Footnotes

• Twitter @peterjgill, @acssjr, @Richards_G_C

• Contributors PJG and GCR devised the concept of the manuscript. All the authors provided their personal experiences of problems they have faced as early and mid-career researchers, and potential solutions. ACSdSJ developed problem 1; ACSdSJ, YE, RCO and DU developed problem 2; and TBR developed problem 3. PJG drafted the initial manuscript and all the authors read, drafted and provided comments on the final manuscript.

• Competing interests GCR receives funding from the NHS National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) School for Primary Care Research (SPCR), the Naji Foundation and the Rotary Foundation to study for a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) at the University of Oxford. She is a member of the EBMLive steering committee. PJG has received grant funding from the Canadian Paediatric Society and the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) in the past 5 years. He is on the CMAJ Editorial Advisory Board and the Institute Advisory Board for the CIHR Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health (IHDCYH), where he has expenses reimbursed to attend meetings. He is on the editorial board of the BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine. He is a member of the EBMLive steering committee, and he has expenses reimbursed to attend the conference. DU receives research productivity grant and support from the CNPq foundation. He integrates programmes that seek for global capacity in open science and research transparency (Center for Open Science and Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences).

• Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.