Chemist-trees!

Don't let being stuck in the lab over the holidays get you down, you can still be festive!

See more trees at the Chemistry World Blog.

Rejection of rejection

Cath Chapman and Tim Slade from the University of South Wales, Sydney, Australia, provide the template of a "rejection of rejection letter" in a recent BMJ feature, which begins:

Rejection of rejection letter

[insert university emblem here]

Dear Professor [insert name of editor]

[Re: MS 2015_XXXX Insert title of ground-breaking study here]

Thank you for your rejection of the above manuscript.

Unfortunately we are not able to accept it at this time. As you are probably aware we receive many rejections each year and are simply not able to accept them all. In fact, with increasing pressure on citation rates and fiercely competitive funding structures we typically accept fewer than 30% of the rejections we receive. Please don’t take this as a reflection of your work. The standard of some of the rejections we receive is very high...

Read the rest at BMJ:
Rejection of rejection: a novel approach to overcoming barriers to publication

thanks to Dean McKay for finding this!

Speaking of avoiding jargon...

via Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal by Zack Weinersmith.

"Dance Your Ph.D." 2015 contest finalists

Many writing advisors urge new scientists to "avoid the jargon" when they write about their work; what if you couldn't use words at all? For the past eight years the AAAS, Science and HighWire Press have sponsored a "Dance Your PhD" contest. The winner last year was Uma Nagendra who eared her PhD in plant biology:

The winner for 2015 hasn't been announced yet, and voting has concluded, but you can still view the 12 finalists that are vying for the title:
It's a dance-off! Vote for you 'Dance Your Ph.D. video winner!'

NIH Loan Repayment Program accepting applications - due 11/16

The NIH Loan Repayment Program is accepting applications, due by 8pm on 11/16/15. It's a quick turnaround, but the pay off makes it worth it -- up to $70,000 in student loan debt could be repaid for you if you're a qualifying researcher.

Visit their website at http://www.lrp.nih.gov (hurry!) to learn more.

Many NIH changes to know about

The National Institutes of Health and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality announce a number of updates:

• Notice 16-004 provides summary information on changes to proposal forms, policies and instructions taking effect in 2016. Changes will take place in two phases, Phase 1 for applications due on or after January 25 but before May 25, and Phase 2 for applications due May 25 and after. Tables included in this notice indicate subsequent notices that detail further some of these changes, some of which are listed below.
• Notice 16-005 describes new post-award forms and instructions.
• Notice 16-006 describes the simplification of the Vertebrate Animals section of NIH proposals.
• Notice 16-008 announces a new form to use for requesting assignment to a specific awarding component and study section (or requesting it not be assigned somewhere), list of reviewers who may have a conflict, and special expertise that may be required to properly review your proposal.
• Notice 16-009 provides information about acceptable font sizes and suggests specific fonts, but provides more flexibility than previously.
• Notice 16-010 explains the change in the definition of "child" as being 18 and under instead of 21, and why.

New NSF guidelines effective January 25, 2016

NSF has posted the new proposal preparation and award management guide for those proposals submitted or due on or after January 25, 2016. There are a number of significant changes including the implementation of NSF's Public Access Policy for publications resulting from NSF funding and changes to the Biographical Sketch format. Be sure to review the full Significant Changes and Clarifications page.

NSF Proposal & Award Policies and Procedures Guide