Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • CAREER FEATURE

My career switch from psychologist to open-science advocate

Kelly Cobey’s early career experiences sparked a campaigning zeal, now focused on predatory publishing and responsible research assessment.
By
  1. Esme Hedley

    1. Esme Hedley is a science writer based in London.

Find a new job
A portrait of Kelley Cobey standing outside a large building with trees

Kelly Cobey, who provides training and advice on open-science practices, questions the ways in which research is carried out, incentivized and rewarded. Credit: Tony Caldwell/Ottawa Citizen/Postmedia Network Inc.

In 2019, Jenna Keindel came across a research paper that would change her life. The Canadian, then aged 37, found it through a Facebook group of people affected by limb-girdle muscular dystrophy (LGMD), a condition that causes progressive muscle weakness. Keindel was diagnosed with it when she was 16.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-02583-x

The 2025 John Maddox Prize winners will be announced on 29 October.

Subscribe to Nature Briefing: Careers, an unmissable free weekly round-up of help and advice for working scientists.

References

  1. Alayche, M. et al. Facets https://doi.org/10.1139/facets-2022-0208 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Grudniewicz, A. et al. Nature 576, 210–212 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Cobey, K. Nature 628, 9 (2024).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links