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I want out of a toxic relationship with a research team. How do I do it?

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 17:55:29 -0800

Hello fellow academics. I have a situation, that I am sure you're familiar with: I want out of a research team that has been, rather pitifully, working toward a publication for the last 2 years, the end result of which is a majestic, incoherent piece of garbage that has already been rejected by various top conferences and journals. I want out but the problem is that I've done most of the work as second author and I'd rather not see my hard work be attributed to the first author on the manuscript should it somehow get published. What is the best solution in this case? The story:

Two or so years ago I agreed to work with a research team consisting of a new assistant professor (tenure track) and a few other professors. My role, from what I was lead to believe (although admittedly these roles were never clearly defined as they should have been), was to be the primary methodologist and analyst on a study that had already been presented a few time before in various forms at small conferences and as book chapters. After reading the previous studies and looking over the data myself it was obvious to me that this team was trying to milk this data set for all it was worth, despite the fact that their previous attempts to use it for something theoretically interesting and novel fell flat. It also became apparent to me after a few meetings that the team expected me, for whatever reason, to come up with NEW research questions/hypotheses that could be applied to the data...yes, no literature reviews had ever been conducted until AFTER the data was analyzed. Yeesh. It was a case of "here is some neat data we found, what can we do with it?" I realize I should have said "I'm out" then and there because I really detest that approach to research. Instead, I suggested that the first author conduct a literature review based around the data before I wasted my time analyzing it. That never really happened.

Fast forward after a year of passive aggressive heel-dragging on my part and pressure on the first author's part and I ended up conducting the bulk of the literature review, chose a suitable theoretical framework, formed some decent research questions, and conducted the appropriate analyses. However, because I refused to basically write the entire manuscript by myself and because the first author never REALLY took the time to learn anything about the theoretical framework of the study, the manuscript is now an incoherent mess. The first author decided to add extra theories, extra research questions, extra analyses, and essentially a load of nonsense to the literature review that has absolutely nothing to do with what I originally set out do to (which is more than I should have been asked to do in the first place). We submitted it to a few conferences and top journals against my advice (as none were appropriate fits) only to be rejected. I thought that would be the end of it, but no. First author's tenure review is coming up this year and he/she has been hounding the team (and specifically me) to get this published in a top journal, which I consider to be a pipe dream. Even if it was trimmed and polished it wouldn't be top journal material. I have no idea what the first author has published in the time he/she has been at my university, but I haven't been able to find anything peer-reviewed in the searches I have conducted, which means he/she is probably doing one last, desperate push before his/her tenure review. In fact, the entire time I was made very aware that we should all be helping out said first author get tenure, as if he/she was incapable of doing it himself/herself.

My perception of the ordeal:

Needless to say I've felt fairly used throughout the whole ordeal and I more than likely let myself be used out of some weird sense of pride as a problem solver. The first author has barely done a lick of work on a manuscript that he/she wants to be essentially the shining piece of his/her tenure portfolio. It won't ever be published in a top journal, and I am fairly sick of being nudged to help him/her out when he/she obviously doesn't have the skill to get anything published independently. I feel as though I have done more than my fair share of the work in trying to make this piece of poop into a cupcake. The problem is the work I contributed to the manuscript has SOME merit, even though I would have NEVER gone about a study the way this team did if I were flying solo. I presented my portion as a separate paper at a conference and received nothing but positive feedback, so I know for a fact that it could be published somewhere reputable. I'd rather not have what I consider to be my novel, new concept to be attributed to the first author. Essentially, I refuse to earn tenure for someone else. He/she is obviously incompetent and don't deserve to work at a research university, but unfortunately that is not for me to decide.

So my question is: How do out get out of this sort of toxic relationship without forfeiting my work to someone who doesn't deserve the credit? How does one even go about initiating such a break up?

TLDR: I did the bulk of the work on a manuscript (including the literature review, methods, and analyses) but I am only the second author. The first author has done squat except turn the manuscript into a coherent pile of crap. I feel used in what seems like a push for me to write the first author's way into tenure. I'd love to say "I'm out" but the work I contributed to the manuscript has merit and I don't want that to be attributed to the first author should it ever get published. How can I get out of this arrangement and keep the intellectual rights to my portion of the manuscript for future publications?

Am I doing the wrong thing here?

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 14:57:46 -0800

Science grad school application filter: I have informally (but explicitly) accepted a graduate assistant position (in conservation biology) at my current undergraduate institution. I am now having second thoughts and am wondering what, if anything, I should do about it. Help me, Hive Mind! I don't know what to do! Okay, I will do my best to be concise. I am an undergraduate biology student who wants to be a conservation researcher. Specifically I want to do my work around the subject of biodiversity reserve success -- how can we identify successful candidate reserves, how can we implement them well, how can we maintain and modify existing reserves so that they can be more successful, etc. I am a Senior and will graduate next spring. That means this is the semester when I apply to grad schools.

I work in one of the labs at school. A month or so ago I was offered a graduate position by the professor for whom I work currently. The project that I would be a part of is definitely relevant to my interests -- it is a large international collaboration with the aim of identifying new candidate biodiversity reserves. I've read the grant proposal and it's definitely the kind of project that I want to be a part of both in grad school and later as a senior researcher. My position on it would involve basically heading up a major subsidiary of the project, and I would be involved at every level from the fieldwork to the final analysis and publication. This is a project with over 100 scientists on it, and my boss is one of three co-PIs, in charge of essentially half of the project as a whole. I have a good relationship with my boss and we sat down and discussed the position that he offered me quite frankly and in fair detail. I am satisfied that I would be getting a pretty good deal on this project -- competitive stipend, opportunity for first authorship, opportunity to work with collaborators and build my network, etc.

As I said, I accepted the position. My PI and I shook hands on it, but nothing is in writing. I am applying to a couple of other schools but I am not pursuing those applications aggressively -- I am just hoping to have a safety in case of some unforseen development, like for instance if my PI (with whom I am on very good terms) and I (a virtual pacifist) got into a fistfight next week or something. I do have the option of bailing with a Master's a few years in, but I am in my late twenties and am looking at a PhD and a post-doc before I really have a chance of trying for one of those coveted tenure-track academic positions which are still my dream. Yes, I know how rare those jobs are but I really want one and I think I would be ideally suited to the mixture of teaching and research that is involved. Really, that is the goal I am working toward here. Yes, really. Yes, I know how remote it is. I am still going for that.

However, I have some reservations that have been growing and I am wondering if I should try to change my path and break my agreement with my PI. I feel like I have been taking the easy route here, that I am passing up what might be better opportunities simply because I have been offered a good one here -- a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, etc. The city in which I am living now is one that I do not really want to live in for another five years -- I was looking forward to a change of venue with grad school, and I am feeling stressed about losing that. My partner of two years is feeling that same stress but even moreso and has pretty much told me that she may not stick around if I do stay in this town after I graduate. Also, my current school is not very prestigious. My favorite professor classified it as "fifth rate? maybe?". I think my boss does good work (he publishes in journals with good impact factor, and fairly regularly, and his students get decent numbers of first-authors) but my school is definitely not a well-known school in my chosen field, or really any field. I also don't know what I think about taking a PhD at the same school as my BsC. I think I might have what it takes to get into a "better" program -- an OK GPA, exceptional GREs, great recommendations (albeit one of those is from my current PI, who might not be happy if I decided to break my agreement) and two years of continuous lab experience. I am worried that I might have just chosen this path because it is the path of least resistance, not because it is the best path to my goal of becoming a researcher and a professor or because it is good for my quality of life for the next five years.

OK, so rambling over. Let me break it down. First, here is my transcript:

GPA: 3.14 (had a rough sophomore year and there's an F on my transfer transcript from 10 years ago.)

GREs: 170 Verbal (99th percentile), 6 Analytical (99th percentile), 163 Quantitative (89th percentile)

Recommendations: very strong, but potentially jeopardized if I break my agreement with my current PI

Statement of Purpose: nice, coherent, well-written, focused

Experience: two years of laboratory experience

Goals: gain fieldwork, lab work, analytical, bioinformatic, and collaborative skills required to be a useful researcher and project leader addressing questions surrounding the success of biodiversity reserves

Interests: biogeography, community ecology, evolutionary biology, computational biology, scientific outreach, research ethics

Age: 28

Here are what I see as the "Pros" of my current path:

Virtually guaranteed acceptance to program, with full funding

Good working relationship with current PI

Confidence that my PI is not going to screw me

Assurance of a significant role in a major project directly relevant to my long-term research interests

Opportunity for international fieldwork and collaboration with researchers in desired field

Here are what I see as the "Cons":

Don't like my current location, don't want to live here for five more years

SO with whom I am in a serious relationship may leave me if I stay here

Current university not very prestigious at all

Feel like I might be able to get into a better school that might position me better later, assuming I can find the right PI

Might be shooting myself in the foot by getting a PhD from the same institution as my B.S.

Feel like I'm doing myself a disservice by not seriously exploring other options

So with that, these are what I see as my options. 1) Continue on my current course because it's probably the best deal I'm going to get. 2) Continue on my current course and reassess in a couple of years when I am a bit wiser and when I expect my GPA will be much higher. Bail with a Master's if I'm not happy with where things are going, take the hit in terms of lost time/opportunity/continuity, and try for another, better program. 3) Burn some bridges, try to find a 3rd recommendation at the last moment to replace current PI, and go all-out in applying to all of the top schools in my field.

What do you think would be my best plan, given my pros/cons (and any I haven't thought of) my current transcript as an applicant, and my desire to maintain a decent reputation in my field? Do you think it would be realistic in the first place for me to apply to the top schools/programs in my field (given my mediocre GPA) and if so where do you think I should be applying/who should I try to work with? Am I already in the best spot that I am likely to be for now, and I should just try to find someplace more prestigious when I apply for the inevitable postdoc? Am I missing out on some option that I hadn't considered? Are there major factors that I am neglecting?

Thank you for your advice. I am really stressing about this and things are so stressful in general what with it being the end of the semester and me trying to finish my applications etc etc that I am totally unable to tell whether I should even be stressing at all or not. Help me figure out whether I should just chill the fuck out or whether I should be making a major course correction or what.

If clarification or whatever is needed I have a throwaway account (Pseudonymous Bosch) that I will use to post replies. It is not "mature" (less than a week old) or else I would use it to ask this question in the first place. Thanks again, in advance.

what tools and models do we have for collaboration in the humanities?

idlethink — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 07:11:10 -0800

what tools and platforms exist right now which humanists can use to do collaborative research? what models exist of successful humanities collaboration? I'm curious to hear, from librarians or other academics or anyone with experience working on collaborative research projects, what specific tools you've used for doing so and what's worked (or hasn't!) for you. I know there's much more collaboration in the sciences and I'm open to hearing about this too. I'm interested in any part of the collaborative process, from gathering research all the way to joint writing. Here are some very basic ones I can think of off the top of my head:
- Google documents for joint writing and notes
- Participad, a wordpress plugin allowing real-time editing and editorial conflict resolution
- Emailed word documents & track changes; Dropbox or similar for file-sharing
- Wikis to gather research e.g. PBWiki, MediaWiki
- Group blogging
- CUNY's very new Commons in a Box - I've no first-hand experience of this, but it looks promising, and I'd be interested to find more of this sort of thing.

I'd also be interested in hearing about existing (successful) examples of research collaboration on digital platforms and particularly co-authorship: any discipline, although the more applicable to the humanities, the better. Some I can think of:
- 22 authors writing a book together
- an open-access collaboratively-written book on the digital humanities [pdf] (scroll to to the end for "production notes")
- Timothy Gowers' experiment into "massively collaborative mathematics"
- in the more "conventional" category, the Modern Girl Around the World research group at University of Washington; this was not on any sustained digital platform but was fairly uniquely centered around a cross-disciplinary transnational research agenda and produced a co-written book and articles.

Thanks in advance!

Can I cold-email a researcher?

vogon_poet — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 10:41:12 -0800

Would it be out of line to email a researcher asking how they got into their field? I'm curious about an area of scientific research that's kind of non-standard/interdisciplinary. I haven't seen one standard term to describe it, but "complexity research" or "complex systems" seems to show up a lot. It's obviously not something you can major in, but it looks really interesting. I've found a couple of researchers doing work in this area. Would it be out of line to email and ask them how they got into their field, and if they have any advice for an undergraduate who might want to study it? What is the etiquette, and how should I frame my email? I don't know these people at all, and I'm considering applying for an internship at one of their institutions.

What are my options for doing a PhD long distance?

Anonymous — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 07:27:50 -0800

What are my options for doing a PhD long distance? I finished my MA in Literature in March of this year. I'm currently considering my options for doing a PhD, either full time, or (probably) part time.

I live in New Zealand (Auckland). I did my MA at Auckland University, and am looking into potentially completing a PhD via distance at a university in another part of the world.

I'm looking for recommendations of universities that are open to, or have a track record of, accepting long distance PhD applicants. Naturally, enrolment fees will play a part in such a choice, but I don’t want to limit my options at this point according to any particular criteria.

Admin and Research, switched.

Wordshore — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 16:50:58 -0800

A cartoon about academia from the 1990s (or even before). Is it online, offline, anywhere? Cartoon is in black and white. Two men talking to each other, one saying to the other something about the signs being switched around. Behind them, a ramshackle shed has the sign 'admin' on it, and a complex of expensive buildings has the sign 'research' on it. It's a lot funnier than how I just described it.

I had this on my office door (English university) in the fall of 1997, so it's from before then. I've searched for it online every few years, but never found it. #LibrarianShame

Speculative Realism 101

0bvious — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 06:40:46 -0800

Speculative Realism: What are the key texts I need to read. I am interested in Speculative Realism (SR) (and Speculative Materialism (SM)) as attempts to overcome 'Philosophies of access' (those which privilege the human being over other entities; anthropocentrism).

Also, any texts that cover...

- How do SR and SM overlap/not overlap with object-oriented philosophy (OO)?
- How do SM and OO relate to post-humanism and anti-humanism?

Thanks

I don't even want to know how bad I am.

SNWidget — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 09:36:32 -0800

How do I get over my fear of criticism, especially in an academic setting? I'm a graduate student, and if you look at my past posting history, you'll see that I have issues with anxiety, ADD, and depression (for which I am medicating).

This was brought on by a specific event, but in general, I have trouble taking criticism. Not so much in the, "Fuck you, I'm perfect, you just don't understand me" way. This is more about not being able to stomach it without going into a panic attack. Whenever I get comments back on a paper, or a performance review, or anything along those lines, I completely shut down. Any sort of constructive criticism guts me, even if I know it comes from a good place.

I hate doing a second read on my papers and editing, because I see all the stupid things I've done. I criticize myself more than I get from others, but both seem to shut me down. I hate showing work to people for help, because I'm afraid of what they'll think. Then I just hide things until it's too late.

In my undergrad, I turned in a seniors honors thesis for that got rejected. I got a letter from the department chair outlining the problems, but before I read more than a paragraph, I just ripped it up and tossed it out. I couldn't read it. I still, to this day, am not sure what happened with that paper.

The specific event this time was a paper I had to turn in to get to the next stage of my PhD. I passed (based on previous performance, I'm pretty sure), but this paper was not my best work. I'd procrastinated it, and I definitely was not happy with what I submitted, but I hoped... actually, I have no idea what I was hoping for.

When I met with my committee they (very nicely, because they're educators in an education field) slammed me for a bunch of things, from structure to ideas to technical issues (like tense). It gutted me. I left the room and went to go hide out for a bit. I actually couldn't write and could barely go to class for a week afterwards. I finally pulled it together, but I had a stack of edited/marked copies of my paper that I couldn't read.

And I still have them, 7 months later. I haven't gone through and read them, because even reading the first page (and seeing stupid mistakes) makes me want to retch. I'll do anything but read these, but I know I need to to get better.

I want to be an academic. I know that involves receiving criticism and editing. I know it involves growth and learning. I have the kindest advisor and committee in the world, and they're all willing to work with me and help me, but I just hide away. Every time they see a weakness, I turtle in and hide, because I don't want them to see any more.

How do I fix this? How did you fix this? How do you become more comfortable with criticism, especially in the context of learning from it and growing? How do I read this stack of criticism and process is constructively while not throwing it all into a fire?

I want to write-up, but Academic Research has re-wired my brain!

0bvious — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 09:35:59 -0800

The way I research (academic or otherwise) is increasingly incompatible with the tools I have. Reams of handwritten notebooks, and hundreds of word docs vs a highly tagged website only add to my self-created confusion. I'm drawn to Tinderbox software as a possible solution, but as an adamant PC user I'm locked out. How do you order your research? / How to write-up my PhD now my brain is fried? I'm over halfway through a PhD and finding the writing up difficult, mainly because I have to store so many disparate notes and references in my head (having located them in said notebooks, word docs and all throughout my website).

My PhD is kind of experimental, in that the thesis component of my work will also be submitted as the portfolio (practice-based research).

It means I not only have to write up research, but write into my research, if that makes sense.

I say this, not downplaying the enormous amount of creativity and effort all types of PhDs require. I just think I'm at the stage where my research notes are killing my thinking.

Basically, I feel like hyper-connected culture has rewired my brain to such an extent, that 'traditional' gathering-up-research methods are failing me.

Please advise!

Just how common are abusive situations in academia? How do you survive and is it even worth it?

Anonymous — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 22:10:00 -0800

My girlfriend is 5 years in to a PhD program with an abusive (verbal, emotional, and mental) PI/lab. This seems to be a common theme in academia, just how common is it? How do you go about graduating if they seem to be working against you (assuming no fault on your part)? The department and graduate committee seems to be a web of danger with all the political play going on between everyone and my girlfriend's PI.

Should I let a bad paper with my name on it be presented at an academic conference?

naoko — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 05:42:26 -0800

How concerned should I be about a mediocre paper I co-wrote being presented at a conference (by a classmate I despise and distrust)? Last semester, I had the misfortune of working on a group project with the most awful person I have ever met (and two other individuals). Some of the things that went down include:
- The subject of our research (which was to be presented in paper and presentation form) changed multiple times, partly due to her insistence.
- She disappeared for maybe a month - it ended up being due to illness, but she didn't even send us an email telling us what was up - and then wanted to completely take over again when she returned.
- She did pretty much no research outside of one article we had already been assigned in class and some very tangentially related material she had used for a paper on another subject.
- She made really rude comments about the title I suggested (which we ended up using anyway, since no one had a better suggestion).
- She didn't meet deadlines.
- She claimed to be an excellent copy editor and insisted on having the final review on the paper, but her "final product" had numerous typos and other errors.
- She claimed to be an excellent public speaker and insisted on being the group member to present our research to our class, only to have a near nervous breakdown on presentation day. When we tried to practice the presentation with her, she repeatedly ignored all of our suggestions.
- When she finally presented, she spoke almost exclusively on her own section of the paper which was, as I said, pretty tangential to the subject at hand.
- She posted a nasty comment about the group on Facebook (after having added us all as friends. This is grad school, by the way, not junior high) literally during a conversation we were attempting to have with her about our concerns about the direction of the project.
- She wasted endless amounts of time during group meetings regaling us with stories of her recent and soooo tragic breakup.
- She insisted that we schedule group meetings around her - not even around when she had legitimate conflicts, but around when she might be tired or have other work to do (completely oblivious to the idea that the rest of us might be tired or have other work to do).

This is just to give you an overview of what went down. Anyway, in addition to her presentation being terrible, the paper, in its final form, was, in my opinion, not very good. The sections written by each member don't flow together well, and her section in particular is badly written (but uses lots of academic-sounding jargon). I think it suffers from the fact that we changed topics repeatedly, among other things. Miraculously, we seem to have gotten an A. The professor even gave Horrible Girl good reviews of her rambling, unfocused, jargon-filled but substance-less presentation that left out the actual research done by the rest of the group. So, despite being irked that other people weren't seeing through this girl's bullshit, I figured all's well that ends well and I'll just make sure I never work with her on anything again.

Fast forward to July: Horrible Girl sends an email to the group announcing that she would like to submit the paper to some journals/conferences, so that we can be FAMOUS, and please respond asap with bio info and such (she also offers to just submit it under her name alone if the rest of us aren't interested). I emailed the professor (with whom I had previously had a conversation about the issues I was having with Horrible Girl) with the following questions:
- Seriously, just how bad was the paper (because I think it was pretty bad)?
- Are these conferences/journals Horrible Girl is mentioning worth submitting this to?
- If it's a bad paper, should I be worried about being out there with my name on it?
- Or does "hooray, I've been published!" trump the public shame of having published epic crap.
The professor, busy doing research in Nepal or somewhere else with limited internet access, never responded, and Horrible Girl basically harangued the group into agreeing to let her submit the paper. I had conversations with one of the other group members; she was similarly concerned, but decided she was ok with it, and made a point of saying to Horrible Girl that all of the authors needed to be credited. We also figured that since the paper wasn't good, no one would pick it up anyway, so whatever.

Fast forward to yesterday: the paper has, freakishly, been accepted by a conference, and Horrible Girl will be traveling to DC in a few months to present - she (either really oblivious or fake-oblivious to the fact that we all hate her) suggested that it would be a totally fun girl party if we were all to go together.

So (sorry for the rambling) where does this leave me?
- I have pretty close to zero interest in attending this conference - the idea of spending another moment anywhere near Horrible Girl absolutely terrifies me. However, a) it would be my first time attending an academic conference, which is neat and b) I feel like the paper, despite not being very good, deserves to be protected by someone who isn't an idiot. When HG presented on it in class, she was relying on me and one of the other group members to answer questions, since she didn't actually understand a lot of the material in paper and didn't really draw the same conclusions the rest of the group members did. I am also slightly concerned that she will present the research in an inelegant manner that will offend a lot of the audience. Still, my desire not to waste another second of my life around HG almost certainly outweighs whatever damage control I might be able to do by being present.
- Do I even want my name on this paper, or should I tell her, on second thought, take my name off? I really do think it was pretty bad. Does the fact that it was accepted by this conference mean it's not really as bad as I think? Do the positives of being able to say that I had a paper accepted by a conference outweigh the crappiness of said paper? How embarrassed should I be if a bad paper of mine is floating around out there if there are three other names on it and it was clearly just a stupid school assignment? Will anyone ever read anything but the abstract anyway? I'm just a masters student and probably not planning on going into academia long-term, so does any of this even matter at all?

My ultimate goal here is to protect my professional reputation - it is tempting to accept suggestions simply on how to make HG suffer and expose her for the whiny, childish, bullshit artist intellectual poseur that she is, but I am attempting to cling to some modicum of grown-up behavior here.

As-it-happens research updates: can't write with 'em, can't write without 'em?

taramosalata — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 16:03:49 -0800

How to concentrate on a research-driven book project when the subject matter is periodically changing / being updated by other writers? My little brother is working on a history of a contemporary cultural idea sort of book. He's getting paralysed between sifting through daily Google Alerts and/or running random Google searches (with new search term combinations) on the topic and actually immersing himself in the research and just ploughing ahead. I've always encouraged him to do the latter, keeping blinders on for now, but he argues, persuasively enough, that he needs to be 1/ vigilant against being scooped, in which case he can still tweak his argument in time, and 2/ attentive to new information that could come up at any time and enhance his material. The problem as I see it is that he ends up being fascinated by only tenuously relevant factoids that spin off into their own smaller-project ideas -- keeping the project of his heart's desire from going forward. Never having attempted a long writing project, though, I feel ill-equipped to advise him in a way more robust / specific than variations on hey-you-trust-yourself. He's a bit of a loner; left grad studies in history and doesn't have a writerly / academic community he can go to for this advice (or the personality to consult widely). He is brilliant, though (in my humble kith/kin opinion), and has the brains and willpower to do this -- but at the moment may be both too conscientious and thereby, paradoxically, distractible.

Ye writers / long-form journalists / scholars out there must encounter this sort of challenge all the time. And surely there have been plenty of times when some smart and diligent person emerges from years of isolated toil with a finished book manuscript, only to discover that another book has just been published on the same thing? Is it just a gamble you have to make, believing that your own work, even if not singular in subject, is untrumpably original in its treatment? (But surely uniqueness of voice / perspective isn't always enough to save a project when someone else got to its topic first?) In the age of Google Alerts, how do you fight the sense that anyone could be doing what you're doing, and finish doing it faster, while you're obliviously toiling away, perhaps for (nearly) nought? (Sorry for wordiness, though typing it out like this I really do feel his quandary....)

Many thanks in advance!

Life after PhD?

Anonymous — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 15:18:03 -0800

Is doing a neuroscience PhD useful to enhance my job prospects generally, not just in research? If I choose to leave science after graduating, what would a PhD get me? I've been offered a place on a prestigious UK-based three-year neuroscience PhD programme. I'm interested, but I don't currently plan on staying in research after I graduate (though that could change).

I'd want to know that a PhD has some general applicability before I embark on it. What added value does it generate outside of the narrow field to which it applies? Will it be of interest to other employers or will they see it as irrelevant? What directions could I take after graduating other than research? Are there other jobs to which my PhD would be seen as valuable?

Thanks in advance, mefites.

Disposable email: theneuroscientist@gmail.com

I'd like to start a clinical psychology doctoral program in 2012. I wasn't a Psych major. How do I prepare?

jander03 — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 04:00:23 -0800

I'd like to start a clinical psychology doctoral program in 2012. I wasn't a Psych major. How do I prepare? How can I overcome the following barriers... I know that some of these are a web search away, but I'd like to hear answers from real people.

1. I haven't done research or worked in a clinic!
Should I do one of these? How would one go about it outside of college?

2. A friend says that in the medical world there are "bridging programs." Any thing like that for clinical psychology?

3. I've heard a lot about matching my interests to individual professors. I have NO idea how to do that. How does that even work? Is there an article that explains all of this?

4. How can I keep up with what's happening in the field?
I keep up on only the most mainstream happenings in psychology - the types of things that appear in Psychology Today or a Malcolm Gladwell article. Is there a free/cheap clinical psychology research journal? A trusted blog?

5. In the real world of practitioners, what is the difference between a Psy. D and a Ph. D?

Possibly Relevant Details:
My GRE score and undergraduate GPA is comparable to the average at most clinical psychology programs I've seen.
Since leaving my alma mater, I've taught in underprivileged schools and coached teachers for a few years.
I have a minor in psychology, but no real research experience.
I have experience manipulating large pools of data.

Help a non-academic develop research skills for a wonky in-depth project

croutonsupafreak — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 08:00:21 -0800

I'm not an academic, not trained in the art of research, and I could use some guidance. I need advice on how to identify and track down sources for a multi-year exploration of a topic. I'm embarking on an effort to understand an evolution of one aspect of American culture, from the colonial era to today, and I suspect my research may take me several years.

So far I'm on step one:
1. I've checked out pretty much every book I could find at the local public library that covers these topics. These books are written for a general audience and tend not to approach the topic quite from the angle I'm interested in, but they're a good start.

I suspect that steps two and three should be:
2. Go to the primary source documents cited by the popular books I'm reading.
3. Identify academic scholarship that has touched on the areas I'm interested in, read that, and seek out more primary sources as identified there.

I don't know how to go about either of these steps.

How do I track down primary sources that aren't available through my public library? Will the librarians at a community library be able to help with this? Should I try to affiliate myself with an academic library? (And how can I do this, given that I'm not a student or faculty member?)

And how do I identify academic scholarship that might be of interest to me? I don't want to limit myself to a specific academic sphere - I imagine history, sociology, women's studies, religious studies, business, economics and other fields are likely to have interesting things to say. So how do I figure out who has done research on this stuff before, and where it's been published?

Finally, do I have the right general idea about how to approach this in-depth research project, or am I missing something?

Bonus question: How should I best track my research for when I eventually write up my conclusions and try to get them published? Are there processes and procedures I should follow? Software that's invaluable?

I want to kick some cognitive memory ass!

two lights above the sea — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 18:48:58 -0800

I just got hired at a psychology research lab at a very prestigious university. I have no background in academic research and very little academic background in this field. I have an associates degree in humanities, and psychology is a field that interests me greatly. What can I do to not mess this up? Specifics!

Me:

I am a 26 year old, uh, human being who has been working full-time in the heating oil business doing random accounting work and customer service for the last 5 years. I have been going to school part-time at a local community college and recently earned my associates in humanities. Finishing my bachelor's degree has been put on the back burner because holy crap school is expensive (I already have a ton of debt from getting my associates degree), and it's been hard to figure out what I want to do with myself. I have a strong academic background mostly in the hard sciences and creative writing. I've taken two psych courses in my academic career, however it is definitely something I would consider pursuing as a potential career.

The Job:

The research lab is run by a fairly well-known doctor in the field of psychology. It focuses on computational memory. I was hired to do annotation full-time. Normally, the annotation is done on a part-time basis by undergrads who are interested in the field. The director of the lab has already admitted that he does not see me as a big part of his lab in the future, due to my lack of experience in academic research and psychology.

The Question:

How the heck do I not mess this up? The job itself is easy. I've done it for 15 hours or so already, and I'm doing well with it. However, I DO want this job to be one in which I can grow and be useful. I'd like this to be a great experience for me to point to down the line, or perhaps one to help me get my potential dream job. How can I earn this doctor's respect so I can eventually be better paid, get benefits (tuition, mostly), and, in general, have a great learning experience. I'm also very interested, now that I've mentioned tuition, in studying at this university in a related field.

I'm pretty set on subject-specific reading material, but if you are experienced in a situation like this, or you have any advice for me, please let me know. I really want to shine here, especially since I feel I've been given a chance to do something a poor, first-generation college kid from the ghetto would never dream of having. I realize I'm being dramatic, but god damn, I want this so badly. How can I rock this situation?

Thanks!

How to export secondary citations from Google Scholar or similar database??

samac — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 11:14:49 -0800

How can I extract a list of "second-generation" citations from Google Scholar search results, preferably in such a way that this information is easily parsable into lists of authors, titles, journals, and year published? Is there any way to extract citation information from Google Scholar, ISI Indexes/Web of Science, or some other database able to search “forward” for references—that is, that can search for articles that have cited a particular article—and import that list of second-generation articles into either a spreadsheet or a reference manager such as Mendeley, Zotero, etc?

How do I do a good literature review?

superiorchicken — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 09:20:07 -0800

How do I do a good literature review for a research paper in philosophy? I have access to good resources, but I really want to make sure that I cover everything that's been written on the topic. How can I put myself at ease while making sure I don't miss a beat? I'm a 2nd-year philosophy undergrad, and I'd really like to start doing research before I get anywhere near graduate school. But I've been struggling to get started, since I have no idea when I can say I've read enough to say something substantial about a topic.

My interest lies mainly in the history of philosophy. Right now, I'd love to do a paper on Kierkegaard. I've scoured SEP, JSTOR, the Philosopher's Index, and the academic library at my institution. I've found and indexed all of the papers/books I have free access to. But how do I make sure that I'm covering all my bases? I simply can't tell whether or not, even if I read much of this material in a guided fashion, I will yet be able to write a good paper on anything in specific. I understand that I can't possibly read or find everything, but how do I alleviate these fears?

I'm especially worried that I'm missing books that have been written on the topic, for example. I don't mind not having a paper or something, as long as I know information about it that an index like Philosopher's Index can tell me. But such resources don't generally index books, and I know that my academic library doesn't have nearly all of the books there are to be found. Interlibrary loan takes a long time, and I'm not sure what assurance WebCat can give me about my field of research. So a second question: how do I make sure I'm covering all of my bases when I dont' have access to a specialized library on a thinker or a topic?

All of these concerns are generally the same, though. So to put it bluntly: when I do research in philosophy, what kind of wrangling is required with my resources before I can be confident enough to write something about my topic?

Any advice on writing research papers in philosophy is welcome. Thanks!

Search, cross-link references in PDF articles?

samac — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 20:44:01 -0800

Perhaps this is just a fantasy, but is there any application or online tool that could search through the references of an article I have saved as a PDF, in order to check whether I have those cited articles in my larger PDF library? It would be perfect if it would highlight, link, or somehow display cross-referenced relationships between all my articles. I am already familiar with many referencing/PDF organization software such as Papers (Mekentosj), Sente, and Devonthink. I suppose what I have in mind is a similar tool, but with the additional power of something like ISI Indexes. I have a fairly large library (about 300 references that I'm actively using, and more than 2000 total) and I'm just trying to get some "big-picture" grasp of how all these sources relate to one another.

There has to be a better way.

oinopaponton — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 08:59:22 -0800

Academics: have you found a way to automate downloading and keeping track of journals and papers in your field? I'm starting grad school in the fall, so I've been filling up my spare time with reading digital copies of scholarly journals in my field. I have access to a big university's library, and I have Mendeley, so once I find something I want to read, downloading, reading, and storing it is easy. It's the finding that's a little bit clunky and time-consuming. I end up having to log in several times to different e-journal interfaces and download PDFs manually, which isn't the biggest problem in the world, but it's a little annoying.

Ideally, I'd want full issues/volumes of specific journals to magically appear in my Mendeley desktop as they're released. If you use Mendeley or something similar, have you found a way to automate downloading papers either from a specific journal or in a specific subfield? Is there some way to set up an RSS-style feed for academic content? I'm assuming that there is and I'm just too dense to have already figured it out, but if not, do you have any other creative solutions?

Are all research papers for sale companies a scam? (I want to work for one, not buy from one).

earlofrochester — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 13:15:03 -0800

I'm a PhD candidate who just got hired to (ghost)write academic essays for a company. The pay is fine, and I've been emailing with a real person. Their website also seems legit, and they explicitly told me that this is legal. Could it still be a scam? In the you're-hired email, there's a list of FAQ that explains what they do, what I would do, and what and how they would pay me. The first FAQ is also "Is this legal?," and their answer is Yes -- they've been doing this for 10 years and they provide model essays for students.

I did some rudimentary googling and found the same company has also published articles on illegal, plagiarism-encouraging, Pakistani-based websites. The company I'd be working for has three large North American offices. They also have a website, and I have the phone number and email of the guy who originally responded to my inquiry.

And yet. I'm still afraid this is a scam. Anybody know about the strange academic ghostwriting industry? It doesn't really seem too good to be true -- it pays well, but it's a lot of work (as much work as I want, anyway, which is great). Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.

Oh, there's also a contract I have to sign, which they're supposed to send soon. In their words, it basically states that any content I send them becomes their property. Which, you know, that's cool.

If necessary I'll go ahead and name them, but I thought I'd try not to the first go-round.

How can I keep track of academic papers and my handwritten notes on them?

col_pogo — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:28:29 -0800

What is the best hardware/software system for keeping track of a) hundreds of academic papers in PDF form and b) my handwritten notes on these hundreds of papers? Bonus if the answer integrates with some sort of citation management software. I am in a PhD program that requires me to read and take notes on a large number of papers. I can see myself in four years time simply drowning in printouts. My problem is somewhat similar to this previous question.

I don't like reading while sitting in front of my computer (typing hurts and easy internet access kills my productivity), so I tend to print out PDFs and take notes all over them while reading in cafes, libraries, on planes, etc. (Zotero's note system, for instance, isn't great for me because I don't like reading in my browser and typing notes). An ideal system would allow to me read much as I do, but make my notes--and interesting quotes and passages from what I'm reading--searchable for when I'm writing papers, studying for orals, etc.

The problem at that moment is that I end up with all these papers and notes that aren't easy to archive and can't be searched. I fear I don't have the discipline to properly archive all my actual paper notes, and hope that there's a technological fix out there for me.

I'd like advice on whether my best option is
a) a Tablet PC (with what software?)--one potential problem with this would be bulk and the distracting internet access.
b) an eBook reader that supports annotation (the upcoming IREX one?) with some sort of arching software to upload to.
c) One of those smart pens that records what you write (Previously). If these really work and can be integrated with good archiving/searching software I can see this being helpful for interviews and class notes, too.
d) Scanning notes taken on paper into my computer and archiving them from there. Something that sounds onerous and that I probably wouldn't actually do.
e) some brilliant technological solution that hasn't occurred to me.
f) knuckling down and getting a disciplined paper archiving system.

Could these options--a) in particular--be combined with Atlas TI? I love that QDA programs let me jump to specific tagged passages--and apparently the latest version has good support for PDFs. Or will OneNote--or some Mac program I haven't heard of--do this kind of thing better?

I have fairly atrocious handwriting, so OCR doesn't seem to work that well (in Evernote, for instance). I was impressed by Vista's handwriting support the one time I tried it, however--and I gather it learns from its mistakes.

I've heard Apple has a similar option, and would be willing to switch to using Macs if their handwriting recognition or the various note-taking programs I've heard about (Devonthink, Scrivener, Papers, others?) can be combined with some sort of note-capturing system.

I also take notes in lots of books. Any good ideas for capturing these notes that might fit with one of the above options?

What makes a good academic scholar?

jfricke — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:32:08 -0800

Where can I find personal stories of popular scholars on their life as students, phd candidates and/or professors? I love my field of study and I am a smart student. But sometimes I feel like this might not enough. That there is something more I should have.

Thus, I am looking for personal stories of popular scholars on their life as students and/or scholars. An example would be Leon Lederman's Low Pay and Long Hours that is also quoted in another ask metafilter thread:

"It was probably five years after my PhD when I began to realize I was fairly competent. By year 10, I realized to my surprise that I was as productive as those best friends who brought me into physics, even though they understood much more than I did (...) Hard work--yes, it really accounts for a lot of the success. Most scientists aren't brilliant. Some are even very slow. Being solid is important--that means really knowing what you have to know even if it takes a long time. Many "brilliant" guys are superficial. Determiniation, doggedness and hard work are the characteristics that are highly valued in a group."

Although I am more interested in humanities or social sciences, personal accounts from any field are fine with me.

How should academic research view commercial pressures?

fcummins — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:57:44 -0800

What should the relation between academic research and commercial interests be? I have to take part in a panel discussion on the degree to which academic research should be informed or led by commercial needs. I have strong feelings about the pernicious influence of commercial interests on academic research, but I could do with some help in fleshing them out, concrete examples of cases where there is clear conflict, etc.

Grad school self-sabotage

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:47:25 -0800

Please, help me deal with a justified last-minute anxiety, regarding a Very Important oral presentation (end of the year research presentation), that will introduce a more than average research (due to personal problems, which interfered with academic work). Also, help me think about the right attitude to adopt towards my teachers on D-day. Hello, and sorry in advance for the length this may take. My story may be related to this one , this , and this as well

I am a student in my 1st year of grad school, in a country where university isn't expensive at all. My program doesn't make selections before accepting students in grad school, as their policy is to let them in and see their capacities, then selecting them for the next year (= about 30% of us end up making it into the next levels). In order to maximize chances to be selected, 1/3 of the students decide to divide the academic content of that first year, over 2 years, which I decided to do, very late last schoolyear.

Students are led to enroll in research and in the writing of something very similar to a scientific paper on their own, in collaboration with advisors as part of the credits, aside of full-time courses and internships 1 day a week. The program is known to be a tough one in its field. I made a research in collaboration with a very sweet and understanding advisor/researcher. She went along with the repetitive and irritating delays each of my writing pieces and experiments had to take, very gracefully, partly due to my sincerity and motivation towards work. These delays were the results of procrastination, and of a clouded mind about half of the time. These being heavily caused by social and performance anxiety as well as depression issues I have been dealing with in therapy, with medication, for 2 years now. It has gotten better, but my time management definately needs improvement
(These issues started showing up like never before only a few months into grad school.. which didn't leave me with a choice but to continue)
The problem is that all these delays got me horribly late for the presentation I needed to make at the end of the year (next monday to be precise), and as i had sent her the various parts of my writing separatel during the year, i ended up sending her the last and most important part exactly 2 days before due date, when all teachers would have access to it. Busy as she is, and having let me know that she wouldn't be very available these days, she trusted me to hand it it, and even found time to read it once, sending it back to me about 2 hours before i printed it.

Having dealt with my time as usual, and being too busy re-reading my 60 pages long paper, in bad need of sleep, with shaky hands, I was adjusting and checkig my graphics, etc... I was horrified to see that she had underlined a single thing in each paragraph, and was asking me to reconsider them, the way I had expressed certain ideas but also a few key elements (such as all the statistics I had done, including the ones that didn't show any significant results)... I couldn't have gathered and edited all this information by myself, in such little time. I did all that I could, but ended up giving back a booklet that bears every proof of me being somehow slack and uncaring, etc.... (for the second half of the paper.. the first half being of a good quality). Some pages don't match the summary, some elements are missing... Overally, it isn't entirely bad, except that my instructors are probably laughing at the moment, thinking I gave them a work that lacked an average week weeks of re-reading, editing / etc. They are strict, and by no means would I be able to fool them by saying that these errors were technical (as a friend suggested).

Presently, I feel devastated, as I have felt every once in a while since school started.... Too well aware that my relationship to deadlines and to the assignments that I am given by professors is compulsory. And I know that my reason to procrastinate is merely a fear of disapointing them. (usually, as soon as I hand my work in, I purposefuly stay away about the topic, and everything related, despite enjoying my work and having picked it myself out of many others........ because I have been so very scared by the whole "adventure".)

In case it is relevant, I am a 23y female, and I decided during the last 6 months to make a change of major, in which i have been accepted thanks to the grades i got in the last years....; So my future isn't at stake here, as I will start a new gradschool program next fall, in another city, and am forsaking this field of study for now, for valid reasons (the other field offers more stable jobs, has better recognition, and it will probably match my personality much better). I intend on making solid changes, documenting myself sufficiently on time management and the likes, and dealing with all the lessons I learned the hard way, during the coming summer.

As a side information, my university doesn't really put health services in touch with teachers as it is the case in america, in order to help them out in difficult times.

I know there is no easy way to go through next monday, and am scared to be overwhelmed by emotions, because I feel like I have never wanted anything like this to happen. I am scared to death of the reaction my teachers will have. They will probably only ask questions, be cold, and let me go. But... even though my conclusions are alright and can be justified, I am really shaky. There is no way I can justify the poor quality of my work, because my personal life isn't of any interest to them.

Do you have any advice on what I could do or say to balance my emotions and be at my best ? Also, would it be acceptable to hand in another paper, that would have been corrected ? I cannot ask my advisor anything regarding this, as she has said she will be unreachable until the day of the examination. Thank you in advance, hive mind.