1. One of the most frustrating things about being a scientist right now is that on the one hand we spend our entire careers learning how to be rational & logical & transparent in how we do our science. Yet our granting, publishing & hiring system is often none of those things.

2. I was thinking about this looking at the previous reviews for my CIHR grant. The reviewers gave me an avg. score of 4.52 which would have put me very close to the funding range but mysteriously my score ended up as 4.38 (not fundable). How did this happen? I will never know.

3. After a while in science you realise certain things happen behind closed doors in rooms where you are not present. Important career deciding things, grant decisions, hiring decisions, publishing decisions. These decisions are mysterious & can seem illogical & counterintuitive.

4. As we advance in our careers & become the people who sit in the rooms where decisions are made we have a duty to increase rigour & transparency & to detail the logic underlying decision making. We should overcome the outdated reluctance to expose the mechanics of the process.