Ever wonder what your chances are of becoming a principal investigator (PI)? Well, researchers at the Weizmann Institute just made it a lot easier to predict your odds of successfully becoming a PI. Machine learning techniques borrowed from gene expression were applied to publication records of PI's to see if there were certain attributes that could predict future success of landing an academic position. The verdict: success in academia is highly predictable (AUC=0.83)! It appears that successful PI candidates have both quantity and quality to their publication records. Important factors for becoming a PI include number of first author publications, journal impact factor, and impact factor of your articles relative to other articles in the journal. Factors not related to publication record, however, were also important. These attributes include gender and the rank of their university. To calculate your likelihood of becoming a principal investigator, follow this link to the PI Predictor.
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