As part of our peer review training at Charlesworth Knowledge, we aim to help young researchers be as effective as possible when participating in this process. It can be daunting as well as flattering to receive a request from a journal to work on a paper; at the same time, how can you quickly and easily put together an effective set of comments to send back to an editor and be a ‘useful’ peer reviewer?

Charlesworth Knowledge workshops can help you broaden your research perspective and find ideas for shifts out of the “research rat race”. Training can help you to “see the wood from the trees” and take your research development to the next level in terms of ideas, paper and grant writing, and presentation skills.

Today, February 12^th, is Darwin Day, the 210^th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, probably the most famous scientist to have ever lived.

As well as acting as a peer-reviewer for scientific papers in your field, its also common to be asked to review grant applications. Our Charlesworth Knowledge workshops provide training in how to perform reviews effectively and ethically.

Acting as a peer reviewer is a serious responsibility, your chance to both evaluate (hopefully critically and positively) the research work of others in your field as well as to contribute to the development and overall quality of the scientific literature. We provide a range of training courses in this area at The Charlesworth Group through our education service, Charlesworth Knowledge, including how to carry out effective, positive, and ethical reviews of other peoples work.

Peer review can be a thankless task from all perspectives. Charlesworth Knowledge training can help both academics and editors to get the most out of this process.

This month sees the publication of a special issue of Learned Publishing, the scholarly journal of the Association of Learned & Professional Society Publishers (ALPSS), "Bring the Facts: Bust the myths". This issue addresses some of the ‘myths’ common within the publishing industry related to academia and includes an article from Dr. Gareth Dyke, Head of Content Development and Delivery at The Charlesworth Group.

Plan S, a radical new European Union-driven mandate for Open Access publishing looks good. But is it so great for researchers? Academics appreciate grant funding, of course, but also like maximum flexibility when it comes to where and how to publish their work.

Increasing numbers of scholarly publishers are passing peer review comments from one journal to another following rejection. Why not let Charlesworth Knowledge empower this process? Take charge of portable peer review and let us dramatically increase your chances of successful publication in the journal of your choice.

Perhaps you, or your University, are currently involved in putting together a European Union Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network (ITN) application. Perhaps you did not know about this programme? We can help.

I’ve spent a lot of time working over the Christmas and New Year period; although this drives my family crazy, year-end (at least in our part of the world) is actually one of the busiest periods for researchers and for those involved with journal and manuscript editing.

A new survey, just published, that was performed by the Think. Check. Submit. initiative has revealed a deep level of demand from both academics and librarians for guidance about where to publish research. The survey results also reveal a strong demand and need for additional educational resources.

I’m writing this article while listening to student presentations at a departmental Christmas Conference in Cluj Napoca, Romania. I don’t speak Romanian very well and so I don’t understand a lot of what’s being said, but I can see the slides and get an overall impression from each talk. Perhaps you’ve had a similar experience when listening to talks in English? In this context, at international conferences when audience members speak a range of languages, your slides and general presentation style are even more important.

What are some of the most common mistakes that people make when giving conference presentations? Here are two from the first talk of the morning here in Cluj.

Dr. Gareth Dyke, head of Content Development and Delivery for The Charlesworth Group, spends lots of his time in Cluj Napoca, Romania. He recently presented talks at Babeș-Bolyai University and met with early career researchers and other colleagues.

The Charlesworth Group offers a flexible learning solution for busy early career researchers in China: short, easily-accessible video presentations on important research and skills topics that are available for views on mobile within WeChat.

Charlesworth Knowledge recently presented a series of author training sessions in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The number of young researchers within this region is growing year-on-year and more-and-more experienced academics are returning from studies and positions internationally. This translates to more-and-more early career researchers (ECRs) interested in developing the skills they need to further their careers and be successful in academic publishing.

Our team from Charlesworth Knowledge, the author education service provided by The Charlesworth Group, delivered a very successful series of researcher workshops last week at universities in Spain.

No one likes getting rejection letters. Sadly, however, these are a fact of academic life; papers sent out to journals and grant applications are more likely to be rejected than accepted (or funded), especially if you are doing what you should be doing and aiming high with initial manuscript submissions (trying to get your work published in the best possible journals).

One of the many pitfalls potentially encountered by a young researcher is the issue of authorship on publications. How can this be managed?

Charlesworth Author Services is delighted to announce a new partnership with ICE Publishing, a division of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), to provide English-language editing services to their authors.