The IBMS young investigator committee facilitated 3 sessions targeted at young investigators (YIs) at the 2013 2^nd Joint meeting of the IBMS and JSBMR built on successes of the YI events at the IBMS/ECTS 2011 meeting. .

The first session was targeted specifically at local, Japan-based YIs and covered the topic of the international post-doc fellowships.  The session was opened by Professor Toshiyuki Yoneda (Indiana University) who provided an overview of the session and great insight from his experience working in the United States for 30 years. We learned working abroad is very tough but very exciting for Japanese scientists. The session was followed by three speakers who discussed the benefits and challenges as Post-docs in North America (Tomoki Nakashima), Europe (Ritsuko Masuyama) and Australia (Nobuyuki Udagawa). This session encouraged Japanese YI scientists to pursue positions abroad as they develop their scientific careers.

On the second day we held a breakfast session that focused on advice for getting your work published.  Attendance at this early morning session was very high; we even noted some participants who were at more senior levels due to our impressive line-up of speakers. We heard some really interesting advice from editors in chief and associate editors of the 4 highest ranking bone journals: Roland Baron (Bone), Juliet Compston (Jounal of Bone and Mineral Research), Ego Seaman (Osteoporosis International) and Toshio Matsumoto (IBMS Bonekey). The speakers covered important topics from statistics of publication success, down to how to construct a paper to improve its chances of publication. Details were provided on how the review process works and how important the quality of both the scientific content and writing style and clarity of your paper is to its chances of being accepted. We discussed at length the importance of addressing the reviewer’s comments well and how to construct a response letter. Each speaker provided very valuable and unique insight and encouraged questions and discussion from YI participants. One valuable piece of advice was to get involved with reviewing papers, as this will help you develop strong ideas to improve your own paper and get it past the review process. To become a reviewer we were advised to contact the editor of your journal of interest, because most journals are looking for more reviewers.

Lastly we held a YI scientific session at which a number of highly-ranked YI abstracts awarded poster presentations at the main meeting were invited to give short oral presentations. The quality of this session was very high and we had great attendance and participation in discussion by YIs. This smaller forum provided a less formal environment, encouraging YIs to participate by asking questions. The session was followed by a cheese and wine reception, allowing YIs to discuss their work, ask additional questions and network.

These YI events offered opportunities and tools for YIs to build their profiles, develop their track records and establish networks. We look forward to holding similar YI-focused events at the upcoming IBMS/ECTS meeting in 2015. 

- Young Investigator Committee Co-Chair, Michelle McDonald and Young Investigator Committee member Kenji Hata