Fátima Sancheznieto witnessed the issues with academia’s work culture first-hand during her DPhil focusing on STEM cells. She saw the deleterious effect bullying, harassment and maltreatment had on her colleagues. This inspired her to pursue a post-doc in social sciences, focusing on how post-docs and PhD students are trained. Fátima discusses her transition between these fields, the problems with academia’s culture and one’s identity as a scientist. 

Full transcript: https://elifesciences.org/community/community-voices-episode-7

The founder of the Public Knowledge Project reflects on his journey from schoolteacher to open access pioneer. He discusses the origins of Open Journal Systems and how a love of learning, a DIY ethos, and a belief in global knowledge justice drove him to reshape the world of scholarly publishing.

Being a researcher is only ever one aspect of your life, but one facet impacts and is impacted by the whole. Christian Molina-Aguilar shares how the combined stresses of a demanding research career, a difficult introduction to parenthood, and growing responsibilities have led him to enable over 8,000 researchers in Mexico to share their experience of mental health.

Content warning: contains discussion of suicide

Transcript: https://elifesciences.org/community-voices-episode-5

During her PhD, Daniela Saderi noticed the systemic issues present in traditional scientific publishing. As an activist and champion of early-career researchers, these inspired Daniela to co-found PREreview, which aims to transform peer review into a more constructive and equitable process. In this episode, Daniela discusses the importance of collaboration and community engagement in science, as well as her own journey through academia and time as a Mozilla Fellow.

Full transcript: https://elifesciences.org/community/community-voices-episode-4

As someone who has practised science in numerous countries, including his home in India, ECAG member Mayank appreciates the importance of mobility. He discusses citizenship as a privilege in academia, the value of community wherever you are, and the authenticity of embracing his scientific and creative self as one.

Full transcript.

Raised a fundamentalist Christian, Brian Spurlock came to understand their queerness and neurodivergence through a love of science, going on to found a Queer STEM Writing Group. The second episode of Voices takes a thoughtful look at the intersections and tensions of religion, queerness, neurodivergence and science through the story of a biomedical scientist.

Full transcript.

For our inaugural episode, we spoke to Emmanuel Boakye who, as an eLife Community Ambassador, launched the African Reproducibility Network (AREN). His goal is to equip African researchers for the global open science arena. He discussed his motivations and challenges, the importance of training and building community, and his drive to find whatever field has the most scope for innovation and creation. Oh, and his love of anime, football and K-Drama!

Full transcript.