2012 Goals

Ok, these are a little late in coming, but here are our goals for 2012

1. Hold our annual SIG meeting in Budapest

2. Hold two lunch round tables in Budapest aimed at career development for NIs. We will organize for senior researchers to join us and we will recycle much of the information we put together for the workshop last year. The working titles are:

a.    CVs, Resumes, and Cover Letters, oh my!

b.    Interview Tips and Strategies

3. Submit the Tricks of the Trade proposal for a symposium. This year we have Dr Juan Dapueto. Prof. John Brazier, Dr Dennis Revicki and Prof. Mirjam Sprangers partaking. We aim to make this an annual event at ISOQOL and are looking into recording the secession so that we can share it on our blog with researchers who were unable to attend.

4. Hold a meet-and-great for new investigators in Budapest.  This will be done outside the hotel at a local, nearby location.  We will hold it the same day as the SIG meeting, and will use this type of event to encourage people to get to know each other and talk about their research and quality-of-life research in general.

5. Hold SIG Elections.  We will work with Rebecca Brandt to run our first online election of a new Co-Chair this summer. (Bellinda King-Kallimanis’ 2-year term is up at the end of this year.)

6. Continue to build our blog site, which we hope to be able to integrate into the new ISOQOL website once that is launched.

Author Order in Peer Review

When do you consider author order? This can be a difficult topic for new investigators and can very much depend on the department you work in. In my experience, it is always best to have a discussion about author order early on, this of course isn't to say things can't be changed later on, but at least you know where you stand.

There is a nifty, little program that can help determine order call Authorder. While there are nuisances to choosing the order that this program won't pick up, it might help you to make an argument about order when you feel that perhaps your contribution to the work isn't being given enough weight.

Twelve Tips for Peer Reviewers

Peer review is something that all of us will be asked to do at some point, and while it can be very time consuming, what I try to keep in mind is that I want my papers to be carefully reviewed, and this can only happen when my peers agree to review. However, peer reviewing is not a skill most of us are taught, here is the link http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/getArticle.cfm?id=2157 to a great post by Henry L. Roediger, III  that provides excellent tips on how to be a nice peer reviewer.

Bibliography of Favorite and Classic Articles in Quality of Life Research

Several years ago, members of ISOQOL assembled a great resource: 

An Annotated Bibliography of Favorite and Classic Articles in Quality of Life Research. 

The annotation for each article notes the reason why it was nominated and the person who nominated it. Note: There was a rule that someone could not nominate their own article. This list is not exhaustive, but it may be very helpful. Thanks to Albert Wu who led this effort. If you have trouble accessing the document (it is posted on Google Docs), let me know at bennetta@mskcc.org and I can email it to you. -Antonia

ISOQOL - Denver

As the final day (August 1st) for early bird registration approaches for presenters and everyone starts to think about their ISOQOL budgets we would like to help everyone to find suitable accommodation.


The executive office has informed us that there are quadruple rooms available at the Sheraton Denver Downtown. The rate for this room is $204 a night. For those traveling without colleagues please feel free to leave a message here with your contact details so that other single travelers can contact you and perhaps you can all arrange to share a room for $51 a night rather than the $174 for single occupancy.


We look forward to seeing familiar faces and new ones too in Denver!

Elsevier - Reviewers' website

Reviewing is an important task that we will all be invited to do at some point in our careers. Elsevier has a great website with lots of information and tips on reviewing and you can sign up for their quarterly e-update.

For more information go to http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/reviewershome.reviewers/ru_most

Denver - Workshops

We'd like to announce that our workshop submission was successful, we are in the afternoon session and hope to see many of you there.

For the panel, we currently have confirmed Dr. Lena Ring who works for AstraZeneca and Dr. Dennis Revicki who works for United BioSource Corporation and is also co-editor of Quality of Life Research.

Please let us know if there is something specific you would like to see discussed and we'll do our best to incorporate it.

Workshop 11 (WK11)
Career Development: Strategies for Landing a Great Job in Quality-of-Life Research

Instructors: 

Bellinda King-Kallimanis, MS, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; 

Roxanne Jensen, PhD, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, United States; 

Carolyn Gotay, PhD, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada and

Antonia Bennett, PhD, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, United States

This workshop is geared towards new researchers entering the field of quality-of-life and looking for an exciting job. Based on feedback from the New Investigators Special Interest Group, participants will learn about (1) strategies and tips for networking, (2) how to prepare effective CVs and cover letters, (3) the opportunities available for working in academia, industry, and consulting, and (4) what employers are looking for when hiring recent graduates. Outline of Workshop: The workshop is designed to be responsive by adapting to the needs of the participants. It will begin with a 20 minute networking exercise, in a "speed dating" format, where pairs of participants spend 3 minutes each describing their research interests and background, then switching to new partners. Next, a 45 minute presentation will be given on the fundamentals of career development: how to get a job (CV dos and don't, interviewing tips, and job talk essentials), and important issues when beginning your career (grant funding, work-life balance, faculty mentorship). The presentation will end with a question and answer session. After a break, participants will participate in a 40 minute exercise on CV and Resume development, which will include individualized critiques from workshop leaders, models and examples from different fields, and feedback from other participants. At the end of this exercise participants will be ready to finalize their CV and submit it to prospective employers. The workshop will conclude with a 45 minute question-and-answer session with 3 ISOQOL panelists from around the world who work in different areas: academia, industry, and consulting. Panelists will discuss the type of work and projects typical in each setting, and the characteristics of strong job applicants.

Level: Basic