WOMEN IN PLANT BIOLOGY

Breaking into Publishing

Women in Plant Biology committee member John Kiss asked me to write a few words about issues that have come up in my career, and I thought I would start with how I moved from plant science research into plant science publishing.

First in the Country
My first job after getting an agricultural science degree was for the Department of Agriculture as a cereal chemist on the pulse breeding program in a country town outside Melbourne, Australia. Most of the locals seemed surprised to see a single female arrive from the city, and subsequently peered through their curtains to work out what I was about. I was surprised to learn in my last week there that I had found time for “romantic liaisons” with at least four men in town, including the owner of the local bar; the cleaning man; and a man I’d never even met! I learned that a young, single woman must keep her head down.

And Back to the City
Next I took up a short-term data-entry position at the Department of Agriculture back in the city. “Short-term” turned into two years. I became the chemical information officer for the Chemical Standards Branch and found that I was happier in a city-based position (although my love for agriculture and helping farmers has never faded). I faced a dilemma: Could I have a career helping farmers, improving crops, and producing more food for the world without having to live in the country?

My First Step into the Media
When I took a job as a media researcher for an agricultural information company, I realized that the answer to that question was yes! I arranged interviews with leading plant scientists for a monthly audiocassette on new crop varieties, long-term weather forecasts, and market conditions. After two years I knew that I wanted to be on the other end of the microphone so I applied to graduate school.

Back to School for My PhD
My PhD topic was “Transferring Ascochyta Blight Resistance from Lathyrus spp. into Field Pea Via Protoplast Fusion,” and the work was carried out at the University of Melbourne and at CSIRO Plant Industry in Canberra. I always knew that I enjoyed presenting my research results more than being in the lab. I was often pushed forward as a spokesperson—being a scholar-in-residence at a girls’ high school, sitting on the faculty board, or representing Australia as the science delegate to the Asia–Pacific Youth Forum in Japan. I had to finish my PhD and then find a way to work in science communication! Just as I was finishing up my experiments, a casual job came up as a freelance copyeditor on the Australian Journal of Plant Physiology. The more I edited, the more I realized that this job ticked every box of my dream job description!

Moving Up the Ladder
After two months the managing editor decided that it was time to resign and advertised for a full-time assistant editor. I knew that I would be absolutely mortified if I didn’t get the job—my dream job—so spent plenty of time preparing for the interview. I spoke with the assistant editors of the other journals about their interviews, made an appointment with a cousin who worked in recruitment to drill me with some interview questions, and spent a few hours trawling its website to learn everything I could about the journal.

A Really Tough Decision
Luckily I was offered the position and asked when I could start! I was still finishing off my PhD experiments (know the feeling?), so had a meeting with my supervisor to see how much more time would be needed. We agreed that three weeks of hard work should give us the results we needed. That meant, however, that I would have to spend my evenings and weekends writing my thesis. A tough decision—basically no social life until it was done! But I knew that this was my dream job, in an office I already knew, with colleagues I liked, 10 minutes’ walk from home, on one of the few plant science journals in Australia, and the opportunity might never come again.

My Double Life
I spent the next six months working all day on the journal, then going over to the university after work to write for a few hours before going home for a late dinner. Saturdays were spent at the university, and I treated that time like a job, working 9–5 and only taking enough of a lunch break to eat a sandwich. I turned down plenty of invitations to go to the beach for the weekend! But when I finally handed in my thesis, I got my evenings and weekends back. I waited for my examiners’ reports, attended to the minor revisions, and was proud to graduate in December 2001.

The Ladder Goes Up
After two years as an assistant editor I was promoted to managing editor. Around this time we also updated the name of the journal to Functional Plant Biology. I still think that I have the best job in the world, for me, because it feels like a 100 percent match of tasks with personality traits. I love traveling to conferences to meet authors and reviewers. I love my days in the office helping my authors get their results published. I believe that I am still fulfilling my earlier ambition of helping farmers, improving crops, and producing more food for the world in this role.

When I had identified my dream job, it was a matter of overcoming obstacles (such as an unwritten thesis) to get it. I urge all of you who are interested in a career in scientific publishing to contact the publishers you like. I often receive e-mails or phone calls from people with an interest in this work who want to find a way to break into publishing. At least three of these cold-callers have found work in my office, and one even filled in for a year as a production editor. My current production editor applied for the job twice in three years before she was successful. These examples all demonstrate the value of perseverance! Good luck.

Jennifer Henry
Managing Editor, Functional Plant Biology
jennifer.henry@csiro.au