Welcome to CTSciNet

CTSciNet, the Clinical and Translational Science Network, is a new initiative of Science Careers, AAAS, and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, our sponsor, with assists from a variety of partners in the medical science community--including Science and its new journal Science Translational Medicine.

CTSciNet aims to encourage and support scientists who wish to become a part of the clinical and translational research community and, indeed, to assist in building the community itself. In the Science Careers tradition, the emphasis of CTSciNet is on training and career development. For several months, the editors at CTSciNet have worked to build up a collection of articles and resources on clinical and translational science careers that is already unparalleled in its breadth and thoroughness. We will continue to nurture that resource in the years to come.

Because this is a great challenge--and because there is already a lot of scientists eager to address it--we aim to be merely a focal point, enlisting the whole community in the effort. We're doing that in two ways. First, we are forging partnerships with the most important medical-science organizations and working with them to pool career resources specific to clinical and translational science. If your organization is interested in contributing to the effort, we urge you to join us; just send us an e-mail.

The other way we're enlisting the community is by convening a community, online. We've set up a social-networking infrastructure designed to help scientists find other scientists with similar or complementary interests, form partnerships and collaborations, and discuss career-related and scientific issues.

Right now, the platform is basic and still in beta. But we intend to continue to develop it in the months and years to come, ironing out wrinkles, improving usability and, as we gain deeper insight into the platform's real potential, adding innovative features.

So what can you do on CTSciNet? The first step is to register and enter a profile. (Note that some of the steps that follow are available only to registered users.) Next, visit our groups page and browse the groups we have already created. If there's a new group you'd like to see, suggest it. When you find a group that interests you, join it. Once you're a member of a group, post a message or participate in an existing conversation. Finally, using the search box in the header on any page, see if you can locate people with similar or complementary interests, based on the information in their profiles. Once you've found people of interest you can follow them, Twitter-style, and form connections. We have created a Community Tour to help you get started.

We think of the CTSciNet community as an experiment, a perpetual work in progress, and a collaboration with its members. We've just begun to explore the technology ourselves, and to consider how it might develop. Our goal is to use the platform to stir the pot, mixing and matching trainees and researchers in novel ways and stimulating new relationships and ultimately new research.

We have high aspirations for CTSciNet. We expect to have an informal hand in training the next generation of clinical and translational scientists. We want our community to be a "place" where scientists can meet, discuss interesting problems, and form new collaborations. We expect the connections made here, and the ideas that are discussed, to contribute to major advances in science and human health. We want to be your partner--and to help you find other partners--in forging new careers and new science.

Jim Austin, Principal Investigator
Kate Travis, Editor
José Fernández, Community Manager
CTSciNet

Jim Austin is the Editor of Science Careers and the Principal Investigator on the CTSciNet project. Kate Travis is the editor of CTSciNet. José Fernández is CTSciNet's community manager.

10.1126/science.caredit.a0900132