Editorial: Special issue for early career researchers in lighting

Abstract

Completing your PhD studies and acquiring a doctoral degree is a notoriously challenging and often lonely process. Learning the skills to become an academic, from defining a research question to conducting research and correctly identifying and communicating its outcomes, takes a lot of time and persistence. Scientific communication is a particularly important skill: being able to describe research methods so that they are testable and reproducible and being able to convey the context, motivation, conclusions, and implications of research are fundamental for establishing the value of any research endeavour for science and society. In addition, publishing research outcomes in scientific articles is one of the core mechanisms to receive peer-review feedback, which – despite its limitations – is a true pillar of the scientific process and critical for the integrity and quality of scientific research.