John R. Yates是蛋白质组领域的大牛，美国Scripps研究所的教授，蛋白质组学专业杂志J Proteome Res主编，发过不少经典的蛋白质组方法学的文章。近日在Journal of Proteome Research发表题为“Twelve Rules for Science (Yates Lab Version)”的文章。很有启发，共享给各位简友。
On a recent walk with my dog, Annie, I was listening to a Malcolm Gladwell podcast about the psychologist Jordan Peterson, who wrote the book 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_Rules_for_Life). Gladwell said the success of this book triggered an avalanche of lists enumerating “the12 rules” for almost everything. This got me thinking: Do I have 12 rules for science?If you ask any former or current member of my group, they will tell you that I have many adages that I share during group meetings in an attempt to motivate, but in a funny, “clichéd” way. After listening to Gladwell, I was inspired to organize these aphorisms and offer my “12 rules for science”. I realize many will not agree with my “rules”, so I encourage you to share your own.
John遛狗的时候，突发奇想，想出了科学的12准则，对与不对，欢迎各位看官分享自己的12条！！！
So, here they are.
1)Publish, publish, publish
简而言之，在学术界混，不发表就完蛋！！！
This rule is fairly specific for academic science, but since we are in the business of knowledge generation, I believe it is not knowledge if it is not shared, e.g., published. While knowledge can also be shared by speaking at conferences, etc., it does not become part of the permanent scientific record unless it is published. So...write it up.
2)Do the experiment
这条更重要！！！行胜于言，不要做到最好，完美是优秀的敌人。第一个发表远胜于完美（血和泪的教训）。如果不理解这一条，就想想谁是第二个独自飞跃大西洋的人，他比第一个更快还是更省油，没有人知道他是谁，就因为他是老二！！！
Great ideas are just ideas until you do the experiment. The secondary part of this rule is“it’s better to be first than best”, or “the perfect is the enemy of the good”. Get your idea, concept, or discovery out there, and refinement can always come later. If you doubt the importance of this rule, just try to think, who was the second person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean? He did it faster and used less fuel (he did it better!), but his name is lost to history because he was not first.
3)Write, write, write
这条没啥好说的！就是先写了，才能发表（废话！！！）
Perhaps this is a corollary to rule #1, but writing is a skill that requires regular practice and refinement. I encourage people in my laboratory to always be writing something. It is the mandate of our jobs to share, and sharing occurs through publication.
4)Seize the idea
这条就是抓住机遇、只争朝夕！！！仅有Idea是不够的，有了好的idea，就要分秒必争，要记住别人也有这样的idea！！！难怪微软、苹果啦有拉莫多的偏执狂，stay hungry, stay foolish，永远像狼一样见着猎物就不撒手！！！这样才能吃到肉。
I remind my lab that if you have a great idea, it is likely that someone else has had it, too. So, you need to seize the day and move to experiments quickly. Intel and Microsoft have thrived on institutional paranoia. The fear that someone else is working on the same thing that could disrupt your business can be motivational, and this works in science, too.
5)Be careful of advice
不要轻信任何人的所谓建议！！！当一个人建议你说这个实验不可能work，你应该说见鬼，滚一边去！！！ 君不见老子想做的DDA，被其它人给抢去了，血和泪啊！！！
Occasionally, advice can discourage you from doing an experiment because someone else thinks “it won’t work” (see #2).Several times during my career I have been told my ideas will not work.Sometimes we pursued the idea anyway, but sometimes we did not, and a few of these ideas turned out to be important. For example, in 1993, I was told by a corporate scientist/engineer that data-dependent acquisition would not work, and thus we did not pursue it. We now know it works, and it was an important development in mass spectrometry and proteomics.
6)Be tenacious
要想小强一样顽强！！！极低的基金资助率和难以发表的CNS paper。可能让你沮丧，不要理他们，埋头继续你的生活。君不见NIH的基金只能锦上添花，哪些伟大的发现和技术革新屡屡遭挫。
Tenacity is important given the low funding rates of grants and low percentages of papers accepted at high-impact journals. Even if a study section or reviewer did not like a grant or paper, that does not mean it was not good. It is possible to be too far ahead of the curve and reviewers just do not see the significance, or maybe something was not clear. Consider the feedback, and try again; remember that the reviewers on papers and on study sections change, so a skeptical reviewer who may have voted against your paper or proposal may have been replaced by someone who takes a liking to the grant and becomes your advocate. NIH loves to track grants they funded that led to important discoveries or technologies, but they do not track those proposals that were rejected and eventually led to great discoveries or technologies. The proposal for my most highly cited paper was rejected twice from NIH study sections.
7)Interact with colleagues
团结合作争第一！！！
I love brainstorming with colleagues,but it is important to respect others’ turf. One of the fun things to do at conferences is to get together at dinner with friends and colleagues to talk science. A great question to get the discussion going is,“What problem would you like to solve in the next five years?”But this does not work and you will lose friends if you run off and try someone else’s idea. An older scientist once told me that he did not pursue an area of science because his friend worked in that area, and he was a “gentleman” and therefore would not compete with his friend. If you are really interested in working on a friend’s research project, collaborate, do not appropriate.
8)Understand that experience is never wasted
要时刻给自己的知识充电。没有无用的知识！！！
I am a firm believer that learning something new is never worthless, even if it is not useful at the time. While writing computer code was not central to my projects in graduate school and postdoctoral training, I spent a lot of time programming in my “spare time”, and this skill was key for success when I started my own laboratory. Which leads to rule #9...
9)Learn to write computer code
要学会写代码。哈哈，所以我就学会了R语言！！！
Being able to write computer codeis powerful. Even knowing a simple language like Perl can be useful to process data. But having the ability to write complex algorithms is even better as it allows you to develop technology or to test other ideas. If you cannot write code, then it makes you increasingly dependent on people who can as data sets get bigger and more complicated.
10)Collaborate
合作共赢。天下已经不是单打独斗的时候了，孤单英雄已经寥若晨星，君不见几十个作者、几十个lab的paper已屡见不鲜。
Collaborations are very powerful, especially when they are with people passionate about their research. My research involves the development and use of a platform technology that has also been useful for others, so my laboratory has collaborated widely. Typically, these collaborators are passionate about their research and are experts in their fields, so the collaboration is fruitful and can progress in unexpected directions.Many times, collaborations have helped find weaknesses in our technology/methods and driven us in new directions.
11)Be brave, be bold
勇往直前、义无反顾。生命短暂，做点有价值、有意义的事吧！！！一意孤行、一鸣惊人！！！
This is easier said than done, but life is short, and we should try to do meaningful and gratifying work. Go after known unknowns and unknown unknowns. One of my postdocs summed it up nicely on one project by asking, “Do I go after the protein everyone else is studying and get an okay paper for sure, or do I go after the unknown protein and take the risk I don’t get anything or I get lucky with a blockbuster paper?” (FYI, he took the risk and got the blockbuster!)
12)Never say never
永不言弃。不要轻易说不work，不要轻易被说不work的人劝服。相信自己！！！
I have come to appreciate that people are clever and creative, and saying something will never work is not a good idea. I try to refrain from saying something will not work, but I will offer how I would approach the problem. The thing about disruption is you usually do not see it coming.
We at the Journal of Proteome Research strongly believe in rule #1. So, write up the manuscript and send it to us.
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