Future Science OA 2019 early career researcher issue: foreword

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. To view a copy of this license, visit 
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/


Foreword Heaney & Martin
Wardill (University of Adelaide and the University of Groningen) and Aya Mousa (Monash University). These interviews provide an insight into life as an ECR, what made them chose a career in their field, challenges and outlook to the future [1][2][3][4].
The ECRA, supported by FSOA, is an initiative that aims to recognize outstanding, highly talented and motivated researchers within the first 5 years of their first career position (in academia or industry). The winner receives membership to the FSOA early career advisory panel, a webinar to present their work and a monetary prize to support their career, among other things.
It is important to include topics that relate to many ECRs. Catherine Rawlins (Universite de Bordeaux) speaks about a very timely topic -mental health and how it can often be neglected in academia [5]. We would like to thank Catherine for writing this very honest and open editorial on such an important subject.
Kevin Deighton (Leeds Beckett University) and Javier Gonzalez (University of Bath) follow with an editorial based on the interesting concept 'Academic Periodization'. Academic periodization is based on concepts used to optimize elite sporting performance, and this may represent an effective approach to help young academics reflect on their working practices in order to meet the demands of their roles [6].
Alistair Moss (University of Edinburgh) discusses both the challenge and importance of finding a mentor who can help to support the career of a young investigator in the editorial 'See one, do one, teach one' -finding your mentor in academic medicine' [7].
In the first of our showcase pieces, guest editor Liam Heaney (Loughborough University) and his colleagues Owen Davies (Loughborough University) and Nicholas Selby (University of Nottingham) have described the potential use of short-chain fatty acids as therapeutic targets and/or biomarkers in renal disease patients in the editorial 'Gut microbial metabolites as mediators of renal disease: do short-chain fatty acids offer some hope?' [8].
As the winner of the ECRA, Viviana Mucci was awarded a free accelerated publication in FSOA. This research article on Mal de Debarquement syndrome, specifically aims to evaluate if symptoms change in patients with Mal de Debarquement syndrome during their pregnancy [9]. Viviana also had the opportunity to present her research on the same subject in a webinar organized as part of the ECRA.
A group of researchers based at the University of Sydney focus on the complex field of mass spectrometry tissue imaging. O'Rourke et al. provides a visual troubleshooting guide that will act as a reference point for a range of sample preparation mistakes and explanations for unusual or suboptimal data [10].
Heaney also authors the article 'Probiotics: Current Landscape and Future Horizons'. This review discusses the recent rise in the global market for probiotic supplements, current research and drawbacks alongside the lack of translation from laboratory science to clinical application [11]. LMH/JM: We hope you enjoy reading the articles published in this ECR issue and invite you to contribute to discussion on this topic, and to future issues of FSOA.

Open access
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/