Editorial Board Guidance: Dr Edgar Virguez

What advice would you give to an early career researcher? 

Dr Edgar Virguez (Duke university), Executive Editor of Environmental Research: Energy gives his insight on visibility, overcoming barriers and understanding the publishing process. Read more below:

“My advice for early career researchers who are interested in increasing their engagement in publications in the journal is: first, try to understand that this is a very big field and that it has different components. There is not one silver bullet or one way of doing things.
You can be engaged by being a reviewer, as somebody working directly with the journal, submitting manuscripts, judging manuscripts. Or engage in the different type of activities, for example at conferences, at visiting institutions, or even on the webpage.
So, my advice is to lose the fear that you have of engaging.
You can e-mail members of the editorial staff, you can e-mail members of editorial board, you can try to engage with people who have published in the journal and try to ask them for advice on how to navigate processes. 

The second, of course, is you’ll never learn how to do something completely, until you do it. So try to actually get away from the barriers that are preventing you, and try to engage in the process as early as you can in your career, of course with the advice of mentors. 

Try to understand how the process works. Once you have had that manuscript and it’s been reviewed, you’ll understand how the process works, the timings and the best practises. Sometimes you’ll get very good reviews, and sometimes reviews are not very comprehensive, so you’ll learn throughout this process. 

Basically, learn by doing, and try to understand that you won’t get better unless you do this often and repeatedly.  

And if you’re planning for a career in academia, know that publishing is part of our language, part of what we do in in our careers. You get better and better at this stage, and you don’t have to be a master to start, you can be an amateur and will learn, and start to understand the process.”