In recent weeks, when the infection rates of SARS-CoV-2 in Poland skyrocketed and forced our lab members to minimize contact and stay home, we came up with an idea to take advantage of this situation and use this time at home office in a most productive way. That is how our Literature Weeks started. Two weeks, over 60 publications and a group of people eager to discuss and inspire themselves with the work of other scientists.

Every day, our lab members met in front of their computers to face several publications connected to the research interests of our lab. The papers were selected carefully by Sebastian, who also moderated the discussion to ensure that it stays fruitful. “This initiative gave us an opportunity to learn how to read papers more efficiently and critically – and I do like it. Moreover, it is always good to train our brains.”- says Dominika, our Technical Assistant. Our younger members of the team were also very enthusiastic about the idea. Magda, our Master student says: “All the meetings I attended were valuable to me. Not only have I broadened my knowledge, but I also learned how to approach reading scientific papers and how to remain critical even if the paper seems sophisticated.“

After those two weeks of intensive every-day critical academic debate, we decided to keep the idea of a Journal Club with us, as a part of our weekly Lab Meetings.