Career Guide 28 January 2019

How failure benefits science

Failure is an essential part of the scientific process, but researchers can often struggle to come to terms with repeated knockbacks. Learn how scientists have made their failures work for them and why defeat is not always damning.

Articles

Why you should perform a premortem on your research

Carsten Lund Pedersen introduces a tool for improving the success rate of your papers, projects and partnerships.
- Carsten Lund Pedersen
Career Column24 Jul 2024 Nature
‘Shrugging off failure is hard’: the $400-million grant setback that shaped the Smithsonian lead scientist’s career

Planetary scientist Ellen Stofan thought about leaving research after a funding bid was rejected. But new opportunities emerged.
- Anne Gulland
Career Q&A15 Apr 2024 Nature
Failed PhD: how scientists have bounced back from doctoral setbacks

In a scientific culture that eschews admitting failure, some researchers are staring it in the face — and finding success.
- Carrie Arnold
Career Feature21 Aug 2023 Nature
How to train early-career scientists to weather failure

Workshops and training programmes tackle failure and how to recover from it.
- Laurie Udesky
Career Feature30 Jun 2023 Nature
No drug for COVID: ‘the most successful failure in my life’

Laura Walker co-founded a spin-off company, but she moved to big pharma after the therapy the firm had been testing came to nothing. She explains why.
- Rachel Brazil
Career Q&A28 Jun 2023 Nature
How to bounce back from a PhD-project failure

Science is riddled with stories of getting scooped, data glitches and funding crises. Five researchers share stories of how they rallied.
- Nikki Forrester
Career Feature13 Jul 2022 Nature
An engineer advances fire-management laws in Colombia

María Constanza Meza Elizalde wants to change fire laws and attitudes.
- Christine Ro
Career Q&A23 Feb 2022 Nature
What I learnt from 700 e-mail applications

Ronith Stanly weathered repeated rejections, but constructive feedback helped him to find ways to stand out from the crowd.
- Ronith Stanly
Career Column9 Mar 2021 Nature
Dear grant agencies: tell me where I went wrong

I don’t expect to get every grant I apply for, but the least agencies could do is give me a little feedback, says Juan Manuel Parrilla Gutierrez.
- Juan Manuel Parrilla Gutierrez
Career Column17 Feb 2021 Nature
How an unlikely call from a university official rescued my academic career

International student Solmaz Mohadjer had run out of money and time, but then her folder of rejection letters reached the right person.
- Solmaz Mohadjer
Career Column16 Jul 2020 Nature
Coronavirus diaries: rejection under lockdown

John Tregoning overcomes his peer-review blues.
- John Tregoning
Career Column29 May 2020 Nature
‘Failing forward’ in science: how college athletics prepared me for setbacks in graduate school

Taking an athlete’s mindset into graduate school equipped Joshua D. Smith with more transferable skills than he expected.
- Joshua D. Smith
Career Column9 Sep 2019 Nature
Tenure denial, and how early-career researchers can survive it

Scientists with first-hand experience of rejection offer their advice.
- Josie Glausiusz
Career Feature22 Jan 2019 Nature
Scientific progress is built on failure

Learning to handle failure is just part of scientific life, writes Eileen Parkes.
- Eileen Parkes
Career Column10 Jan 2019 Nature
Why it is not a ‘failure’ to leave academia

Here’s how PhD students can prepare for different careers, and how lab heads can help.
- Philipp Kruger
Career Column1 Aug 2018 Nature
Teach undergraduates that doing a PhD will require them to embrace failure

Students must learn that a doctoral degree isn’t for everyone — and that not doing one might be a better option.
- Irini Topalidou
Career Column18 Oct 2018 Nature
How I embraced my first academic rejection

Katherine Bassil discusses the importance of learning to recognize failure as a door to success.
- Katherine Bassil
Career Column20 Dec 2018 Nature
Fallacy of perfection harms peer review
- James C. Zimring
- Steven L. Spitalnik
Correspondence31 Aug 2016 Nature
Beating the odds to secure a permanent contract

Six early-career researchers offer advice on how to secure a permanent contract in academia, and then make the most of it.
- Paul Smaglik
Spotlight3 Oct 2018 Nature
How music helped me to flourish

A hobby or passion is an important tool that can help you in your research career, says Manasi Kulkarni-Khasnis.
- Manasi Kulkarni-Khasnis
Career Column6 Aug 2018 Nature
How researchers are ensuring that their work has an impact

Finding purpose and meaning in the lab.
- Jack Leeming
Career Feature3 Apr 2018 Nature
Should we steer clear of the winner-takes-all approach?

Researchers reflect on an initiative in New Zealand to make science more inclusive.
- Kendall Powell
Career Feature16 Jan 2018 Nature
Satisfaction in science

Nature’s survey offers a snapshot of salaries and career paths in the scientific sector.
- Chris Woolston
Career Feature24 Oct 2018 Nature
Feeling overwhelmed by academia? You are not alone

Five researchers share their stories and advice on how to maintain good mental health in the hyper-competitive environment of science.
- Chris Woolston
Career Feature2 May 2018 Nature

How failure benefits science

Articles

Why you should perform a premortem on your research

‘Shrugging off failure is hard’: the $400-million grant setback that shaped the Smithsonian lead scientist’s career

Failed PhD: how scientists have bounced back from doctoral setbacks

How to train early-career scientists to weather failure

No drug for COVID: ‘the most successful failure in my life’

How to bounce back from a PhD-project failure

An engineer advances fire-management laws in Colombia

What I learnt from 700 e-mail applications

Dear grant agencies: tell me where I went wrong

How an unlikely call from a university official rescued my academic career

Coronavirus diaries: rejection under lockdown

‘Failing forward’ in science: how college athletics prepared me for setbacks in graduate school

Tenure denial, and how early-career researchers can survive it

Scientific progress is built on failure

Why it is not a ‘failure’ to leave academia

Teach undergraduates that doing a PhD will require them to embrace failure

How I embraced my first academic rejection

Fallacy of perfection harms peer review

Beating the odds to secure a permanent contract

How music helped me to flourish

How researchers are ensuring that their work has an impact

Should we steer clear of the winner-takes-all approach?

Satisfaction in science

Feeling overwhelmed by academia? You are not alone

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