Computational Biologist Underhood

Here we describe the scope and the overall principles of https://twitter.com/CompbioU account functioning.

Our scope is everything related to computational biology as a profession and may be of interest to the general audience of this account.

In brief:

1. Being an author is fun and not difficult.
2. How to prepare for being an author? Simply read this page.
3. Write in threads! https://typefully.app/ may be helpful.
4. Any offensive/toxic behaviour, going wildly off-topic, advertisement of commercial products are banned.

Everything else is allowed. One can use this Twitter account as a private one for a week. A set of recommendations is provided below.

Want to be an author? Send me an approximate week plan (5-7 topics) to german dot m dot demidov at gmail dot com .

What is a shared Twitter account

A shared Twitter account is a place where people from the same industry share their personal experience. Every week a new author talks about a different topic and uncovers it through threads of tweets and communication with the followers. It is up to you what you want to talk about, what will be your manner of storytelling.

Why be an author?

• one can promote hers/his research, describe the projects (s)he works on, the tools (s)he developed and why they are good
• can gain visibility and followers for the main (personal or lab) account, increase your network of people who work in the same area
• can get feedback and bits of advice from the audience
• just having fun communicating with the audience
• put your thoughts in a logical order - something many people always want to do but do not have time to
• last but certainly not least: can help someone to get better and avoid your mistakes, or inspire someone to change their career path

How much time will it take?

According to a similar Twitter account for the Russian data science community (from where this guide was adapted) it usually takes less than 2 hours to prepare and around 1 hour per day for a week for tweeting. Of course, there is a distribution. Some authors spend more, some authors less. When I was an author, I've spent no time preparing and around 1 hour per day for tweeting/talking with the followers.

What should I write about?

About something you think is interesting. The list of topics is not fixed. One topic ~ one thread. Be careful that you don't post anything you don't want to make public - after a week, you won't be able to remove it easily, you'd have to write me an email.

Some ideas:

• why and how an author moved to bioinformatics. The current position and how the author got it
• The overall state of bioinformatics in the country where the author lives now: positions, salaries, famous universities and companies
• A scientific centre or a company where the author works now: what are the strongest areas? Which discoveries/tools are worldwide known?
• the projects you worked on and why working on these projects was unusual. Which problems you faced, and how you solved them?
• A list of educational events the author participated in
• An overview of methods and tools used in the area where the author works: some sort of extra short journal club
• Rules of productivity: how the author manages hers/his time?
• List of your favourite authors who have Twitter accounts and why do you read them
• Rules of development in your sci centre/university: do you have a code review? Do you have to cover your tools with tests? Which frameworks and development stacks you use? etc.
• Which hobbies allow you to stay sane in your crazy working schedule?
• How to achieve a work-life balance in our field?
• How to write a CV - which skills are required in your area of computational biology? Which CV format is expected in your country?
• Advice on how to apply for grants, your success/failure story

You are free to come up with your topic even if it falls slightly off the scope, but it still can be of interest to computational biologists worldwide. You may advertise positions and promote conferences and educational events and open source software, but these ads better be hidden in threads and consist no more than a negligible percentage of the overall material. Authors are not allowed to advertise any commercial products.

How much should I write?

There is no minimum amount. A recommended maximum - 1 thread per day, <= 20 tweets in a thread. However, if you feel that you need more, write more.

How to make my week memorable for the followers? (in a good sense)

Write threads, interact with the followers: like their comments, answer to them, repost the most interesting comments, or repost and quote if you also want to add something. Don't be shy to share it on your social networks - it can be interesting to your friends to read it.

What should I do on the first day?

Create a week schedule (5-7 topics) and make a tweet with your week plan. Change the photo and account's bio to yours. Optionally - change the background.

Write a separate tweet or a short thread about yourself and your current position. You may skip a long introductory thread on your first day, but you should not skip this short introduction. Pin this tweet.

What should I do on the last day?

Create a meta-thread with the links to your threads. This meta-thread is convenient to share in the future.

But ...

• I never had a twitter account!

You work in computational biology, thus, you can learn how to use Twitter in no time. You will get your account details so you won't need to register on Twitter.

• I am boring and have nothing to talk about.

We don't aim to invite the stars of computational biology only. This Twitter account is created to show what our/your job is about. Simply talk about your daily routines.

• There was an author from the same country/scientific centre or company/area before.

Without a doubt your experience is very different and thus interesting.

Kudos to Data Scientist Underhood organisers to save me so much time and allow using their article as a template!