posted 7 months ago

I have done a Ph.D. in Microbiology from Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan. My research is mainly focused on the role of intestinal microbiota in maintaining human health and the progression of the disease, modulation of human intestinal microbiota through probiotics and intermittent fasting to treat and prevent chronic metabolic diseases (Obesity)

Hello everyone..! Is it advisable to publish in any preprint repository?

Hello everyone

I hope you are fine and doing great. I am a fresh graduate of Microbiology (Food and Nutrition). I want to hunt a postdoc in my research domain (Microbiome, Probiotics, Genomics). As per my research and collected information, the postdoc positions are competitive and the ones with a high number of pertinent publications can easily hunt such positions. Currently, I have two papers published and the remaining are at different stages e.g. analysis, write-up, submitted e.t.c. The publication process is quite lengthy and it takes time till publication. So, I am asking, if it is advisable to publish preprints from my research. is it worthy and Helpful? Any other protips for hunting postdoc?

7 months ago

I can't give advice from a personal perspective in that I haven't done a postdoc but if you're thinking about it from an employment perspective, it's better to have things out there than not. Being able to curate a portfolio of pertinent work (like a preprint) can give you a competitive advantage and also give them a concrete example of the type of work you do, your writing style, work ethic, etc. I also think ethically, functioning within an open-access/open-science and preprint system is commendable in the community. I say release the pre-print!

7 months ago

I'd absolutely recommend to publish a preprint, particularly as you're applying for postdocs it's so much better to be able to have a preprint in your CV rather than just listing a manuscript as "submitted" or "in preparation" - that way your prospective employer will be able to get a flavour of your work. As for tips for finding/hunting for a postdoc position, I'd recommend to make a list of PIs who's work you find interesting and who's lab you would consider working in. Follow them on Twitter (if they are on Twitter) as they will often post job adverts on there. It can also be worth cold-emailing the PI, they may have positions available that they are not openly advertising. However, don't put too much hope into that as I've heard mixed things - some PIs welcome cold emails, whereas others just ignore them. Finally, as so often networking is key - it's best if you can meet a potential employer at a conference, or even visit their lab, or already have other rapport with them. Good luck!