Tips for charting the course of a successful health research career

Lawrence Mbuagbaw1 Centre for Development of Best Practices in Health, Yaounde Central Hospital, Yaounde, Cameroon;2 Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada;3 Biostatistics Unit, Father Sean O’Sullivan Research Centre, St Joseph’s Healthcare, Hamilton, ON, CanadaCorrespondence[email protected]

Frederick Morfaw4 Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Medicines and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaounde 1, Yaounde, Cameroon

John-Eudes L Kunda5 Community Information and Epidemiological Technologies, Lusaka, Zambia

Jackson K Mukonzo6 School of Biomedical Sciences, College of Health Sciences, University of Makerere, Kampala, Uganda

Jasmine Kastner7 Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, BC, Canada

Shiyuan Zhang2 Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada;3 Biostatistics Unit, Father Sean O’Sullivan Research Centre, St Joseph’s Healthcare, Hamilton, ON, Canada

Madzouka Kokolo8 Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

Lehana Thabane1 Centre for Development of Best Practices in Health, Yaounde Central Hospital, Yaounde, Cameroon;3 Biostatistics Unit, Father Sean O’Sullivan Research Centre, St Joseph’s Healthcare, Hamilton, ON, Canada;9 Departments of Pediatrics and Anaesthesia, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada;10 Centre for Evaluation of Medicine, St Joseph’s Healthcare, Hamilton, ON, Canada;11 Population Health Research Institute, Hamilton Health Sciences, Hamilton, ON, Canada

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Abstract

Young health researchers all over the world often encounter difficulties in the early stages of their careers. Formal acquisition of research skills in academic settings does not always offer sufficient guidance to overcome these challenges. Based on the collective experiences of some young researchers and research mentors, we describe some tips for a successful health career and offer some useful resources. These tips include: institutional affiliation, early manuscript writing, early manuscript reviewing, finding a mentor, collaboration and networking, identifying sources of funding, establishing research interests, investing in research methods training, developing interpersonal and personal skills, providing mentorship, and balancing work with everyday life. The rationale behind these tips and how to achieve them is provided.

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Acknowledgment

This paper is supported in part by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Canadian HIV Trials Network (CTN) and the Canadian Network and Centre for Trials Internationally (CANNeCTIN) program.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Tips for charting the course of a successful health research career

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Tips for charting the course of a successful health research career

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