Industry events at TAGC 2024

Peer Into Publishing Q&A
Saturday, March 9 at 12:30 p.m. EST
The GSA Journals are hosting a question and answer session with top editors at GENETICS and G3. Join us at the session to learn more about submitting to the journals, the peer review process, and publishing with Society journals. Come prepared with questions!

Career Exploration Panel
Thursday, February 29 at 2 p.m. EST
This discussion panel showcases the broad options available to those with a PhD by hosting a panel of individuals from multiple career paths outside of academia. Career sectors highlighted may include academic research, industry research, biotech, science writing, science teaching, and academic administration.

Informational Interviews Room
This room will be made available to all conference attendees as part of Engagement’s career tracks. This space will allow attendees to practice and perform informational interviews, a key skill highlighted as part of the Individual Development Plan workshop. Engagement staff will be available for scheduled times each day to answer any questions and help with practicing or setting up an informational interview with another conference attendee.

Networking Hot Spots
Thursday, March 7 at 6:30 p.m. EST or Saturday, March 9 at 6:30 p.m. EST
GSA will host moderated discussion sessions on scientific, professional development, and community topics. All conference registrants and career stages are welcome to join the discussion during lunch or dinner breaks. Tables and chairs will be provided.

Towards an Equitable Future: Genetics Engagement Beyond Academia
Saturday, March 9 at 12:45 p.m. EST
In this pgEd-led workshop, participants will explore challenges, opportunities and best practices for engagement on genetics, with a focus on non-academic communities. Participants will be equipped and mobilized to engage in multidirectional conversations with educators and with public audiences on scientific, personal, and societal dimensions of genetics. We will introduce freely available resources, model conversation starters, and share approaches for fostering engagement around genetics in ways that center on varied communities’ interests, priorities and concerns. The conversation will draw on expertise in the room through discussion of past experiences, and provide guidance for attendees to reflect on existing approaches or explore new ideas and directions.

Reproducibility for Everyone
Friday, March 1 at 10:00 a.m. EST
Rigor and reproducibility are at the core of modern science and set apart scientific inquiry from pseudoscience. Several new initiatives and tools have been established to address barriers to reproducibility. While very welcome, these projects have led to a proliferation of online tools and resources which can be hard to sift through. This workshop introduces participants to reproducible workflows and a range of tools along the themes of organization, documentation, analysis, and dissemination. After a brief introduction to the topic of reproducibility, the workshop provides specific tips and tools useful in improving your daily research workflows, including the 101 of all data handling, wet lab protocol sharing platforms, documentation of code using notebooks, workflow systems, and version control, best practices for plotting of small data sets and reagent sharing platforms.

StoryCorps
GSA will develop a strong list of questions to provide conference attendees and the public who join us about genetics in their lives. Questions will include discussing the impact of GSA on their lives, both professionally and personally, as well as genetics as a whole. Conference attendees will be encouraged to speak with up to 3 participants at once to share stories about their collaborative experiments, surprising experimental results, their connection(s) with GSA and the genetics community over time, and more. This event encourages cross-community interactions and incentivizes conference attendees to reach out to multiple people during the conference. As part of Engagement programming, we would encourage all of our programming participants to record at least 1 interview with a new colleague, their mentor, or a speaker to build their network and connect with other conference goers.

Science Policy Panel Discussion: Scientists in Policy
Wednesday, March 6 at 1:00 p.m. EST
This panel discussion will feature science policy makers and federal institution employees to provide the opportunity to engage with policy makers across a spectrum of occupations.

Peer Review Workshop
Wednesday, March 6 at 1:00 p.m. EST
The session will begin with a presentation describing the principles and purposes of peer review, peer review models, and the roles of editors and reviewers. This will be followed by a discussion of manuscript evaluation, covering topics like: evaluating scientific rigor, methodological appropriateness, clarity of presentation, strength of the conclusions, and impact on the field. Attendees will learn how to write a good review, covering important aspects of review structure, level of detail, fit for journal scope, and appropriate language and tone. Participants will be joined by a group of editors for a panel discussion and Q&A.