Maria João Machado
(pt/en)
Scholarly Publishing
Nothing worse than having the question that populated your mind being relinquished to irrelevance.
Or your carefully constructed experimental design being torn apart. ℝ𝕖𝕧𝕚𝕖𝕨𝕖𝕣 𝟚 𝕘𝕚𝕧𝕖𝕤 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕟𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕞𝕒𝕣𝕖𝕤.
A researcher’s career is littered with rejection. It still hurts though…
Until I started to think of these manuscripts as a means to an end. I wrote for the reader, focusing on their expectations, and peppered data insights throughout to highlight novelty and impact.
Don’t get me wrong. Assembling and building strong and successful partnerships was key in this.
Fuelled by the need to explain biological concepts to mathematicians, I developed skills in medical writing and science communication.
✍🏼 I authored 30+ peer-reviewed publications, and had the opportunity to present at international conferences.
Networking was eye-opening.
Focusing on how to express my ideas clearly helped the academic funding landscape open up:
👩🏻🎓I was awarded €50k Vice Chancellor’s Research Scholarship during my PhD.
🕵🏻♀️ Achieved £100k as co-Investigator in a project grant looking into nanosensors for real-time measurement of shear stress awarded by the British Heart Foundation.
👩🏻⚕️I secured $60k research funding to study interactions between control of blood flow and vessel innervation from the Fondation Lefoulon Delalande.
Overall, I raised over $300k via research scholarships, fellowships, and awards.💰
And then everything changed. My life and the world. Remember 2020?
During a lockdown, what could I do? I knew about vascular physiology, but I was not a doctor.
I had performed surgeries, but not in people. I felt a bit useless.
So, I decided to work differently, by helping to publish new knowledge faster.
I reviewed papers, theses, grant applications, patient-facing documents —and sometimes caught glitches. This was valuable to busy researchers; they told me they appreciated my constructive criticism because it improved content. They felt relaxed and trusted my attention to detail.
Wʜᴀᴛ I ᴄᴀɴ ᴅᴏ ꜰᴏʀ ʏᴏᴜ ɪꜱ:
🟣 Provide actionable feedback on research design
🔵 Clarify research objectives and plan manuscripts
🟢 Suggest additional bibliographic sources
🟡 Abide by publisher’s requirements to avoid desk rejections
🟠 Ensure compliance with reporting guidelines
🔴 Perform research integrity checks
If you are a life scientist facing challenges with publishing your papers, send me a DM.
- Porto, Portugal