Every discovery has a story: it is borne out by many preceding experiments painfully collected and ordered, till a new hypothesis can be formulated and tested. Often the first hypothesis is not confirmed, but paves the way to new hypotheses till a discovery is made, and published in the form of a scientific paper. For the sake of clarity, however, the logical path to the discovery, which is often paved by discarded hypotheses, is not fully told in the final paper. Would you like to share in a post on the FEBS Network the story of your most successful or most recent paper?

For example:

• How/when/where did the initial hypothesis arrive?
• How did it fit with the current understanding or questions in your field?
• Who else was involved in the work of this paper and how did you collaborate?
• Do you recall a worst or best day in the project?
• Was there a eureka moment or unexpected discovery or was there a slow burn?
• What particular finding were you most excited by and why?
• What aspect of the project did you most enjoy?
• How did the hypothesis evolve?
• Did you have to master any new techniques?
• Did you have any funding difficulties?
• Any funny happenings to share?
• Did you get a chance to discuss your work in a seminar or conference?
• What else was happening in the field while you were working on this?
• How did you celebrate acceptance of the paper?
• What’s next?

The FEBS Network is aimed at the community of scientists working in the field of biochemistry, molecular biology, cell biology, and related disciplines, and pays special attention to the education of young scientists. Our aim with posts under the theme ‘From the idea to the published article’ is telling what papers do not tell, sharing the personal views and experiences of researchers in the field. FEBS publishes original research in its scientific journals, but aims to encourage free public discussion from scientists in the FEBS Network on all those subjects that do not explicitly appear in research papers, and yet constitute a large fraction of the scientific reasoning.

Moreover, the FEBS Network is open to the general public, and can diffuse a more realistic image of scientific research, in a time where misunderstandings are frequent. Scientists ignoring the public conceptions on science do so at their own peril. Help us to improve the public understanding on how a scientific discovery is carried out!

How to create your post

Once you have registered on the FEBS Network, you can click ‘Create’ (on the header) to write a post, and publish it to your own profile page on the site. If it meets the expectation of a post for the series ‘From the idea to the published article’, it will then be featured in the Research channel of the site. (It is not necessary to answer all the questions listed above; they are provided just as suggestions of aspects of your paper’s journey that you might like to cover.)

Alternatively you can simply send your text and any images to [email protected] for assistance with posting.

Andrea Bellelli
FEBS Network Working Group