The mentoring system is targeted at enterprising
investigators working in environments without a history of
relevant research. The aim is to make available one-to-one
support for such researchers who do not have access to suitable
mentors within their own institutions. It is a system for
facilitating publication of completed work and does not aim
to provide support for the design and execution of studies.
Any research that is potentially publishable in one or more
of the addiction journals in the PARINT database is appropriate.
The core of the service is a database of established researchers
who have offered their services as mentors; their assistance
of a mentor can be requested for developing manuscripts for
publication in peer-review journals.
Investigators working in institutions that lack
a history of writing for peer-review journals are often unable
to obtain guidance when preparing their work for publication.
Such institutions are most commonly located in low- or middle-income
countries although creative and ambitious people in even the
most technologically advanced countries are sometimes located
in universities that fulfil primarily a teaching role and
do not have an adequate research infrastructure. Without a
strong record of research achievement, such individuals find
it difficult to break into research-orientated universities;
this scheme is intended to facilitate the jumping of this
hurdle.
Individuals who wish to take advantage of this
opportunity will have access to the database of mentors which
enables them to contact appropriate experts and then proceed
to set up a mentor-mentee relationship. There is no charge
for this service.
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Mentors are registered and approved by an Assessment
Panel operated by ISAJE. Registration and approval ensures
that mentors are appropriate for the task. Mentors are senior
members of the academic or research staff of a university
or research institute and have a substantive record of publications
in high-quality peer-review journals over a period of at least
five years. Mentors will have strong national reputations
in their areas of expertise and, in many cases, will be recognized
internationally as leaders of the field. They will include
members of the advisory or editorial boards of scientific
journals and may themselves be editors and the recipients
of other indicators of esteem from the scientific community.
Entering into a mentor-mentee relationship implies
that the mentor has certain responsibilities to the mentor
that take account both of practical considerations (such as
availability and expertise to do the task) and of ethical
issues. The ethical considerations arise from the importance
of publications for the development of both the field and
the mentee's career. An account of the mentor's
responsibilities and rewards is available.
Applications for mentor status are assessed
by a panel of ISAJE Officers and Board members. The panel
is chaired by the manager of the PARINT website. The President
of ISAJE is an ex officio member of the panel. There will
be three to five other members drawn from the ISAJE Board.
Applications are assessed electronically by email. The Chair
and panel members have 14 days in which to vote for or against
an application, or to abstain. Non-responders will be deemed
to have abstained. Approval will require a simple majority
of those voting. If there is a tie, the Chair will determine
the outcome. Panel decisions are final and are not negotiable.
An individual may apply more than once, but an interval of
at least one year must pass between successive applications.
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Mentees are people at a rather early career
stage who have data that they want to publish in a peer-reviewed
academic journal but (i) have little or no experience in writing
for such publications and (ii) do not have a suitable mentor
available in their own institution. Such individuals would
have completed a piece of research and have the primary role
in getting it disseminated to their peers and other interested
parties. They would anticipate being the first author of any
publication that would occur. The current status of mentees
may therefore range upwards from recent graduates who have
carried out research for a PhD, through postdoctoral fellows
and researchers, to junior academics. Mid-career academics
aiming to expand the scope of their activities would also
be considered. Potential mentees should obtain the approval
of any relevant manager, supervisor or advisor in their institution
before applying.
Mentors have the right to decline spurious requests
such as those from individuals lacking an appropriate institutional
affiliation, people whom they deem not to be serious about
research in the area, or those whose field of research is
too far from that covered by the mentor's expertise.
An account of the mentees
responsibilities is available.
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Any conventional method of communication may
be used, such as printed mail, email and telephone. Email
will probably be the most convenient and economical in most
cases. A mentor may be located at considerable distances from
a mentee, and they would quite often be in different countries
or continents, making conventional phone calls both inconvenient
(due to time zones) and expensive. If verbal communication
is especially desirable, then consideration should be given
to using one of the Voice over Internet Protocols (for example,
Skype®) where there are no charges other than any arising
from internet access. It should be noted that a fast broadband
connection is needed for these services.
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The initiative resides with potential mentees
to make contact with a mentor selected from the experts listed
in our database. The mentee has access to the database which
can be searched by subject areas. Searches will yield the
names of one or more possible mentors together with contact
details. The mentee can then choose which mentor to approach.
Additional information about mentors can easily be obtained
by internet searches of standard bibliographic databases such
as MEDLINE (e.g. via PubMed) and from the website of the mentor's
institution.
The application
form should be completed online if you want to apply for
a mentor.
- Your name, main qualifications, current post and professional
address.
- Summary indicating the research questions addressed, outline
of methods used, and main conclusions from it. If the work
has been presented at a meeting, an abstract of the presentation
may be submitted.
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ISAJE operates this mentoring scheme as part
of its mission to the addictions research community. Guidance
and advice will be given through it in good faith and with
the best of intentions, but no guarantee can be given that
participation in the scheme will necessarily result in acceptance
of any manuscripts that are submitted for publication. Neither
ISAJE nor the mentors will indemnify mentees with respect
to any consequential losses or damages alleged to result from
the use of the mentoring service.
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