In April of this year, we put a call out to the early-career researcher community to join our Early-Career Advisory Group (ECAG) and help improve science culture and communication.
To ensure we achieve the most representative group, the call focused on recruiting one member from each of the following regions: Middle East/Western Asia, Southeast Asia, and Northern America.
Following the application process, the eLife team shortlisted the applications based on requirements and goals for diverse representation outlined in the call. From this shortlist our new ECAG members were elected through a voting system by our current members, as well as recent eLife Ambassadors, Open Science Champions and members of eLife's early-career reviewer pool.
We were pleased to receive 70 applications from the Middle East/Western Asia, Southeast Asia and Northern America regions, with 60% of applicants identifying as women and non-binary. Of these, 15 candidates were shortlisted and three were elected.
Meet our new ECAG members:
Mayank Chugh, postdoc at Harvard Medical School, USA
“As a postdoc with intersectional identities, I am committed to reforming practices, protocols, and policies that hinder equitable advancement and retention of early-career researchers from marginalised backgrounds. I look forward to working with diverse ECAG members and eLife leadership to launch new initiatives, experiments, and collaborations that reflect our shared values of accountable and transparent research and communication.”
Sarah Marei, Master’s student at American University of Beirut, Lebanon
“As an ECAG member, I want to work on providing early-career scientists with the learning opportunities that are missing in the research community. This is through building and promoting a transparent and comprehensive outlook into the scientific process, especially for third-world countries that lack direct access to these processes.”
Lynn Yap, Assistant Professor at Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Singapore
“I am extremely excited to join the dynamic and diverse ECAG community in contributing to the improvement of science culture and communication. I have the aspiration of transforming science publications and visibility for young scientists. As a new member, I would like to champion topics such as open and timely research communication, collaboration, and gender equality. I am really excited about working with the other ECAG members and editors to create a positive impact on the scientific community.”
As part of the ECAG, our new members will work closely with journal staff and editors on our new model and shaping the future of science communication. Some of the key priorities the group is working on in 2023 concern:
- Increasing the involvement of early-career researchers in peer review at eLife
- Increasing equity, diversity and inclusion in eLife’s communities
- Identifying and addressing bias in the publishing process
- Supporting the transition to the new model of science communication
- Increasing openness and integrity in the way science is conducted and shared
You can read more about the work of the eLife Early-Career Advisory Group over the last couple of years in the following blogs:
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We welcome comments, questions and feedback. Please annotate publicly on the article or contact us at hello [at] elifesciences [dot] org.
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