from the perspective of early career scientists."
Food for thought
“This is a great opportunity for early career scientists to get noticed and raise awareness of issues and challenges in relation to marine research", notes Denechaud. “Likewise, for ICES and IJMS, it is a good opportunity to promote inclusivity and facilitate topical articles that stimulate dialogue, research, and ideas. We believe that Food For Thought articles were designed for this in the first place and can inspire not only the generations to come but scientists at all career levels".
Raise your voice
So, if you are an early career scientist and you are interested in this offer, what type of paper should you think of submitting? The group welcome articles about specific disciplines, approaches, or methods as well as those that take on professional or structural issues particularly relevant for early career scientists. They also hope to receive topical articles in which these aspects are woven together to showcase ECS experiences and opinions with a wider reflection on the path ahead for marine science.
This new ongoing themed collection is accepting submissions on a rolling basis. Full details of how to submit can be found here.
