Toot Your Horn

People working in the sciences aren’t generally perceived as being outgoing. Many would agree that scientists can often be introverted, bookish and perhaps even a bit awkward. However, some scientists seem to be more outgoing, finding it easier to get noticed, promote themselves and thrive in todays media driven culture. If you want to be heard over the noise you need to engage with the process of tooting your own horn (no one is going to do it for you).

Mastering the art marketing yourself is particularly important for those that don’t have an established ‘reputation’. For example, young scientists with limited networks trying to kick-off their careers. It can equally apply for new research projects and/or teams promising important findings that will need broad dissemination and recognition when they come to fruition.

Ways can be found for unassuming and selfeffacing scientists to compete successfully with their more loquacious counterparts through the cultivation of few simple activities. By seeing self-promotion as a scientific challenge that needs to be addressed in a logical and step-wise fashion you can achieve a level of recognition that may not reflect your personality. We provide a guide here. We have used this approach successfully for our three grant-funded studies RASP-UK, MID-Frail and Frailomic.