What are the biggest challenges for researchers and scientists today? Where do they find the best resources for the work? How do they go along with social media? We got interesting feedback from our colleagues, researchers, and scientists answering our polls on social media. We want to share them with you in this story and add some global biotech industry trends.
Scientific research is exciting but faces many challenges. For example, sometimes research projects require more time or funding than what is available concerning you scientists and us as vendors and companies that support your research.
We have asked researchers and scientists who follow us on our social media about their challenges in planning, organizing, and executing scientific projects.
Here are the results from 273 researchers who participated in our social media poll.
Q1: What is the biggest challenge you face during a research project?
Here are answers to our poll:
- Funding 35%
- Time pressure 34%
- Technical Issues 23%
- Reagents Price 8%
Funding availability and time pressure are the biggest challenges for researchers. The pressure of publishing, application deadlines, grant renewals, and reviewer questions are all factors that can override the joy of working on a research project and bringing it to completion.
Q2: What is the primary source of information for your professional work?
Our fellow scientists and students responded this way to the question:
- Research Literature and Publications 60%
- Scientific Magazines 20%
- Companies Websites 16%
- Scientific Forums 4%
Another issue for researchers is the source credibility when it comes to finding and/or expanding their scientific knowledge. Finding credible sources for scientific information is essential because using unreliable sources will hurt the credibility and make the scientific arguments weaker.
Whether your source is a research literature database, a science magazine, a company's website, or a science forum, the ability to identify credibility requires an understanding of the depth, objectivity, authority, and purpose of the source and the information.
So, how and where to begin?
There are many tips on how to choose your source of information. Here are some simple yet fundamental questions to ask yourself:
- Who is the author? And does he have a degree in the field?
- How up-to-date and backed up is the information?
- What is the purpose of the source?
- Does the information come from a source that will profit from a particular point of view?
- Who is the intended audience?
- What is the depth of coverage of the information?
Q3: How did you first hear about Atlas Antibodies?
Atlas Antibodies is the original manufacturer and provider of over 22,000 validated primary antibodies. In addition, we are devoted to creating and sharing rich and credible scientific content through our white papers, infographics, protocols, guides, social media channels, etc.
As a reliable partner with a website full of valuable scientific resources, we asked our followers how they first heard about Atlas Antibodies. Here are the top four answers:
- Online Search 40%
- Through the Human Protein Atlas project 28%
- Scientific Publications 20%
- Recommendations 12%