Recasting Failure as an Opportunity
2020; Radiological Society of North America; Volume: 2; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1148/rycan.2020204001
ISSN2638-616X
Autores Tópico(s)Radiology practices and education
ResumoHomeRadiology: Imaging CancerVol. 2, No. 1 Next EditorialFree AccessRecasting Failure as an OpportunityGary D. Luker Gary D. Luker Author Affiliations(e-mail: [email protected])Gary D. Luker Published Online:Jan 31 2020https://doi.org/10.1148/rycan.2020204001MoreSectionsPDF ToolsImage ViewerAdd to favoritesCiteTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked In Pass on what you have learned. . . Yes: failure, most of all. The greatest teacher, failure is.– Jedi Master Yoda to Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: The Last Jedi I want to learn. I don’t want to waste a failure.– Nick Saban, head coach, University of Alabama football team Results? Why, man, I’ve had plenty of results. I know several thousand things that don’t work!– Thomas Edison, American inventorWelcome to the first issue of Radiology: Imaging Cancer in 2020! Fresh off the holiday break, we are excited about new opportunities for the journal that we plan to roll out during the upcoming year. RSNA publications and marketing groups have formulated plans to expand the social media presence of Radiology: Imaging Cancer and other RSNA publications. Drs Ashok Srinivasan and Vivek Kalia from our editorial board will spearhead social media efforts for Radiology: Imaging Cancer. Our goal is to help keep you informed of the latest content in the journal and advances in cancer imaging. Expanded social media content also will increase scientific recognition for publishing your work in RSNA journals. Radiology: Imaging Cancer will be on the road at other meetings, including the American Association for Cancer Research (April in San Diego, Calif) and Preclinical Imaging Consortium (May, in East Lansing, Mich) to publicize our journal to other groups that develop and apply imaging technologies to investigate cancer biology and therapy. Please look for us on social media and if you attend either of those meetings, we are happy to discuss the journal and ideas you have for articles.Given the enthusiasm and optimism of the opening paragraph, you may wonder why the introductory quotes all deal with the “downer” theme of failure. After all, January typically is a time of year filled with new beginnings and optimism for having kept at least a few New Year’s resolutions for almost a month. We all like to be successful and accomplish our goals, so why even bring up the possibility of failure? Well, I believe we on the author and editorial sides of scientific research and publishing need to revisit the view of failure to see so-called failures, or negative results, as valued opportunities to learn and progress rather than dead ends.My spark for addressing failure and negative results in science arises from a thought-provoking recent article in Nature about failure and scientific progress. To make advances in imaging cancer and other fields, scientific research exists at boundaries of knowledge and technology, resulting in uncertainty and studies that do not produce “expected” results. New equipment does not work quite as well or reproducibly as envisioned on the drawing board, and another great hypothesis gets shot down by data. Failures in science extend to other areas, including rejected manuscripts (yes, I still get those when I sit on the author side of scientific publishing) and grants. Several mentors have taught me that fear of failure prevents us from taking on the risks and challenges necessary to achieve ambitious goals and scientific breakthroughs that ultimately produce clinical breakthroughs. Overcoming fear of failure requires recasting failure in a positive light that allows us to experience thrills of scientific discoveries, published manuscripts, grant awards, and better care for patients.All of the esteemed sources of quotes at the start of this editorial recognized a common viewpoint that so-called failures define productive work and learning opportunities. Since I am writing this editorial near the release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and the end of the American football season, I wanted to include insights from prominent figures in both areas. Regardless of your preference for advice from a small, green fantasy character (Yoda) or accomplished coach (Saban), both espouse a similar view: failures provide tremendous learning opportunities that should not be squandered from disappointment or dejection. Directly applicable to scientific discovery and advancement, knowledge gained from failures should be passed along to others in the field. Thomas Edison more explicitly stated the value of his experiments and plans that did not “work.” Knowing how NOT to proceed gave him the intellectual freedom to devise and investigate new approaches that led to fundamental inventions, including the light bulb and alkaline electrical storage battery.With contributions from both authors and editors, scientific publications reinforce the idea that a negative result represents a failure that should be kept from public view. More than 80% of all publications have “positive” results, which may be regarded as more exciting and novel. Not submitting or publishing negative results produces several adverse consequences on scientific discovery, productivity, and safety: skewing literature toward only positive outcomes, wasting valuable resources and time invested in research, and obscuring potential hazards of a device or therapy. Moreover, very few people have truly unique “great ideas” in research. Sharing your “negative” as well as “positive” experiences will allow others with the same idea to refine future research plans appropriately.In broad terms, negative results occur from a (1) poorly designed study with inadequate controls and sample size; (2) well-designed and executed plan that reveals no actual differences among groups or methods; and (3) well-designed and executed plan that produces opposite than expected results. We at Radiology: Imaging Cancer hope you have no research studies that fall into category 1. We encourage you to submit quality studies (categories 2 and 3) with a seemingly “negative” result, which we will review and publish with the same high standards we apply to all submissions. As we continue to expand our readership, we welcome manuscripts reporting preclinical, translational, clinical, and therapeutic research relevant to imaging and cancer. Collectively, we can maximize research time, resources, and ideas to accomplish the goal of improving diagnosis and treatment of all cancers.Rather than the customary word search, I want to leave you with one last quote emphasizing the potential for exciting, even transformative outcomes if we view failures as stepping stones to greater innovations and outcomes. We look forward to publishing your best work in 2020!I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. 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