# Presentation: 834102

## SELLING YOUR SCIENCE

- Ricardo Azziz
- Lydia Aguilar-Bryan

## Selling Your Science

- Doing Science vs. Selling Science *(Aguilar-Bryan)*
- Selling your Science locally *(Aguilar-Bryan)*
- Selling Your Science at Meetings *(Azziz)*
- Abstracts
- Poster presentations
- Oral presentations
- Selling your Science to Grantors *(Azziz)*
- Publishing *(Azziz)*
- Post publication *(Azziz)*

## Selling Your Science: Doing Science vs. Selling Science

*“**If a tree falls and no one is there, does it make a sound?”*
- Build a story
- Science is a dialogue
- Forces clarity, simplicity & cohesiveness of ideas
- Focuses effort and consequently relevance (creating a niche)
- Depends on the appropriate development of a plausible, logical, and testable “Scientific Idea”

## Selling Your Science: Doing Science vs. Selling Science

- Use a uniform outline for all presentations:
- Title
- Background
- Significance
- Hypothesis
- Objective/Aim
- Experimental Design
- Statistical Analysis
- Data Interpretation
- Limitations & Alternative Approaches

## Selling Your Science: Doing Science vs. Selling Science

-    **“*****A picture is worth a thousand words*****” **
- 	Use graphical representations of the data whenever possible

## Selling Your Science Locally

_*Oral presentations*_
- Attention span is short – usually 5-20 min max
- So lecture should be about 20 min. long
- Not a venue to show “*how much I know*”
- Longer lectures should use  "*change-up*" to restart the attention clock
- READ THE SLIDES (let the slides guide you)!
- _FOCUS!_
- Liberal use of handouts and visual aids

## Selling Your Science

- PowerPoint®: Your friend, your enemy
- Avoid complex backgrounds
- Avoid multiple colors which only have an aesthetic purpose (I.e. “to make slides interesting”)
- Avoid complex transitions
- Avoid presenting information that is not directly relevant or critical
- Avoid overly busy slides

## DHS LEVELS IN PCOS: RELATIONSHIP TO THE SEVERITY OF INSULIN RESISTANCE

*Smith et al., Am J Good Sci 172:1251, 2006*

- Hyperandrogenic - normal insulin (HA-NI)
- Hyperandrogenic - high insulin (HA-HI)
- Controls

**There was no difference in the response of cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone, or androstenedione to corticotropin-(1-24) stimulation between normoinsulinemic and hyperinsulinemic hyperandrogenic patients. As defined, the hyperinsulinemic patients had higher basal and peak insulin levels and areas under the insulin response curve compared with the normoinsulinemic patients or controls.**

## Selling Your Science at Meeting

- Choosing the right meeting
- _Abstracts_
- The most important exercise in learning to sell your science
- Should distill the absolute essence of your research
- Same outline as poster/manuscript, just very abbreviated
- Include graphs when possible
*Reviewers are human!*

## Selling Your Science at Meeting

- _Poster presentations_
- Generally the most productive format for Junior Faculty
- Fosters interaction, critique & input
- Begin by expanding the _Abstract_
- Use same outline as manuscripts, just abbreviated
- Use posters printed on a single sheet (avoid multiple pieces of paper)
- Have a copy of the poster available to hand out

## Oral presentations (10 min/5 min.):
Focus, focus, focus
One slide per minute (i.e. total of 10 slides)
Title (1 slide)
Background (1-2 slides)
Hypothesis & objective (1 slide)
Materials and Methods (2-3 slides)
Results (3-4 slides)
Conclusions (1 slide)
Future avenues of investigation (1 slide)
Acknowledgements (1 slide) - optional
READ THE SLIDES (let the slides guide you)!
PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!

- Focus, focus, focus
- One slide per minute (i.e. total of 10 slides)
- Title (1 slide)
- Background (1-2 slides)
- Hypothesis & objective (1 slide)
- Materials and Methods (2-3 slides)
- Results (3-4 slides)
- Conclusions (1 slide)
- Future avenues of investigation (1 slide)
- Acknowledgements (1 slide) - optional
- READ THE SLIDES (let the slides guide you)!
- PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!

**Selling Your Science**** at Meeting**

## Selling Your Science to Grantors

- Reviewers are professionals, but are human
- Reviewers may not (should not?) be experts in the specific area being studied. Need _*GUIDED STORY*_
- Reviewers are assigned 10-12 grants to review, often at the same time they are preparing their own grants for submission.
- In addition to the Science, clarity of presentation, focus of application, use of graphical aids, and ease of reading _*COUNT A LOT*_

## Selling Your Science to Grantors

- Reviewers will quickly determine which applications belong in the lower 50th percentile (i.e. bottom half or triaged):
*Not important/significant*
*Not logical*
*In need of extensive revision*
*Overly ambitious*
*Unfocused*
*Not supported by preliminary data*
*In need of preliminary data*
- The remaining are then reviewed more carefully and scored

## Selling Your Science: Publishing

- _Chapters/reviews_
- Serve to focus and establish story, review history, and summarize research direction, pitfalls, and limitations
- Limit number, especially early in career
- _Peer-reviewed_
- Selecting a Journal
- How Editorial Boards work
- Reviewers are human

## Selling Your Science: Publishing

- _Constructing a manuscript_
- Expand Posters
- Use uniform outline
- Read the “Instructions to author” CAREFULLY
- Maintain your study focus, even if results are negative (THEY WILL BE  80% OF THE TIME!)
- FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS!
- Avoid excessive post-hoc analysis
- Minimize speculation
- When you think it is ready to send out, put away for a week, and then reread.

## Selling Your Science: Publishing

- The “_Introduction_”
- 2-3 paragraphs
- Introduction to topic (not review!)
- Statement of hypothesis
- Outline of objective/specific aim

## Selling Your Science: Publishing

- The “_Materials and Methods_”:
- Be very specific
- Should facilitate replication
- Do _*not*_ include any data, unless preliminary data relevant to methods only.
- Include statistical analysis

## Selling Your Science: Publishing

- The “_Results_”:
- Only the facts
- Use graphical representation when possible, however.....
- Do not present duplicate data
- Do not present excessive peripheral analyses, such as unfocused correlations

## Selling Your Science: Publishing

- The “_Discussion_”:
_*Paragraph 1*_:
- Restate hypothesis, summarize relevant results of study, note significance
_*Paragraph 2-3*_:
- Compare results to that of other studies
- Review potential mechanisms
_*Paragraph 4:*_
- Review limitations of study
_*Paragraph 5:*_
- Restate hypothesis, note results & significance, and outline future avenues of investigation.

## Selling Your Science: Post-Publication

- Maintain research focus, but....
- Keep abreast of other potentially relevant data  & studies