I'm a scientist, not a (wo)man

Today, we are going to play a little game, which I "borrowed" from the popular Dutch TV show "Wie van de drie" (which was again borrowed from a American TV show, called: "To Tell the Truth").

I will show you three figures, and ask you the following question:

Which of these three (A, B or C) is an actual Special Issue paper theme?

So, please take a look at the following:

Which one do you think actually exists? If we take a look at answer A, and suppose that one is true, I do not believe the special issue would stand a chance. I think that woman would not accept that there is a paper which is so discriminating towards them. And what about answer C? That one also sounds a bit ridiculous... Babies should not be behind a computer, studying Computational Chemistry (or quantum physics for that matter ;)....).

So, if you gave a "truthful" answer to my earlier asked questions, the answer would be B (see also the editorial piece written on this special issue). But this answer is depending on the question that I ask. What would you answer, if I would have asked you:

Which of these three (A, B or C) is discriminating against a large group of people?

Then all answers would have been correct (and yes C is still funny, but also discriminating against all non-babies). So, in my opinion, non of the special issues mentioned in the figure, should actually exist.

I want to be treated as a Scientist, not as a woman (or man). 

There are so many other good ways to get a broader range of scientists and readers involved for a journal, such as:

1. Have a diverse editorial board (to set an example for scientists that would like to publish with you).
2. Invest in education (at Universities, but also high schools. You could even think of primary schools, because that is where education starts for most kids (you can never start early enough)..... and where you can start training boys and girls to develop the same set of skills and abilities (see also this cool documentary)).
3. Create opportunities where researchers can meet you (such as visiting conferences, sponsoring poster/presentation prices) etc.
4. (Fill in your own idea)....

Luckily, the JCIM is already doing quite a lot of the steps I mentioned above, so good job!
However, I am not feeling inclined to write up a paper for a special "women's" issue.


To wrap this piece up with a nice ending, I would like to mention some special people that I met during the various conferences I visited over the last few months (these have of course been anonymised, and if think you recognise yourself, just keep in mind that I'm probably not referring to you):

1. To MW: it was a pleasure meeting you at the GCC... And good to know we now have a "frequent" bog reader, I'll try to write a bit more regular and kick my colleague who co-owns this blog to write something as well :)..... You are very brave tackling chemoinformatics with a computer science background. And do not worry, there were lots of presentations at the GCC that were also hard for me to understand, so that's not on you. Good luck finishing your PhD, let me know when you have your defense... I've never been to your country, so gives me a nice excuse to visit.

2. Dear dr. RM, I really hope we can meet up again to talk about cats ;) And as I mentioned during our talks, I'm happy to come over and show the power of machine readable pathways to you and colleagues. And a big THANK YOU to your lovely wife, who brought me (and you) home safe and sound after a very nice conference dinner and accompanying "Open bar".

3. To all the (new) people I've talked to at the Nutrim Annual Science day: it was great to meet you and hear about your research. Good to know there are so many other passionate researchers located in Maastricht ;)

4. It was a great pleasure meeting so many pathway and OMICS enthusiasts at the WikiPathways Summit in San Fransisco. For me, pathways are the place where biology, chemistry and informatics meet. Add some OMICS data to that mix (and databases), and you can do so many cool things. If you're interested to listen to some of the talks there, they have been posted on Youtube. Let's keep our collaborations going, and get more people on the OpenScience side.

5. Dr. BZ, and dr. VE-P, it was great talking to both of you at the GCC (even though it was short), about kids and combining that with Academic life. You are great examples for me, and I hope to keep combining the two for a long time.

6. Last but not least, I'm immensely grateful to my knight in shining armour, for saving my life (by keeping my wallet safe after the before mentioned "open bar", and returning it safe and sound the day after).