Hagenauer Megan H, David Redish A, Schiller Daniela, Bigos Kristin L, Flagel Shelly, Rodriguez Amilcar, Parker Zac, O'Connor Angela, Ortiz-Gonzalez Xilma, Murphy Deirdre, Leeson Rachel
Michigan Neuroscience Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
Department of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455.
eNeuro. 2025 Mar 28;12(3). doi: 10.1523/ENEURO.0524-24.2024. Print 2025 Mar.
The annual Society for Neuroscience (SfN) meeting is a bonanza of scientific achievement: famous keynote speakers, beautiful scientific results, and award ceremonies. This focus is exciting and invigorating but glosses over the many failures, mistakes, and rejections that typically lead to scientific success. Our goal has been to create a space within the annual SfN meeting for open conversation about scientific failure and, by doing so, increase transparency, resilience, and mental well-being within our community. In this article, we share the materials that we have used at SfN during the past 4 years (2021-2024) to promote discussions of scientific failure, including formal storytelling, individual and interactive games, and confessionals. For each activity, we provide the rationale and practical guidance regarding logistics and usage. We hope this will aid scientists interested in adapting the activities for their own communities or local events. We end with a call for scientific institutions to commit to providing space for open discussions of failure within their educational programs and conferences.
年度神经科学学会（SfN）会议是科学成就的盛宴：有著名的主旨演讲者、出色的科学成果以及颁奖仪式。这种关注点令人兴奋且充满活力，但却掩盖了许多通常通向科学成功的失败、错误和拒绝。我们的目标是在年度SfN会议中营造一个空间，用于公开讨论科学失败，通过这样做，提高我们社群内部的透明度、恢复力和心理健康。在本文中，我们分享过去四年（2021 - 2024年）我们在SfN会议上用于促进科学失败讨论的材料，包括正式的故事讲述、个人和互动游戏以及忏悔环节。对于每一项活动，我们都提供了关于后勤和使用的基本原理及实用指导。我们希望这将有助于有兴趣在自己的社群或当地活动中采用这些活动的科学家。最后，我们呼吁科研机构致力于在其教育项目和会议中为公开讨论失败提供空间。
