Teresa Esch Ph D Features Editor The Journal

Teresa Esch, Ph. D Features Editor The Journal of Neuroscience Career path: • 1998: Ph. D in Neuroscience from The University of Virginia, with Gary Banker, studying development of neuronal polarity • 1998– 2001: Post-doc at UCSD with Bill Kristan using electrophysiology to study the neural basis of behavioral choice • 2002– 2007: Writer, Marketing Communications at MJ Research, a PCR instrument company; continued at Bio-Rad Laboratories after they acquired MJ • 2007: began working as Features Editor for J Neurosci Additional Training: • Neural Systems and Behavior summer course at MBL in Woods Hole’ • Features writing course through UCSD extension school

What Helped Me With My Career • • • Working in many different areas of Neuroscience Critically evaluating papers in journal club Hearing details of manuscript and grant review process Helping to review manuscripts Editing other students’ papers Biggest help: going through one of the papers for my dissertation sentence by sentence with good writers in the lab Note: I had very little specific training for writing. All these things are important for students who want to be academic researchers, too.

What Departments Can Do to Help • Encourage faculty not to simply rewrite their students’ work: explain why things should be changed. • For students whose advisors are not good writers, hire someone to work with them one-on-one on their actual research papers and grant applications. • Encourage faculty to have students help to review manuscripts (with journals’ permission); ask editors for feedback on quality of the reviews. • Have faculty attend and participate in departmental journal clubs. • Teach students to criticize diplomatically and to distinguish between important and less important flaws. • Encourage interested students to do extra writing: Journal Club articles for journals, review articles, highlights of departmental research for university publications, web sites, etc.

Where do editors and writers work? • Scientific journals – Solicit/evaluate submissions; write summaries; some journals have editorial service for research papers • Popular newspapers/magazines – Most require degree in science journalism • University research magazines and press offices – A good place to get experience while you finish your current work • Research foundations – Inform donors/patients about latest research • Scientific equipment suppliers – Write/edit research reports, manuals, marketing materials • Pharmaceutical companies – Prepare regulatory documents, research reports, marketing materials • Trade magazines/Consultancies/Market research – Prepare reports on current trends for pharmaceutical companies, etc.