I have no clue when it is appropriate to start calling myself a scientist. There’s the medical degree, which I guess makes me an applied scientist of sorts, then there’s the PhD with a few publications, which I guess made me a grad student for a bit, then there’s the clinical postdoc fellowship during which I’ve done very little except write and receive rejection emails so far.

We sent one manuscript to a huge journal and they did not even think twice before rejecting it, didn’t even send it out to review. Sent it to the second-biggest journal in our field, and holy shit it feels good that they sent it back for major revision. First reviewer thinks it has legs, second reviewer thinks it stinks. That’s okay, because we think we have everything Reviewer 2 needs to be convinced. I cannot express how much of a boost to my career it would be if we manage to drag the thing to publication.

I wrote two grants in the second half of last year. The first one I thought was pretty good, but was rejected, and very irritatingly the panel told us that they were too busy to give feedback. That’s so useless, it doesn’t even tell me if I did anything wrong. The second one takes ages to report, and I’ve spent ages thinking it was rubbish and that I never wanted to read it again after submission, but I got bored and read it again today which gave me a bit of hope that we might get it. Again, it would open so many doors if I got that one.

But until I get a postdoctoral publication or a postdoctoral grant am I really a scientist? Or just some chancer who doesn’t spend enough time in either the hospital or the lab? Don’t know. I’m keen for an answer either way.