This document provides tips for establishing a research niche. It advises finding a niche that fits one's skills and interests, and that addresses an important unanswered question or neglected area. It also suggests balancing independence in one's research with collaboration. Maintaining perspective and flexibility is important, as is communicating one's work and nurturing the broader field.

1. Establishing Your Research Niche Theresa A. Jones University of Texas at Austin [email_address]

2. What’s in a niche? wiki.answers.com dictionary.com Marriom Webster online

5. Divergence of the Niches Tim Schallert Bill Greenough Me, Dorothy Kozlowski, J.Leigh Leasure, Donita Robinson Jeff Kleim, Me, Rodney Swain

6. Divergence of the Niches Tim Schallert Bill Greenough TBI Stem Cells Adult Neurogenesis Addiction Research Motor Skill Learning Eyeblink Conditioning Experience Dependent Plasticity

7. TJ’s Top Ten Tips (T4) on Establishing Your Niche

8. Tip 1: Don’t take my advice too seriously (or that of your mentors, colleagues, science family etc.)

9. Tip 2: Find the right niche for you (or embrace it when finds you)

10. Decision point: Carve a niche out of an existing field or set off into uncharted territory?

11. Tip 2: Find the right niche for you (or embrace it when finds you) Skills & Talent Intrigue Obsession Joy

12. Tip 4: Find the right niche for science (or embrace it when finds you) Skills & Talent Intrigue Obsession Joy Voids Neglected Topics SIGNIFICANCE!

13. SIGNIFICANCE?

14. Axonal sprouting Dendritic growth Synaptic plasticity Vascular remodeling Remyelination Cell proliferation An example: Neural Plasticity After Brain Damage

15. An example:

16. Behaviorally-induced Injury-induced Behavioral experience and brain remodeling after stroke

17. Experience effects on Cortical Reorganization after Focal Ischemia “ Rehab” training of bad limb GOOD LIMB Jones et al., Stroke, 2009

18. Experience effects on Cortical Reorganization after Focal Ischemia “ Rehab” training of bad limb GOOD LIMB Bad Limb

19. SIGNIFICANCE?

20. Decision point: Carve a niche out of an existing field or set off into uncharted territory?

21. Existing Field or One With No Name? Plusses Existing Field New Direction Community that understands you √ - Appropriate reviewers √ - Higher impact journals √ - Accepted significance of topic √ -

22. Existing Field or One with No Name? Minusses Existing Field New Direction Risk of “Dime a Dozen” status High Low “ Scoop”ability High Low Competition for jobs Fit for Jobs High Poor

29. Tip 8: Don’t let your niche ensconce you The process of gathering knowledge does not lead to knowing... An answer is invariably the parent of a great family of questions. So we draw worlds and fit them like tracings against the world about us, and crumple them when they do not fit and draw new ones. John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts, 1941 Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research New York, Viking Press

32. Divergence of the Niches Tim Schallert Bill Greenough Me, Dorothy Kozlowski, J.Leigh Leasure, Donita Robinson Jeff Kleim, Me, Rodney Swain

35. Impaired Limb Current Directions: In vivo imaging of neurovascular structural plasticity in mice WITH: Yi Zuo, UCSC Andy Dunn, UT Hiroshi Nishiyama, UT

36. Tip 9: Nurture the field, not just the niche