Doing Research – Page 2 – Edge for Scholars at Vanderbilt

New Data Update on the All of Us Researcher Workbench

Doing Research July 6, 2022

On Thursday, June 23, the All of Us Research Program announced a new data update to the Researcher Workbench. This refresh includes information donated by participants through January 1, 2022. Using this data, researchers will be able to tap into the dataset’s rich COVID-19 data, as well as initial responses to the program’s new social determinants of health survey. Highlights of the available data include:

Data from more than 372,000 participants, nearly 80% of whom identify with groups historically underrepresented in medical research, including 45% who identify with a racial or ethnic minority group.
The Researcher Workbench now includes records from nearly 20,000 participants who had SARS-CoV-2, opening new opportunities to study COVID-19 disease prevention, progression, and recovery through genomic, clinical, and participant-reported data.
The COVID-19 Participant Experience (COPE) Survey, with responses from more than 100,000 participants, provides insights into participants’ mental and physical health during the first year of the pandemic.
More than 132,600 responses to the Minute Survey on COVID-19 Vaccines, offering insight into participants’ perspectives on vaccines, and information about their vaccination status and plans.
More than 57,600 initial responses to the program’s new social determinants of health survey are now available for analysis.
The Researcher Workbench now supports more than 2,300 registered researchers from more than 350 organizations and more than 1,700 active projects.

For more information, visit the All of Us Research Hub and become a registered user.

For more information on funding opportunities, visit NIH All of Us Research Program.

Strategic Procrastination

Doing Research June 7, 2022

Strategic Procrastination – transforming a time-killing obstacle into a time-saving life hack

Procrastination has a horrible reputation: It’s blamed for the many wasted hours and lack of productivity we all fear and to which we occasionally succumb. This is overly simplistic. Yes, there is “bad” procrastination that paralyses you from doing anything, causes guilt and induces stress down the road. But there is also “good” procrastination. Procrastination that can combat the idea, “work expands so as to fill the time available for it’s completion.” While you may not know that this is referred to as Parkinson’s Law, you all know what I mean.

There are several approaches to counteracting Parkinson’saw. The obvious solution is to schedule only the time you need for each task and maintain focus while you’re completing tasks. This requires a level of disciple and organization that, frankly, I don’t have. But there is another way – Strategic Procrastination. Using this approach, you can limit the time devoted to tasks and use the pressure of a deadline to your advantage.

Here’s how it works:

Pick a deadline on your calendar that requires completion of a task (reviewing a paper, drafting an email, writing a recommendation, you name it).
Estimate the amount of time it will (should) take you to complete the task.
Intentionally delay starting the task until just before the deadline – giving yourself only the amount of time you calculated to complete the task.
Do the task.

So what happened here? You got your task done and did not waste any time – you used the deadline to counter Parkinson’s Law. I use this approach regularly. It works for me because I do not like to, nor am I good at, scheduling my day beyond meetings and conferences. I would never slot in an hour to complete a task and actually stick to it. If you are disciplined and like to schedule your whole day with time for specific tasks, you probably don’t need Strategic Procrastination. But for the rest of us, it’s great!

There are things to consider and pitfalls to avoid:

Accuracy in time estimate. If you underestimate, you won’t finish the task and you will be super stressed out, which is the opposite outcome of what you want to accomplish.
The pressure of a real deadline vs imagined deadlines. Many tasks don’t have deadlines. You can make one but it’s often hard to fool yourself, and you may find this strategy only works with harnessing the pressure of a non-flexible date.
Don’t forget to let your mind wander. Having time for free association is key for creativity. If your whole week is Strategic Procrastination, your mind won’t have time to grow. Use this approach in moderation.
Start slow. If you suddenly put off every task, the Procrastination is no longer Strategic. I recommend one to two tasks per week to start.

With the right mindset, procrastination is not the time-wasting monster we’ve been warned to avoid. It can be re-purposed for good and can be a wonderful addition to your workweek.

Procrastination, you’re welcome.

Connecting Through Poster Sessions

Communication / Doing Research / Networking & Collaboration / Trainees February 14, 2022

Imagine you’re at a poster session. As you walk by the posters, you instantly understand the key points and ‘get’ the research. You find yourself stopping, reading, engaging with the presenter, and you’re inspired to think more broadly about your own work. Posters designed with the audience experience in mind create engaging sessions leading to new connections and collaborations.

Christine Kimpel’s better poster design (image by Helen Bird)

That poster I noticed? The judges noticed it too and it won third place at Vanderbilt Translational Research Forum and a travel grant to Translational Science 2022.

I reached out to Christine Kimpel BSN, RN, MA, PhD(c), whose poster inspired me, and Caroline Taylor, Sr. Graphic Design/Multimedia Specialist for Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, who collaborated on the design of Christine’s poster, to share their insights with Edge for Scholars.

11 Quick Design Tips to Instantly Improve Your Poster

Write clearly and concisely.
Use bullet points and numbered lists to break up full sentences and paragraphs.
Make each section shorter than a paragraph.
Avoid big words in your title.
Choose a sans serif font.
Use the same font for the titles and body text. Make title font bigger and bolder.
Format titles the same. Format body text the same.
Left align text.
Use 3 colors or less. Choose one of these colors to be the main color.
Add images to break up a text heavy poster.
Ask a colleague in a different field to give feedback.

Better Poster Design

The Better Poster is designed to maximize insight, encourage conversation, and make it easy to quickly understand the research.

Better Poster Template (image by Mike Morrison)

The main finding, or key takeaway, is written in plain language and placed front and center. It is 12-15 words and easily read from 10 feet away. On the left is an overview of the study and to the right are the findings. A QR code links to more information.

Mike Morrison designed the new poster format and encourages presenters to adapt the template for their own needs, while keeping the poster clean, concise, and easy to read.

Newbie Strategies for Starting a Poster

Start 3-4 months before you need to print the poster.
Check the conference guidelines for required poster sections and size.
Know the resources at your institution (graphic design, poster printing, etc.) and contact early.
Work on the text a little bit and then leave it for a few days to get perspective.
The results and discussion sections take the most time and thought.
Posters are not read from start to finish. Each element should be understandable in any order.
Discuss the best way to show results with your research team.
Give your research team 2 weeks to review the poster. A call is helpful to hammer out the details.
Be mindful of time and how long it takes to print the poster.

Steps for Creating a Poster in PowerPoint

Use PowerPoint Designer and SmartArt to convert text to graphics, icons, and charts. (image)

Write the text first.
Change the PowerPoint slide to the actual size of the poster.
Use separate text boxes for each section. Left align text.
Copy the text info into the poster. Does it look chaotic?
Eliminate unnecessary words and cut the text down until it will easily fit on the slide.
Use bullet points to break up paragraphs and create space.
Zoom to 100% in PowerPoint. If you can’t read the text, your audience won’t be able to either.
Use PowerPoint Designer and SmartArt to convert text to graphics, icons, and charts.
Design your poster on a main slide, but have other slides open to work on different elements.
Put image credit directly under image, even if you use a free site.

Resources

Research Poster Best Practices

Better Poster Templates

Create a Better Research Poster

#betterposter

Select a Color Theme

Free Icons

Free QR Code Generator

Poster Accessibility for People with Disabilities

Books

Better Posters: Plan, Design and Present an Academic Poster by Zen Faulkes

Effective Data Visualization: The Right Chart for the Right Data by Stephanie Evergreen

The Wall Street Journal Guide to Information Graphics: The Dos and Don’ts of Presenting Data, Facts, and Figures by Dona Wong

Thank you to Christine Kimpel and Caroline Taylor for sharing their expert knowledge with Edge for Scholars.

Christine Kimpel is a Registered Nurse, a PhD Candidate at the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, and a first year Fellow in the VA Quality Scholars Program. Her clinical experiences with Palliative Care spurred her interest to explore determinants of Advance Care Planning. She earned her BSN (cum laude) and MA degrees from Kent State University. Her dissertation research focuses on identifying Age-Friendly Environment factors of Advance Care Planning among low-income, older adults. She plans to develop this program of research around the use of community-based participatory research approaches to reduce Advance Care Planning and Palliative Care inequities. Christine serves on the board of the Middle Tennessee Chapter of the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association. Additionally, she is a member of the Iota at-Large chapter of Sigma Theta Tau and the Tennessee Nurses Association. At the VA, she is collaborating on the deployment of a quality metrics dashboard.

Caroline Taylor is a Sr. Graphic Designer / Multimedia Specialist for Vanderbilt University School of Nursing. There, she specializes in creating visual marketing objectives that best benefit the school, as well as faculty and staff. Her research poster designs have been featured by VUSN’s faculty, winning nationally ranked awards.

Christine Kimpel BSN, RN, MA, PhD(c) won third place at Vanderbilt Translational Research Forum.

Further Reading from Edge for Scholars

Best Poster Resources for Trainees

The Newbie’s Excellent Infographic Adventure

PowerPoint Hacks for Scientific Poster Design

Making a Better Research Poster

Networking for People Who Hate Networking: A Field Guide for Introverts, the Overwhelmed, and the Underconnected

Not that Kind of Conference: Attending Clinical Conferences as a PhD

Doing Research February 9, 2022

For a number of years, I attended one or two conferences annually, focused on my Terrible Disease of Interest, but at meetings largely composed of PhDs like me. More recently, I have started attending the clinical meeting relevant to the MDs who treat said Terrible Disease. The meeting is large and most of it is not directed towards me, however, I am here to tell you why I go and why you should consider attending. N=mostly me, with a few observations of more established investigators.

Be an active member of your clinical Department: While your chair and clinical colleagues will not know your smaller, basic science meeting, they all know the large clinical one. In fact, the entire department is likely going, and as a member of the department, postdoc or faculty, you should be there too. It is also a nice opportunity for your chair to show off the research in the Department, and a chance for you to connect with other chairs who support similar research programs, as well as meet the PhDs in those departments. If you are a postdoc, these research-intensive departments are likely to be hiring. It is never too soon to start making connections with your future chair. If you are a member of a basic science department, attending these clinical conferences becomes even more important, as you want to be a known entity, particularly if you are developing a translational research program.

Learn emerging trends and treatments: A large part of our job as translational scientists is selling the importance of our science. This means not only understanding the problem, but also understanding the clinical treatment of said problem. There is often a lag time between a seminal clinical trial and adoption of the practice into the clinic. If you rely on the literature for keeping up to date with the latest treatment guidelines, you can miss important changes in care or controversies. I was recently surprised at a clinical meeting to discover something I believed to be widely accepted and of concern was actually wildly controversial in clinical practice. Needless to say, there were some re-writes on that section of the grant. It did not change the science or the preliminary data, but it did impact why the problem was significant and why our approach was innovative.

Find your community and build your network: Being a scientist on the edge of basic and translational research can be isolating. The clinicians think you do basic research and the basic researchers think your studies are clinical. Large clinical meetings will have a basic science component, and there you will meet the graduate students, postdocs, and principal investigators (PIs) that work in the field. This is your community—get to know them. The PIs you meet will likely review your papers and grants, and it is good for them to know you and your work. This is also the easiest time to network (tips for networking). Everyone is looking for someone to talk to during the poster session, so go meet some fellow scientists. If you are a postdoc, tell people to come check out your poster.

Identify collaborators and mentors: In the research portion of these meetings, you will identify the clinicians that are interested in a research program. These are the clinical faculty you, as a new PI or postdoc, want to meet. Clinical collaborators and mentors provide access to knowledge and resources (clinical samples, patients, data, etc.) that you normally cannot access. They are invaluable to leading a translational science program and can lead to some interesting projects and collaborative grants. Moreover, by examining their research programs, you can identify areas of potential collaboration or learn how they successfully interact with their PhD counterparts, be they in biostats, molecular biology, or epidemiology.

The reverse is also true for clinician-scientists: If you are a clinician-scientist interested in building a basic science program, come to our conferences too. You too will build your network, identify mentors, learn where the field is heading, and most importantly, spend a couple days hanging out with people who like the same science you do! We promise not to ask you how your science will cure our Terrible Disease of Interest.

In summary, if you get a chance to go to the big clinical meeting in your field, go. You will make some new contacts and appreciate the clinical complexity of the disease which you study. If nothing else, you will get some free swag and meet some new friends.

Did I miss an important point? Do you have questions or concerns about the post? Or perhaps an anecdote to contribute! Feel free to send some electrons my way in the comments, via Twitter @PipetteProtag, or through traditional electronic mail pipette.protagonist@gmail.com

More Resources

Spring Conference Season Essentials
Connecting on Twitter During Conference Season
Pro Tips for Networking and Collaborating
It’s National Science Meeting Time! Nine Protips on Meeting, Greeting, and Getting It Done Like a Rockstar

More Friendly Advice: When Rejection Isn’t Really Rejection

Doing Research / Grants & Funding October 1, 2021

When rejection isn’t really rejection – more friendly advice from your NIH grant reviewer

I know you’ve heard it, too – “Not Discussed” means you should toss that idea in the black hole of bad research ideas never to be spoken of again. But how many clever, impactful, innovative ideas start out that way? Of course, some people are born beautiful, but we all know the story of the ugly duckling.

Sometimes, there are moderate to major weaknesses in the research or training AS PROPOSED. This may be serious enough to push it to the bottom half of the group resulting in the dreaded “Not Discussed.” But it does not necessarily mean that the idea cannot be modified into an exciting and fundable project.

You have developed and nurtured this project this far. So take a deep breath and read the critiques carefully and with an open mind. You may be surprised that the concerns are addressable – and may even improve the research! Study the reported strengths, as well as the weaknesses. If anyone can sculpt this into a better project, it is you. Consider that the response might be a resubmission, or a new submission that is a better spin off of the present one.

So remember that sometimes rejection is really just an invitation to create a better proposal. But, even if you decide that this proposal really is better sent to the black hole, then learn from it and let it go – on your terms.

More Resources

Rejection and Resiliency Roundup

Dealing with Rejection

Responding to Manuscript Reviews While Avoiding Cerebral Aneurysms

Fighting Rejection, Reggae-Style: Three Little Reviewers

Doing Research / Grants & Funding October 1, 2021

Thought I’d start this one off with a nod to Bob Marley, since a little reggae always soothes my FL girl soul. When I had my first baby, I realized I knew very few lullabies. So “Three Little Birds” it was. Baby loved it, and so did I.

Fighting Rejection Lesson #1: Don’t worry. About a Thing. Cause every little thing’s gonna be alright. Take a breath and…

Image by bertvthul from Pixabay

Lesson #2: Stop to take care of you. Maybe it’s reggae, maybe it’s forest bathing. Whatever it is, do that small thing that proclaims, out loud, that you matter and deserve kindness.

Rejection isn’t a thing we typically showcase. But I’m not typical, so here we go. Shortly after I started as an Assistant Professor, I had my second baby. The pressure was on to fund the lab, so I sacrificed a good chunk of my maternity leave to work on submitting two (totally distinct) grant applications. My brand-new daughter was literally napping strapped to my chest while I furiously typed and I was, well, tired. But I did it. I submitted them both. I freely admit, the second application was not my best work. But the following reviewer critique still felt unnecessarily harsh for a K01 applicant. “It is unclear if the investigator has the potential to develop as an independent and productive researcher…[etc.].” Cue the ugly cry and self doubt. My 3YO son saw Mommy crying and instinctively hugged me, which helped SO MUCH. Which brings me to:

Image by Westfale from Pixabay

Lesson #3: Regain perspective by focusing on the “big things” in life. Do you have family/friends/pets who love you? Were you healthy enough to get out of bed today? Then you are still winning, my friend. Go ahead, cry it out for a bit. But tomorrow is a new day, one you shouldn’t squander ruminating too much over Reviewer comments.

Lesson #4: Three reviewers is a small sample size. Don’t let that bias bias you.

Of note, in the same K01 summary statement, another reviewer said, “The candidate has very strong potential to become an independent researcher.”

Image by Schäferle from Pixabay

Fast forward a few years to my third (yes, third) R01 summary statement: “This reviewer’s perspective is that this proposal is exactly what an ESI/NI’s plan should look like to launch their research program.” Tears of joy this time.

Lesson #5: Remember the grit that got you here in the first place and chase your dream until you catch it. With dirt in your eye and sweat on your back. Chase it. But not at the expense of the Big Things (see Lesson #2).

Lesson #6: Revisit past success. When I was a PhD student, I had my B.S. degree hanging on a wall. Any time I doubted myself, I’d look at it and remind myself I was Someone Who Accomplishes Things. The other grant baby and I submitted? It got funded. For more money.

Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay

Lesson #7: Take that uppercut Reviewer 2 lands on you and learn from it. Dodge it next time. Ask mentors or peers to help you figure out when you’re ducking left instead of weaving right like you should be. If Reviewer 2 hit below the belt, don’t own it, just shake it off.

Lesson #8: See yourself through someone else’s eyes. Did someone hire you? If so, do you think he/she is a fool who knows nothing? No? Then trust their assessment and quit beating yourself up. Odds are if they thought you were a talentless hack, you wouldn’t be sitting in your current chair.

Source: calmingmanatee.com

I hope some of this helps. And if it doesn’t, Google image “calming manatee memes”. Pop some flip flops on and play a little Bob Marley. Don’t make me come serenade you!

More Resources

Responding to Manuscript Reviews While Avoiding Cerebral Aneurysms

More Friendly Advice: When Rejection Isn’t Really Rejection

Microaffirmations

Dealing with Rejection

Doing Research October 1, 2021

Dr. Brené Brown stated that “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them” in her bestselling book, Rising Strong. This excerpt reminds us that when dealing with disappointing moments, such as rejection, we have the power and the agency to choose how we react to those situations. Most of us respond to rejection through the following lens, which enables us to internalize guilt and judgment, limiting our ability to learn and grow from the experience:

We assume that the person/people or the organization rejecting us believe we are deficient or inherently wrong.
We assume that the person/people or the organization is ridiculous, and we focus on the people to avoid uncomfortable feelings that rejection can incite.

Below we offer some actionable ways to address disappointing moments.

Process your emotions:
- - Take time to process your initial feelings by writing them down.
Reframe the way you look at the scenario by asking yourself the following questions:
1. - What has changed before or after your rejection?
  - What is the story I tell myself around rejection?
  - How would you feel if you weren’t attached to the outcome?
  - When else in life has a disappointing outcome led me to enjoy something better down the road?
  - What can I learn about this experience?
  - What opportunities do I have now that it happened?
  - What would you tell a friend in this situation?
Take a step back and practice self-care:
- - Workout
  - Make something (baking, cooking, artistry)
  - Listen to music
  - Meditate
Practice self-affirmations.
Spend time with the people you love.

As painful as rejection can feel, it has the power to serve as a form of kindness and realignment. In history, rejection propelled innovation and ingenuity. Rejection allows for us to make room for people and opportunities more aligned with who we truly are.

Written by Dr. Nadine De La Rosa and Dr. RC Stabile

More Resources

Rejection and Resiliency Roundup

Responding to Manuscript Reviews While Avoiding Cerebral Aneurysms

Microaffirmations

Growing Stronger in the Face of Rejection: Roundup

Doing Research September 27, 2021

Rejection is painful for anyone. And yes, it still happens to your mentors and department chairs. Read on for perspectives on managing the emotional fallout and using rejection to improve your work.

What to Do When Your Grant Is Rejected – Tips on handling the emotional fallout and ways to make positive changes in the next submission.

6 Ways to Deal With Rejection – From the “shadow CV” of all the rejections that went into one publication to rejection as a learning opportunity.

Picking Up the Pieces – Do’s and don’ts for moving forward after a manuscript is rejected.

How to Revise and Resubmit Without Losing Your Voice – “10 tips for crafting responsive revisions while remaining true to your basic intent in the face of self-doubt, structural changes and biased review comments.”

What’s Stopping You From Publishing? – Understand what’s reasonable to expect from an editor. Learn from them (they have a lot to teach about the field!). They can help you improve your rejected manuscript.

Learning From Rejections – Handling rejection from jobs, graduate programs, and internships.

Full Disclosure – How a workshop where students shared their failures led to more honest conversation in a graduate program.

Coping With Peer Rejection – Even Nobel winners get rejected.

Rejection Improves Eventual Impact of Manuscripts – So says a study of 80,000 biology papers. Maybe that rejection will propel your paper to greater heights.

More Resources from the Edge

Not that Kind of Letter: Tales of Rejection

Responding to Manuscript Reviews While Avoiding Cerebral Aneurysms

Fighting Rejection: Three Little Reviewers

Friendly Advice from Your NIH Grant Reviewer

Doing Research / Grants & Funding September 22, 2021

Dear PI,

I am your NIH grant reviewer. Many feel that reviewers are the enemy. But actually, for the next few weeks I want to be your friend. You should want to be mine too. I’m going to explain why.

To get funded you need me to defend your proposal to the review committee. It is only as good as I say it is. And, (this is most important) good ONLY means meeting the review criteria. If I cannot write it in one of the boxes, I really don’t care.

For R01 reviews these boxes include: investigators, significance, innovation, rigor and reproducibility, environment, etc. Training proposals have criteria like training plan, mentors, institutional commitment.

The strengths regarding each review criterion are my ammunition to fight for you. Give them to me CLEARLY and give me a LOT!

If I have to cobble together something from confusing text, the review panel will tear us apart.

It is easiest for me to be able to take direct info from your text and support your proposal within each criterion. So help me to help you. I am your advocate.

If I must struggle to piece together the defense for you, I will be tired and frustrated.

And we cannot be friends.

Follow @VickyLMorgan on Twitter and find the original conversation here.

More Resources

Avoiding Barriers Between Your Work and Your Reviewer

Doing Research / Grants & Funding October 25, 2020