Caption: Matt Lucy
(Credit: Jacqui Jamieson)
Today’s trailblazing dairy science innovations are built on the incredible work being done by a diverse, interconnected, global scientific community. Get to know a fellow community member in our ongoing spotlight series—now featuring the talented editors of JDS Communications.
Matt Lucy, PhD, is the physiology section editor of JDS Communications and a professor at the University of Missouri focused on the reproductive physiology of dairy cows, including uterine disease, the impact of stress on reproduction, and dairy longevity. He is also an active and prominent member of the ADSA community, having served as the editor in chief of the Journal of Dairy Science, founded and served as editor in chief of its sister journal, JDS Communications, and is currently the host of the ADSA podcast, Dairy Digressions.
You can connect with Matt on X/Twitter and LinkedIn.
Scientific publishing plays a crucial role in the field of dairy science. What’s the number-one thing you would tell prospective authors to help them in their publishing work?
Work on an important question and a novel idea. Keep your paper focused on the question. Avoid redoing what has already been done or doing studies that simply confirm the obvious. Writing, defending, and ultimately, publishing your science can be challenging, but it’s one of the best ways to improve your skills as a scientist.
Also, stay curious about science that is not directly in your field! I am a huge reader of scientific articles, even outside of dairy science. Keeping a pulse on new research will help inspire your scholarly work.
Feedback from editors and reviewers can be hugely impactful in the publishing process and in an author’s overall career. In your own publishing work, what has your experience been with peer review?
Peer review can be really hard, but just remember you’re never alone in getting tough feedback—I just recently got a tough review of my own on a paper. Going through the review process is essential, even if it’s not always fun. It forces you to reevaluate what you have done, defend what you did right, and correct what you did wrong.
I cannot understate how important the process has been to my development as a scientist. People who don’t submit papers to peer review miss out on one of the best ways to develop as a scientist.
What initially drew you to the ADSA community and to working on the journals team?
For me, it comes down to two of my passions: science and connecting with people. Working on the journals team lets me stay deeply immersed in all the exciting new science emerging in dairy. It also challenges me to think critically about the future of scientific publishing. We’re constantly striving for our journals to be innovative, meeting both our readers and authors where they are—and that work is incredibly motivating.
Working with the journals also keeps me tightly connected to my dairy community. I get the opportunity to brainstorm how to optimize the publishing process with a talented, interdisciplinary group of editors and journal staff.
The Dairy Digressions podcast was a natural progression of this work that I now get to share with an audience. As host, I also get to sit down with my friends and colleagues to talk through what’s new and exciting in the field, celebrating and connecting with the brilliant minds in dairy science.