Editorial Ten Simple Rules for Getting Ahead as a Computational Biologist in Academia

Getting a promotion or a new position are important parts of the scientific career process. Ironically, a committee whose membership has limited ability to truly judge your scholarly standing is often charged with making these decisions. Here are ten simple rules from my own experi-ences, in both getting promoted and serving on such committees, for how you might maximize your chances of getting ahead under such circumstances. The rules focus on what might be added to a CV, research statement, personal statement, or cover letter, depending on the format of the requested promotion materials. In part, the rules suggest that you educate the commit-tee members, who have a range of expertise, on what they should find impor-tant in the promotion application provided by a computational biologist. Further, while some rules are generally applicable, the focus here is on promotion in an academic setting. Having said that, in such a setting teaching and community service are obviously important, but barely touched upon here. Rather, the focus is on how to maximize the appreciation of your research-related activities. As a final thought before we get started on the rules, this is not just about you, but an opportu-nity to educate a broad committee on what is important in our field. Use that oppor-tunity well, for it will serve future genera-tions of computational biologists