March 20th is celebrated around the world as the International Day of Happiness. This day of celebration and learning was founded by the United Nations back in 2012, and this year is no exception, as the UN released their latest Happiness Report. As part of our SDG blog series on the research driving us closer to meeting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) we asked Digital Science’s very own Well-Being Trainer, Danielle Feger, to tell us more about the science behind SDG 3, Good Health and Well-Being, and how to use the powers of positive psychology to keep us centred in the midst of a global pandemic. With thanks to Juergen Wastl for his assistance in delving into Dimensions to uncover the hottest trends in happiness research.

About the Authors

As a stress counsellor and wellbeing trainer, Danielle developed her own well-being concept, Equillbrium4Wellbeing, which is based on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Mindfulness and Yoga. She leads the well-being programme at Digital Science and runs workshops on stress management and well-being in the UK as well as in German-speaking countries. Her programmes support employees’ mental well-being, helping them to shift from ‘coping’ to ‘thriving’.

Previously, Danielle had a long career in research development at the University of Cambridge where she gained extensive experience in fundraising and managing international research projects. In addition, she had the opportunity to coach researchers and academics and has established a mentoring programme for early-career researchers.

Juergen Wastl is Director of Academic Relations and Consultancy at Digital Science. He previously headed up the Research Information team at the University of Cambridge’s Research Strategy Office and worked for BASF managing BMBF-funded projects internationally.

The History of Happiness Research

Zhuangzi, who was born about 2,300 years ago in China, probably wrote the first piece of work in history devoted to happiness; an essay called “Supreme Happiness”. Since then, a total of almost 39k research publications on happiness have been added to this corpus of knowledge. Figure 1 shows how many publications have been released each year over the last 25, and the steady increase in the rate of research outputs relating to happiness, where the word “happiness” features in the title and abstract of the publication.

Happiness is a human emotion, but does happiness research take place wherever there are people? Not quite. Figure 2 shows the global distribution of publications relating to happiness. The US has had the highest overall happiness research output with about 7,700 publications, followed by the UK with almost 2,700. China (with 1,386), Canada (with 1,375) and Germany (with 1,257) make it a close-run race for 3rd place, while other countries such as Australia, the Netherlands, and Japan are hot on their heels.

In recent years, the increase in the number of publications relating to happiness outpaced the general increase of publications overall: Between 2017 to 2020, the number of happiness-related publications increased by 27.5%, whereas the general increase was 19.6%.

Measuring the Impact of Happiness Research

The impact of happiness research can be measured in traditional citations as well as in alternative metrics (or altmetrics) that track the real-world attention received by a piece of research. When we look at publication citations, we can see there have been 350,000 citations of research from US publications, 92,000 from UK publications, and 47,000 from Canadian publications. It is interesting to note that, although China has published a comparable amount of research around happiness within Canada, citation of this work is much lower at 14,000. Is this down to a research language barrier, or something else?

When we track the volume of research publications over time, we see that research into happiness and subsequent publications start increasing significantly in the early 2000s. This interest in happiness is connected to the study of Positive Psychology.

Positive Psychology

For about 200 years, Psychology research mainly focused on the study of disease. In the 1990s, psychologists started to look at what increases well-being and what makes people happier. Since its beginning, Positive Psychology has developed significantly; millions of dollars have been invested in research, and thousands of findings have been published.

The focus on happiness is growing everywhere: Countries adopt happiness policies, companies and educational institutions introduce wellbeing and happiness programmes, and books about happiness are regularly on bestseller lists. The team at Digital Science understand the value and importance of employee happiness and have invested in boosting well-being among their employees through a range of courses and sessions led by my organisation.

The UN Happiness Report 2020 and Sustainable Development Goals

Chapter 6 of the 2020 World Happiness Report takes a close look at the link between SDGs and happiness and shows that the countries with a higher SDG index score tend to do better in terms of subjective well-being.

If we ask people what their ultimate goal is in life, most would say they want to be happy. Happiness is something we all strive to find. We believe that we will be happy once we achieve certain things like status, higher income or more possessions. However, research has shown that these things do not increase our happiness. Happiness is a state of inner fulfilment, not the gratification of inexhaustible desires for outward things.

So how do we achieve happiness?

One of the main points I teach in my programmes is to embrace experiences. Plenty of research findings show that experiences can increase our happiness. Let’s break this down from the perspective of positive psychology, to better make sense of the things that make us happy – and how we can achieve a greater sense of well being and happiness.

Danielle’s Guide to Achieving Happiness Through Experiences

1. There is no hedonic adaptation to experiences
We adapt quickly to possessions: Whenever we get what we are seeking, it quickly becomes less valuable, so we return to our original baseline of happiness and the cycle repeats like a treadmill. Experiences are temporary and there is no time to get used to them. Since the stimuli in experiences aren’t constant, we keep paying attention to them.

2. Experiences cannot be quantified or compared
Possessions foster comparisons but we tend to think of experiences more on their own terms, rather than in comparison with other things. Experiences are so individual that we have no reference points to compare them to or to quantify the relative value of any two experiences.

3. Experiences give us unforgettable memories and increase positive emotions such as joy, inspiration, pride, confidence or gratitude
According to Barbara Fredrickson, when people experience positive emotions, their minds broaden and they open up to new possibilities and ideas. At the same time, positive emotions help people build their personal wellbeing resources, ranging from physical, to intellectual, to social resources.

4. Experiences increase our engagement and enhance our sense of achievement
Activities that meet our need for engagement flood the body with positive neurotransmitters and hormones that elevate our sense of happiness. ‘Flow’ engagement stretches our intelligence, skills, and emotional capabilities. Achievement is not just about a strong sense of success or ‘winning’ – it also refers to how much we challenge ourselves in positive and progressive ways that enable us to further develop our strengths and skills, both practically and emotionally.

5. Experiences help us connect with people and improve social relationships
Relationships and social connections are a crucial part of our sense of wellbeing and happiness. Sharing experiences connects us to other people more than sharing consumption. Since experiences are very individual, jealousy and envy aren’t as much of an issue as with possessions. Therefore we are more interested in hearing about other people’s experiences than about their latest purchases.

6. Experiences help define our purpose and passions
We are the sum total of our experiences or as Oliver Wendell Holmes put it: “A mind that is stretched by new experiences can never go back to its old dimensions.” A new iPhone doesn’t define who we are, but having travelled in various countries truly enriches our lives and forms our identity.

Further Reading

• “Buy Experiences, Not Things” The Atlantic
• The UN Happiness Report
• Richard Layard, co-editor of the annual World Happiness Report (with Jeffrey Sachs and John Helliwell) is also co-founder of the movement “Action for Happiness” that brings together like-minded people from all walks of life and helps them take practical action, drawing on the latest scientific research. AfH is backed by leading experts from diverse fields including psychology, education, economics and social innovation.

The post The Pursuit of Happiness – Researching Good Health and Well-Being appeared first on Digital Science.

At Digital Science, we love to wind down and celebrate the successes of another year of hard work making our research community stronger. Over the years, our end of year videos have taken many forms – from speedy collages of our colleagues’ exploits and adventures over the year, to the science of Santa himself, and from at-home seasonal science activities for all to a re-working of Tom Lehrer’s classic Elements Song with a new verse to reflect 21st Century discoveries!

Catch up on all of our holiday videos here, and let us know what you’d love to see us do next year.

We know this year’s holiday season will be a little different to other years, and while you may not be spending the holidays with all of your favourite people, we wanted to add a little bit of science sparkle to your at-home festivities with a series of videos to help you participate in some Fun and Festive Frolics.

We hope that you are able to enjoy the holidays during this ‘new normal’ and that, with the help of science, next year’s holiday season is a little more familiar. Share your festive frolics with us on social media using the hashtag #DSfestivefrolics.

Discover our tales of Christmas past…

In 2016, as part of the holiday season fun, we told a new tale each day throughout December. Discover our ‘tales of #digiscixmas past’ hidden in the baubles of our Christmas tree!

The post digiscixmas appeared first on Digital Science.

WATCH THE ENTIRE SERIES OF DIGITAL SCIENCE’S
FESTIVE FUN AND FROLICS 2020

We know this year’s holiday season will be a little different to other years, and while you may not be spending the holidays with all of your favourite people, we wanted to add a little bit of science sparkle to your at-home festivities with a series of videos to help you participate in some Fun and Festive Frolics.

These videos have been created to give you an opportunity to spend some time with your nearest and dearest, and to take some of the hassle out of having to plan how to keep yourselves amused and entertained during the holidays. We’ll be releasing a new video every few days, so keep checking back for more seasonal science!

Our Chief Science Elf, Dr Suze Kundu, has taken to her kitchen to talk you through some fun and festive experiments, including how to create beautiful chromatography Christmas decorations, how to make your own rock candy canes, how to craft an abundance of scientifically-accurate six-sided snowflakes, and of course, how to make your own season slime – now with added glitter!

We hope that you are able to enjoy the holidays during this ‘new normal’ and that, with the help of science, next year’s holiday season is a little more familiar. Perhaps our crafty creations will become a new tradition in your families for years to come!

Share your festive frolics with us on social media using the hashtag #DSfestivefrolics.

Happy holidays from the Digital Science family.

WATCH THE ENTIRE SERIES OF DIGITAL SCIENCE’S
FESTIVE FUN AND FROLICS 2020

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Digital Science is 10 years old!  

Exactly 10 years ago, on 7th December 2010, a crowd had gathered in the atrium of the old Nature building in Crinan Street, with champagne glasses charged to toast the launch of a new initiative at Nature: A new division dedicated to the development of software to support researchers.  That night had been several years in the making.  A team from Nature had been working on “Project Babbage” (the code name for the project to create Digital Science) for at least two years (that I’m aware of) prior to that evening.  I’m sure that still I haven’t met all of the people who made the announcement of that evening possible, even now 10 years later.  But, as the CEO of one of the start-up companies that had formed the early phase of Digital Science’s development, I recall that evening vividly.  Project Babbage would not have been possible without the insight, creativity and dedication of the team of people who found companies like mine: Timo Hannay, Annette Thomas, Jason Wilde, Dan Penny, and Sebastian Peck all deserve special mentions.

The team at Nature had come up with a characteristically imaginative approach that attempted to solve two problems at once: The internal challenge of creating corporate innovation, and the external challenge of supporting researchers at a time when technology and data were rewriting how research was both carried out and communicated.  The central idea was that Digital Science should be an independent spin-out within Nature, with the ability to challenge established business models, even to be disruptive if need be.  The core of this innovation engine would be created by investing in start-ups that were close to academia and to marry academic founders with entrepreneurs with the aim to build a single company over time.

On a personal note, unknown to the people enjoying their champagne downstairs at the drinks evening, the co-founders of Symplectic (John Fearns, Marko Ivin, Philip Parkin and I), Timo Hannay and Sebastian Peck, were in the Nature board room upstairs, finally signing investment paperwork that had taken much of the summer of 2010 to finalise.  We headed downstairs to join the crowd and allow Timo to announce the launch and talk about the investments already made. Ink still wet.

Software that understands science

Digital Science described itself as providing “software that understands science”.  I think that one of the first videos that the company produced said it best when it claimed that researchers needed a friend, an ally, and a partner.  I like to think that Digital Science has lived up to that aim.  While the company has certainly developed and changed in a decade, at its heart it remains dedicated to enabling and supporting not just researchers but everyone in the research world to achieve more by giving them the best tools that we can deliver.

In 10 years, the background in which we all work has changed a lot: technologically, politically and sociologically. Yet, the challenges we face are still recognisable.  Often it is not the technology that defeats us, but rather the culture change needed for people to be able to see past constraints.  Research has and will continue to change. Data will continue to rise in importance; technology will become more ubiquitous and will fundamentally change the relationship between researcher and research; all forms of diversity will increase in the research space.  Digital Science will continue to support and contribute to positive change wherever it can.

Over the last decade, I like to think that we’ve played our small role in supporting change in the sector. Altmetric has helped to broaden the metrics discussion – away from single-data-points to a diverse collection of connections to different communities beyond academia; Figshare has contributed to the journey toward making research data open by default; Dimensions has allowed us to think beyond standard citation-based search and analytics, breaking down the barriers to bring context to decision-making and clarity to research discovery; Overleaf has made collaboration easier between millions of researchers; ReadCube has made reference management simple; Symplectic and CCT have supported institutions and funders to manage their processes and improve their internal data with industry-leading approaches.  Ripeta and Writefull, both graduates of Digital Science’s Catalyst Grant programme, have developed next-generation capabilities that we believe will make their own contributions in the coming years.

Some of the famous Digital Science swag we have shared with our community during our first decade. Do you own any DS merchandise? Share a photo with us on Twitter, using the hashtag #DSis10! 

The future

As I said earlier, technology isn’t usually the challenge – the real challenge is culture change.  In ten years we have seen a lot of culture change – not all of it positive: the rise of alternative facts and fake news – where verification, research and trust play an increasingly important role; we have seen a global pandemic – where research has come to the rescue and developed a vaccine in record time; we have seen the clear signs of climate change – where global, collaborative research holds the only viable routes forward.

With that in mind, the outlook for Digital Science is perhaps slightly different now than it was on that night 10 years ago.  The tools that underpin the work of researchers need not only to use the best technology but also need to be written with the limitations of that technology in mind, and with sensitivity to the cultural aspects of deploying technology into a complex, and often unconsciously biased,ecosystem that is increasing in its importance to the world. Just as responsible metrics has been a key discussion in the last 10 years, the next 10 years is going to be about responsible technology.

One thing, however, remains the same.  Researchers, and Research as a whole, continues to need a friend, an ally, a partner.  And Digital Science still aspires to be that partner.

Thanks

Digital Science has had the gift of an amazing team and it is certainly appropriate for me, on this 10th Anniversary, to acknowledge, thank and pay tribute to the wonderful team who have given so generously of their talent and of their time in support of what we do.  We have also had the gift of an amazing community of collaborators, partners and customers, all of whom have contributed to getting Digital Science to its 10th Birthday.  Thanks to all of you and here’s to the next 10 years!

The Digital Science Family at our 2019 Annual Retreat in Berkshire, UK

The post Happy 10th Birthday Digital Science! appeared first on Digital Science.

To celebrate Ada Lovelace Day 2020 on 13th October 2020, six of our many Digital Science ‘Women in STEM’ role models took time out of their busy schedules to create a set of short videos to showcase the range of careers that exist in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) and the varied paths to their current roles at Digital Science.

Danika Khong, Kathy Christian, Lauren Martin, Amarjit Myers, Nobuko Miyairi and Stacy Konkiel also covered everything from their greatest achievement to their own role models and mentors. These six videos formed part of the ‘box set‘ of videos created for Ada Lovelace Day 2020, and can now be viewed here or on the Digital Science YouTube channel. Find out more about our six role models below.

Ada Lovelace Day (ALD) is a previous Catalyst Grant winner, and we have proudly continued to support ALD through our sponsorship of their live events and now their mentoring platform, the Finding Ada Network. Next week, the team will be hosting their first Finding Ada Virtual STEM Conference. Running a total of 29 consecutive hours, the event will be packed with talks and workshops, interviews and panel discussions on the themes of Career Development, Policy & Advocacy, and Widening Participation. Attendance is free, so find out more and register today.

Find out more about Ada Lovelace Day and the work they do to support all women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) at https://findingada.com

Danika Khong is the co-founder and co-CEO of Scismic, a former Catalyst Grant winner that is now a member of the Digital Science Family. Danika has spent numerous years pursuing both academic and industry science. Throughout her experiences, she was very frustrated with the speed at which bench science translates to therapies for patients. She, therefore, started to explore challenges within the scientific ecosphere that would contribute to fostering innovation and the creation of new medicines. Danika holds a PhD in Immunology and Stem Cells and a BS in Biomedical Science from Monash University. She has been featured in Science and The Boston Globe.

Amarjit Myers is the Head of Strategic Events at Digital Science. Amarjit joined Digital Science in 2010 and is responsible for organising the annual Digital Science Retreat and helps organise Science Foo Camp in San Francisco. Amarjit has worked in a number of organisations within the creative industries – including NESTA Futurelab and the “Tongues on Fire” Film Festival. She is passionate about South Asian food and culture, plays hockey for Waltham Forest Hockey Club and is a member of BAFTA.

Stacy Konkiel is the Director of Research Relations at Altmetric, a member of the Digital Science Family. Stacy joined Digital Science in 2015, and coordinates our efforts and external relationships with the scientometrics community. Her research interests include incentives systems in academia and informetrics, and Stacy has written and presented widely about altmetrics, Open Science, and library services. Previously, Stacy worked with teams at Impactstory, Indiana University & PLOS. You can learn more about Stacy at stacykonkiel.org.

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Science Foo Camp is an annual event Digital Science organises with Google and O’Reilly in Palo Alto. Sci Foo is particularly unusual among scientific conferences in three ways: It is invitation-only; the invitees come from many different areas of science rather than one subject (such as physics, chemistry or biology); and, the meeting has no fixed agenda, the invited scientists, technologists and policymakers set the conference program during the conference itself, based on their shared professional interests and enthusiasms. 

Amongst the truly international mix of attendees, there are always a handful of Digital Science folk, including some real Sci Foo veterans and some total newbies. The conference follows the “unconference” format. There is no predefined agenda, instead, the attendees create one collaboratively, with little, if any, constraints on what can be discussed.

As you can see from the evidence below, a great time is always had by all! Don’t forget to follow the hashtag #SciFoo for more details.

The next Sci Foo event will take place in Cambridge, UK in July 2024. Please contact Amarjit Myers or Cat Allman, two of the organisers for more information. 

You can see lightning talks from previous Sci Foo events on YouTube here and for more information on how Sci Foo works, read attendee Alex Jackson’s blog post on his first visit to Sci Foo in 2019 here and see a 2018 video we created asking scientists what the future holds.

Sci Foo 2019 – A weekend of ideas and collaboration

In an unassuming former shopping-mall-industrial-warehouse on the edge of Mountain View, all manner of activity was unfolding.

Sci Foo: Changing the World, One Weekend at a Time

Every summer, a large group of scientists, thinkers, technologists, creators, and communicators converge in California.

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1. The first thing for me is having a clean/organized workplace, I personally also enjoy moving/working in a couple of locations in my house, having good light and an outlook are important to me and help set the right tone and environment working from home.
2. Organizing your tasks and knowing yourself, to-do lists are great, but also balancing what are the top priorities for the day/week, what are the tasks you can do quickly, and what tasks need more time and attention. Knowing your most productive times is also good, some of us can be morning people, some find quiet time on an evening to be more effective.
3. Healthy snacks, and moving around are important, tangerines when in season are good for me, but I also like to have some chocolate nearby for some time in the day (as a team, we often joke if we get some good news in, someone must have just had a tangerine or chocolate ;-). I also like to start the day with a fresh brew of coffee, freshly ground coffee beans also have a great aroma, it’s good to stimulate all your senses.
4. If you have pets/dogs, know the triggers that can set them off barking, e.g. mail delivery, a noise outside, if they do bark in the middle of a call, it’s ok to apologize and introduce them, also have some pet treats close to hand.
5. Now during COVID-19 we also have to get creative with our time, for me personally having a 9-year-old son at home, I like to wake early before everyone, get an hour or so of work in before others rise, it just helps me feel like I am ahead of the day. When we work in different global locations, you can find yourself waking to a full inbox of emails.
6. Ensuring your computer and phone are synced for email and have the work messaging software is also important, easy to keep in touch. During this current situation, having your email set up for Offline access will be useful too, in case there are internet issues. Be prepared!

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Working from the home … how to survive!

Working from home (or ‘wfh’ as we are all now calling it) is an odd thing.  For some (me), it has been my way of life for the last five years and I love it.  When I first took a job that was purely home based I was delighted. My husband, less so, as he was worried that I may become too talkative when he came home from his office based job, having been starved of human contact during the working day.  Fortunately, his fears were unfounded and I remain as untalkative as I ever was when he returns home! Wfh is now a way of life for me and I can’t think of a better way to work. Technology has a big part to play and enables communication via chat apps (such as Slack), virtual meetings for two to twenty people and collaborative working using things like Google Docs and Monday.com.  I never feel lonely and, if the day has been a bit quiet, there is always someone available on Slack for a bit of banter around some non-work related topic.

Wfh is not for everyone and with the current situation forcing so many of us to work this way, it may take some getting used to.  Many friends have asked me how I do it … surely I get distracted, never get dressed, gaze out of the window all day, talk to the post person too much?  Honestly … I don’t, but I think the key is discipline.  

Top tips:

1. Have a set morning routine, including getting yourself ready (make-up on, shaved, dressed (!)) just as you would if going out to work.  I’m so anal that I even make myself a packed lunch and lay out three pieces of fruit on my desk each day, just like I used to when I office based.
   
2. Make sure you take regular breaks away from your desk and always, always aim to take a lunch break to do something completely unrelated to work. I vary between going out for a walk, popping down to the shops or cleaning the bathroom whilst listening to a podcast.  If you go out, make an effort to smile and chat to the people you meet – nice for them and nice for you!
3. Switch off at the end of the working day!  It is one of the downsides of wfh that you can sometimes find it very difficult to stop working and, whilst that is fine from time to time and when things are busy, you should ensure it doesn’t become the norm.  It’s good to schedule something that starts after work hours – I book a gym class that starts at 6pm a couple of nights each week, which means I have to stop work at a set time to get to it.

However, even for seasoned folks like me, the huge amount of people who now find themselves working from home alongside ‘loved ones’ is bringing new challenges.  Currently, myself, my husband and grown-up daughter are all wfh and will soon be joined by my 17 -year-old son when his sixth form close their doors tomorrow. Next week will be interesting.  We are a family. We know what it’s like to live together. We holiday together. We do not work together and experiencing that is proving to be quite the eye-opener. Can the man I have known and loved for 27 years really not know how to scan and attach a document to an email? Does my daughter always get up at 8.45am to start work at 9am?  Should I now offer to make tea for all of them when I take a break? I’m sure my irritations and internal dialogue will continue to grow over the coming weeks, but I also need to remember (as we all do), these are unprecedented times and we are in this situation for a very good reason. Let’s embrace it with good humour and patience … I might even offer them all a biscuit with their tea this afternoon.

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Working from home comes with a lot of perks; I would know, as I’ve been doing it for years! However, working from the office has its own perks too. I like to try and artificially recreate them, wherever I am calling home:

1. Keep commuting.

So you might not want to spend an hour on the crowded tube getting to the office, but that doesn’t mean you should start working from your bed the minute your alarm goes off. Take some time to wake up and get ready to work: this means dressing up, preparing a nice breakfast or, even better, taking a small walk around the block. This will bring some physical activity to the beginning of your day and help you mentally get into work mode.

The end of the workday is a good time for a quick groceries run or another walk around the block in order to sort your thoughts and be fully relaxed for the rest of the day.

2. Keep going to the ‘water cooler’.

This isn’t a physical thing; however, water cooler conversations are an important part in building relationships with your colleagues. You can take a few minutes at the beginning of calls for informal conversations. It works in written form as well: reach out to people to ask how their day is going; maybe they need help with something, or maybe you can learn something new at the same time.

Company-wide chat rooms area also a good place to share. At Overleaf we have #instagram to share pictures, #chatter for random conversations and #dev-chat for developer-oriented open-ended discussions.

3. Keep moving around.

In a normal day at the office, you would probably be moving around: sitting at your colleague’s desk for a bit, spending some time in a meeting room, or gathering in the kitchen for lunch. At home, all those activities happen at the same place: that same desk, that same chair, that same sitting position.

So, let’s spice things up! While I spend most of my day at my desk, I like to move to the couch when taking some calls, sit at the kitchen table while I keep an eye on my slow-cooking vegetables in the oven, or building a makeshift standup desk to get some extra energy.

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Many organisations are now faced with a situation where remote working is the only option and it can present a host of new challenges. You may feel like you have no control over the situation or find that gaining a trust level with a remote team can be a bit of a challenge.

As a geographically dispersed company with many remote staff, we thought it might be useful to share some hints and tips as to how we build and retain strong teams. We also asked staff from around the world what they found most useful and how they create routines and office spaces in their homes, and will be featuring a different employee over the coming days.

We would love to hear about your own remote working tips. Get in touch at @digitalsci using the hashtag #DSCommunity 

Judy Bai, Director of Business Development at Digital Science is based in the Shanghai office and spent the best part of six weeks under lockdown working from home. Judy is our first staff member to share her experiences and certain improvisation skills in lieu of a laptop stand. 

“We’ve been practicing working from home for over a month now. I don’t have a laptop stand at home but managed to figure out an alternative – a mini iron board, which is just about the right height. I sometimes would also have informal catch up calls while walking around the neighbourhood.

“At the beginning of the lockdown, there’s lots of uncertainty on how long it would take to get over the COVID-19 outbreak. After six weeks, the situation in Shanghai is becoming slightly more normal and some colleagues have started coming back to the office.

“During the first week, I constantly monitored the COVID-19 dashboard and hoped to see the signs of a tipping point. It soon became clear that it would take a lot longer than expected, just as the saying says ‘Diseases come on horseback but go away on foot’.”

“It will all get better with time and so I stopped worrying about the numbers. And after a couple of weeks, I’m kind of starting to get used to working from home.”

On Monday, we’ll hear from Overleaf’s Tim Alby, who’ll share tips on the ‘art of commuting at home’ and the importance of physical activity.

We’d also like to share an extensive list of tips from company level for those who are interested. Read on if systems and programmes, tools, wellbeing and team building are your thing.

SYSTEMS AND PROGRAMMES

• Securely share all work related documents in the same shared drives and cloud-based workspace, and ensure that folders are used to group documents
• Use collaborative writing and editing tools. We use Google Docs, Sheets, etc. If you are writing a paper, overleaf has the functionality for many people to collaborate at the same time
• Replace the feeling of walking up to someone’s desk and asking them a question by using messenger apps – we discuss our use of Slack in the Team Building section below
• Consider the core hours that work for your team, based around their time zones, additional commitments around childcare, etc. For example, Overleaf’s core hours are 2pm to 5pm UK-time, as this covers the tail end of the day for those in the East, and the morning for those in the West. The team organise large meetings in these times to ensure that people can attend
• Work flexibly around your commitments if at all possible, and if your organisation can accommodate this. It helps here to manage expectations so that people know when they might hear back from you. This can be achieved in a few simple ways, such as using your Out of Office responses to explain when your working hours are, updating your status on Slack to say when you are working or whether you are focusing on something else, and adding a line in your email signature; for example, John Hammersley, the founder and CEO of Overleaf, has a line in his email signature that states that his working hours may not be your working hours, as he has children and works around them. By stating that he does not expect a response when he sends an email sets a healthy and inclusive tone for his colleagues and collaborators
• We use Google Hangouts for team meetings and Zoom for larger meetings. For large meetings, it is important to stick to your meeting basics – send an agenda in advance, assign a chair and a note taker, and try, if you feel comfortable, to be on video, so that your colleagues can see you. If your bandwidth is suffering under the strain of the video part, try and be visible for at least the start of the meeting before switching your camera off
• Keep track of the work that you and your colleagues are doing using project management tools such as Monday.com and Trello. This also means that others know where you are with a project and can find all the relevant files if you happen to be off sick or tied up with childcare matters. It is also helpful to share this with other teams so that they can see how busy you all are as a team and cause any available scope for you to take on any additional or last minute work.

TEAM BUILDING

• Missing solving a problem quickly by going to see someone at their desk? You need an online messenger system. The entire Digital Science Family is on Slack, which can be downloaded as an app, or accessed via a browser. All new joiners are introduced to Slack, so that wherever we are, we can have those ‘just a quick question’ moments, saving several emails back and forth
• One thing to be mindful of is colleagues working in different timezones. Slack can be set up to snooze notifications when you are outside work hours
• Slack can be used to create channels focused on different things; at Digital Science, we have channels for all sorts of work matters, as well as random thoughts, pet photos, remote workers (of which we all are now!), and even what we affectionately call ‘sportball’!
• Our friends at Overleaf and Figshare work very remotely most of the time. In order to meet others in the company, they use an app called Donut that can integrate within Slack. At set times of the week, Donut randomly pairs them with someone from the company, and encourages conversation with some ice-breaker questions, before leaving the two newly acquainted people to chat
• Tech can be used in many ways. In this time of global social distancing, we have been using our General thread in Slack to discuss other ways we can share experiences, such as setting up a Book Club and discussing our thoughts on Zoom, setting up a virtual coffee area that people can pop into when they are on a break, and even movie watch-alongs where people can share their live thoughts on Slack as everyone watches the same movie in sync across the world.

WELLBEING

• Try and create a nice workspace for yourself, if possible away from the place you go to relax. Set up your laptop or monitor at the correct height for you, use a supportive and comfortable chair, and a footrest if you need to, and consider getting an external keyboard and mouse. If you are used to standing desk, or are considering the benefits of one at a time when you will be moving around less, you can order something basic online to be delivered to your home, or simply get creative with sturdy boxes and books that you have around your home
• Although you may not be leaving the house, consider getting dressed, even if this is into a fresh pair of PJs, to transition from relaxation to work
• Wear clothes, even trousers – you are not a newsreader and you might need to get up! Video calls are far better than voice-only calls, as you can gauge tone and emotion, and build and maintain relationships more effectively. However, no one wants to see your superhero boxer shorts if you have to go and answer the door to accept your Deliveroo lunch order, or pull the cat off  a high shelf
• Try and stick to your working hours, however flexible you are able to be about them. Many companies can choose their own working hours, which allows employees to maximise their productivity at times that they are at their most creative. However, at a time when the physical boundaries of work and life are a little blurred, being careful to stick to your hours where possible will help you
• Schedule in lunch breaks away from your screen and if you are able to, take yourself out for a walk (providing you stay well away from other people) or aim to do something relaxing to recharge your mind before you get back to work, whether that is an online yoga class, a workout DVD, or some intense cuddle playtime with your pets
• Stay in touch with your work colleagues, and talk about things that aren’t just work – though you may be fine, it is possible that your colleagues are struggling in self-isolation and are in need of conversation. Check in on each other, and do not be afraid to share how you are feeling

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