It is a tremendous irony that my present profession is closer to how I pictured an academic career than academia itself turned out to be.
Continue readingAll I ever wanted
writing
MedComms is not SciComm
When scientists assess career options outside academia, there’s a prevailing misconception that MedComms is a variant of SciComm.
The trap, after all, is right there in the name. SciComm = science communication, MedComms = medical communications, so MedComms must basically be the same activity but dealing with medicine instead of scientific research, right?
Wrong. Here’s why.
Continue reading2025: Total Internal Reflection’s year in review
Catching the zeitgeist
Mark Ronson’s “Night people” memoir is an engaging and engrossing account of his formative years as a DJ in the New York club scene of the 90s. It also illustrates one tantalising facet shared by the arts and sciences: catching the zeitgeist.
Continue readingCredit where credit’s due (a short guide to authorships in scientific papers)
Did you know that there are actually guidelines for determining authorship on scientific papers?
Continue readingThe magic of MedComms: an EMBL Careers Webinar
Medical Communications (MedComms) might just be the best industry career option out there for scientists who most enjoy the writing/communicating/organising parts of the job, and on 22nd November 2024 the EMBL Fellows’ Careers Service hosted a webinar about it. The panel members were:
- Lucija Fleisinger, Medical Writer, Oxford PharmaGenesis, UK
- Laura McMahon, Senior Scientific Director and Team Lead, Envision Pharma Group, Scotland
- Brooke Morriswood, Manager, Scientific Services, Ashfield MedComms GmbH, Germany
2024: Total Internal Reflection’s year in review
2023: TIR’s year in review
The devil in the details (a short guide to writing figure legends)
A short guide to writing the most important text of any scientific manuscript. Continue reading
The 9 types of academic authors
Nowadays it’s pretty standard for an academic paper to have a long list of authors – but who are those authors anyway? Continue reading
