Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with research

Help my start my biology research on the right foot

snoogles — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 06:43:56 -0800

I'm starting a 3 month research project in a neuroscience lab as part of my Masters program. What should I know/do in order to make it go as smoothly as possible? I'll be working with mice.

The type of experiments I'll be doing: immunocytochemistry, cellular cartography, behavioral testing.

I'm looking for general or specific advice on: keeping a lab notebook, being organised, staying on top of the bibliography, not letting the lab swallow up my entire life, and above all making a good impression on my supervisor!

What do I do if my professor plagiarizes my idea?

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:11:25 -0800

I suspect one of my undergraduate professors is writing an article based on an idea I proposed to him last spring that he intends to submit for publication in a literary journal. What should I do? The only proof I have is an email I sent to the professor that details my research into an overlooked (or at least unwritten about) aspect of a specific text and my undercooked insights as to the significance of my findings. I don't have any written responses from him and we only communicated about the idea verbally, in his office. During these conversations, he admitted to me that he had never considered my reading of the text and had never read an article mentioning my findings. Subsequently, he produced some findings of his own, but on their own they were very unremarkable because they mostly augmented what I had already discovered. He presented them during lecture almost parenthetically, with a wink and a sidelong glance in my direction, but he did not discuss my findings or mention I was the catalyst for his insights.

This was not an assignment for class; I never turned anything in that he graded. He was determined to get me to write something with him and submit it to a journal, but I refused because literary studies was my secondary field of study—I have since gone on to graduate school to study in an unrelated field—and I have little desire to see my name in print (if I did, it would be on my own terms, with my coattails free of parasites). Does my reluctance to pursue this give him license to write an article presenting my research as his own? What recourse do I have if I find my ideas in print, under his name, given my limited amount of proof? Would the email I sent him be enough to get a journal to force him to share his byline with me or to print an addendum to the article?

Ted Nelson and Vannevar Bush, please forgive me.

mecran01 — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 11:02:42 -0800

I have a word document composed of multiple text files. I'd like to highlight the good parts, push a button, and have those quotes automatically excerpted and pasted into a new document. Bonus points if the title of each article were retained above the respective excerpt. Is there a slick and easy way to do this using mac or web-based applications? Bonus points if the title of each article were retained above the respective excerpt. I also have Textwrangler and Tex-edit, and I suppose it might be possible to cobble something together using "copy lines containing [x]

I also own DevonThink but haven't played with it much. I guess I'm really fishing around for a workflow for annotating and excerpting bits from electronic documents with a few short keystrokes.

Thanks for your patience with this rambling, ill-formed request!

How to edit citations

quidividi — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 05:34:20 -0800

Footnote filter: I am writing a non-fiction, non-academic book and need help determining what to include in my citations. The book contains information and data from newspapers, magazines, wire services, governments, academic papers and first-hand interviews. There are very few direct quotes.

I’m using Zotero to manage my citations, which will appear as end notes. I’ve been diligent about citing information so that I can a) trace my sources, b) give credit where it’s due and c) allow readers to dig deeper.

Now I would like to pare the citations down, so that I meet objectives b) and c) without making the end notes unmanageable.

For example, I have a 2,500-word section with 78 citations. That includes citations for information that I would characterize as (for lack of a better phrase) common knowledge, such as when baby boomers will start retiring, or news reports that would have appeared in many media outlets. Eight of the citations are for data from a government handbook.

Can I safely omit these “common knowledge” citations? And can I use a blanket citation for the data from the government handbook?

(Thanks to NYCinephiles for the link to plagerism.com in this thread)

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?

Should I quit or continue?

gadha — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:46:01 -0800

Requesting advice with my career in computer science. Briefly, should I stay or should I go? I love what I do (compsci research, heavily engineering/coding based). I started programming at 13, growing up in EAfrica where I had access to information and tools but no guidance. This meant I had to find my own way through which made me quite tenacious.

At 18, I moved to the UK and did an ugrad in compsci in a mediocre university that aims to churn out mid-level sw engineering types. I did quite well and chose to do a PhD purely because I wanted to learn more about compsci. The net result of this was that (1) I realised that I "get" compsci enough that things make sense (2) that I love lower level stuff (kernels, hpervisors, hardware, systems, etc) (3) that I love to code and love technology (4) I seem to possess a great amount of tenacity at actually getting things working.

However, it also made me absolutely come to terms with my limits. While I can most "do" anything in my field, I find it takes me longer than my peers, my progress is not as quick and while I have some natural ability and affinity it pales in comparison to the other people I work with who are very, *very* good. Across the board I find the people who excel in my field and area seem to have much more natural talent and this translates to more rapid progress and output quicker (sometimes by up to a factor of 5-6). I've also realized that while I can recognize and apply good/clever ideas and understand their impetus, I lack that little bit extra in being able to actually generate the ideas. This leaves me feeling slow, dumb, unworthy and frustrated. It eats away at me a lot.

My top career goal would be to contribute to changing computer science (e.g. a new compression algorithm) or be involved in creating a technology or mechanism that does (c.f. software virtualization in the early 2000s). Half of me thinks I should just trudge on and continue to do what I do as slowly as I do it and I might at some point make this happen. The other half of me just wants to quit and go and do something else, i.e. make a comfortable life for myself -- do more than keep on dreaming and making miniscule progress hoping I can make a contribution.

I absolutely understand that natural ability is inborn and that such people are few and far between (and such mavericks are certainly necessary for the advancement of any field), I'm not aspiring to be one. I'm just wondering, is it possible to make a difference by wanting to make a difference *really* badly and continuing to soldier (hobble?) along? I'd appreciate any personal experiences to help me put this into better perspective.

Can I access medical journals?

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 08:30:21 -0800

How can I access medical publications and journals? My child may have a neurological issue. I'm trying to do online research so I can educate myself about this problem and I'm blocked by the requirements to pay for medical publications and journals. I can't believe I'm asking this, I totally understand the idea of paying for access but I can't afford it, especially with the looming therapy and doctor bills that are coming. Is there any place that allows regular people to access this info? If I go to a brick and mortar library, could I get them? I know about all the medical info sights, I'm not asking about those. I need a way to access and research extremely specific articles in medical publications. Articles meant for physicians, academics, etc. I'm not trying to armchair diagnose my child, just educate myself to be the best advocate of care.

Intra-company knowledge exchange

philosophistry — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:08:02 -0800

How to increase knowledge exchange in a tech company. (i.e. imitate Google)? I work at a tech. company, and often we have redundant work. For example, someone spent a full day digging through implementing something from one API that another person knew how to do in 10 minutes. The thing is, former didn't know the latter knew about it, and the latter didn't know the former was working on it.

How do you increase the knowledge exchange within a technology company?

Are there books/resources on this?

I know Google has a lot of good strategies in this arena. Their most famous one is an excellent and open cafeteria which simply increases socialization among normally narrow developers.

Less famously, they also have heavenly snack rooms that keeps developers chatty.

Some in our company suggested wikis where people post their knowledge, but I believe that those strategies tend to fail as developers become wiki-shy.

Government Voting Records

Mckoan1 — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:03:56 -0800

Is there a simple way, on the Web, to research how each member in both the House of Representatives and Senate voted on a bill? Specifically, I am looking for how Nancy Bean (Illinois) voted on the recent Health Care Bill. Thanks in advance.

International Research Locations?

sciencemandan — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:23:29 -0800

I'm a medical student interested in international health and need some suggestions of where to go for a meaningful research fellowship this summer. I'm a first year medical student with a strong interest in international health and tropical medicine. I have the opportunity to receive funds to travel abroad and I'd really like to make the most of this opportunity, both in terms of gaining research experience and learning about new cultures.

I'm looking for suggestions on where to do research. My funding needs to cover my housing and travel expenses, so places with lower cost of living would probably be preferred (though I'd be fine with supplementing the cost of the trip with my own money if necessary). Also, I'd prefer someplace relatively safe.

I'd really like to focus on issues specific to international health, but I'm not really picky about what type of project I'd be working on (i.e. basic science, epidemiological, clinical research).

Feel free to suggest regions or specific research institutions.

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.

Like, the hairdressing-industrial complex.

liketitanic — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:48:48 -0800

How do I figure out who covers a particular beat for a national magazine (besides lots of drill-down googling)? I'm working for someone who wrote a book on the history of an important social issue. Say it's . . . hairdressing. I'm working with the author to make a list of folks in media who might be interested in reading this book about hairdressing. How do I find hairdressing beat reporters for national magazines like, say, the Atlantic or the Nation when their site search functions are so unwieldy? Is there some shortcut I don't know about?

Under what circumstances (if any) can a child in the UK be legally allowed to play a video game which, under the legally enforceable games ratings system, they are not old enough to buy?

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:26:02 -0800

Under what circumstances (if any) can a child in the UK be legally allowed to play a video game which, under the legally enforceable games ratings system, they are not old enough to buy? In the past we have run sessions for children aged 10-16 with a video game rated 12+ under the PEGI system. At the time these sessions were run, the PEGI system was an entirely voluntary system in the UK, where these sessions took place. However, as of September 2009, the PEGI system is now legally enforceable for video games. This means that to sell a game with a 12+ PEGI rating to an 11-year old child would now be a criminal offence.

(For what it's worth, we ran these sessions for the purposes of educational research, and if it is legally possible are interested in running more for the same reason.)

I have several questions around this that I'd be grateful if the hive mind could help me with:

1. Am I right in assuming that we're fine legally for the past sessions we already ran? This has involved kids under the age of 12 playing and taking home (non-pirated, and bought by us) copies of the game software, which they presumably still have.

2. Does the legally enforceable nature of the PEGI system apply retroactively? That is, can games released BEFORE September 2009 with a 12+ rating now not be sold to children, or is it only games released after the new system took effect?

3. Is buying a 12+ game for the purposes of allowing a child to use it now illegal in the same way that selling that game directly to the child would be?

4. Is there any way for us to legally run further sessions with 12+ rated software and children under the age of 12? (In this hypothetical scenario the children would be provided with the game, rather than buying it.) Could parents give their consent for their children to use such a game, in the context of a workshop they have to explicitly sign their kids up for? Could a school agree to allow the children to use such software in classrooms? Are there any legal options here?

Thanks in advance everyone, your help is greatly appreciated.

Thesis topics related to the Internet

metametababe — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:40:39 -0800

Looking for a thesis topic related to the internet and society...please help give me some direction! I'm looking for Masters thesis topics related to the internet. The topic can be anything related to the internet, from the impact of Tor on Burma to peer production methods in Wikipedia to internet security.

What questions do you have about the Internet that you wish someone would take a year and some research funds to answer?

(Any other resources you may have on generating research questions from vague ideas would be VERY helpful. (I did a search, of course, but didn't find very much.))

About Which Group Should I Write My Research Paper?

howgenerica — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:19:36 -0800

I have to write this big research paper for my cultural anthro class, and I'm looking for recommendations for cool/ interesting groups to study. I've got to write ten pages on them, so I don't want to get bored! It's got to be a fairly specific group, but one that is not too obscure - I need to be able to find material. Thanks!

Stories of local and national shennanigans

reenum — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:07:17 -0800

I want to read investigative reports exposing corruption or scandal on a local or national level. Please provide me with links. Over the past few months, I've become obsessed with investigative and explanatory journalism. I'm currently plowing through the Pulitzer Prize winning stories I can find in each category.

I've read story after story dealing with corruption, shady dealings, abuses of power, etc. and I want more on an ongoing basis. Examples include the FPP post on the Blue I submitted yesterday, the Tampa Tribune's investigation into Scientology, the Seattle Times' look at improper sealing of court records, and the like,

I've been going around to different newspaper websites in an effort to try and build a collection of links to their investigations or special reports sections. Problem is, a lot of these papers have buried these stories deep in the website.

This is where you guys come in. I'd like links to as many magazine and newspaper investigations or special reports you can muster. Ideally, the link will be a repository of such stories (such as this). But, links to individual investigations, blogs that document these sorts of stories, anthologies, books, etc. are also appreciated.

I know we have a few librarians in here, and your expertise would be most appreciated as well.

Thanks to all!

A research question

Anonymous — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:15:01 -0800

I need to do some empirical research of a kind I know next to nothing about. Please help! (Asking anonymously so that friends on metafilter don't connect my real identity to my pseudonym, as they would recognize me from the question).

I am trying to figure out the economic circumstances of illegal immigrants in Texas in 1993. I don't really know where to start, and I am very constrained in how much time I can spend on this, so I don't want to spend too much time groping blindly in the dark. I don't even know how good the data is, given that illegal immigrants are probably trying to avoid visibility (right?). How would I go about trying to figure out things like median income, family size, and so on? I am also worried that my total ignorance will make it difficult to determine how trustworthy data is. For example, googling led me to the Center for Immigration Studies, but since I have never heard of them, I don't know what their reputation is or whether they have an institutional bias.

If it helps, the specific question I am trying to answer is this: how many illegal immigrants in the state of Texas in 1993 could have afforded to spend $400 per child per year if that money were required as a "tuition" before their child could attend the public schools?

Who will educate the educators [Writing Class Ideas]?

eytanb — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:22:18 -0800

I have 2 hours to lecture to a bunch of 18 year-olds how to write well. The bulk of their work-load will be somewhere along the lines of position papers, research papers and summaries of conferences. How do I keep them glued to their chairs? More info in explanation. I have a pretty senior research and writing position where I work, with my work ranging from position papers to industry updates and as far as speech-writing. Due to my experience and the fact that I, unlike many of the other researchers in the company, am not reduced to a quivering blob of terror when exposed to larger social settings, I have been asked to give a two hour intro lecture on writing to the fresh-blood - a bunch of post-high school kids joining our ranks.

I would like to focus less on how to throw together a bibliography or how to research a topic and more on the conceptual idea of structuring a paper and other techniques which could prove valuable. I don't want to be boring though. The hive mind clearly has experience in writing and so I turn to you educated folk - what is the most important thing you know about writing non-fiction? What could I throw into a class on writing in order to save me from the fate of being relegated to the boring, monotonic teacher (Bueler? Bueler?)?

What's the statistical technique for combining several test results into one?

gsteff — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:39:39 -0800

I'm a statistics n00b trying to learn how to combine the results of several tests into one. Basically, I'd like to learn to how to categorize entities in some experimental data by combining the scores from several domain-specific tests into one unified score. A practical but hypothetical example would be writing a computer program that given the sound of a car engine will try to identify what model of car it came from. Say that there are 10 possible cars each sound can be matched with, and three independent tests that are applied to each sound, each test producing a number between zero and one for each car model indicating how likely it is that the sound came from that model. I could combine the test results naively by simply adding them together, but that could produce crappy results if one of the tests is much more accurate than the others, possibly worse results than just using that test by itself.

There are established ways to do this that I've seen used in research before, but don't know any of the math and haven't had any luck Googling for info. I'm not looking for a detailed explanation, just some pointers to what I should research to teach myself. Thanks!

please help me research effectively?

canine epigram — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:33:15 -0800

How do I figure out who the primary sources are for specific areas of research in a cross-disciplinary field? So I'm newly entered into a graduate level Human Factors program and we're expected to figure out who the big names in a particular research area are by working backwards from sources mentioned in our textbooks - looking at those peer-reviewed journal articles, seeing who they cite and so on. I'm finding this to be an impossibly time consuming process, especially because I'm new to the field.

I thought for the fundamentals course, we'd be pointed to critical primary sources on our big topics (say, preattention) and then be expected to dig down into current research or finer-grained distinctions. Not so much.

I found this question on writing to be fairly helpful with the writing process, but nothing that would help someone unfamiliar with the body of research (let alone the key areas we're supposed to discover the big name/primary sources for) trying to get a handle on it with little guidance from the instructor. Using the many library databases seems to lead me down many rabbit holes.

Any help from the hivemind would be appreciated.

Graphic Choices

NotMyselfRightNow — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 05:55:58 -0800

Academics, Researchers, and Writers: What software do you use for creating the graphics that accompany your journal (or mainstream) article submissions? I know this will be different depending on the topic, field, and journal. I'm trying to get a feel for the full range of choices.

Any suitable science research-based organization software (mac)?

jbreyfogle — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 07:14:26 -0800

I am doing research in a Hematology/Oncology genetics lab and I am looking for computer software that can organize my research data (e.g., new project, dates and findings, results, task management) and was created for scientific purposes. I have a macbook (black), OSX10.6, 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB ram. I am looking for one that is free or inexpensive (under $150). Any help? Thanks.

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.

There MUST be some way for me to do student research ...

Xere — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:23:20 -0800

My college's biological sciences dept has run out of student internship/research positions. The professors have emailed me back, saying that they might have openings in the spring. But I want to do something now. What are my other options? I'm in Los Angeles. The career center doesn't have any external biology, microbiology, biochem internships listed, either. I'm pretty sure I won't be able to get a position at a college I don't attend - after all, their priorities are their own students. Searching online comes up with jobs that requires me to have my bachelor's degree ... which I don't have yet. Am I doomed to have a weak resume?

It's Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Science

chambers — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:17:31 -0800

How would one go about getting (assisted and monitored) access to scientific/medical research equipment in the Chicago area? (fMRI, MRI, electron microscopes, mass spectrometry) I'm looking at shooting some base video footage to work with for an idea for a TV pilot I want to create. It would be a science program, but with a more unusual angle. This post had spurred an existing show idea in a new direction, and I want to try to test out odd and strange ideas with actual equipment. (My reply I posted is not the actual show I have in mind, but 'science for fun' is the idea.)

I would obviously assume it would have to be done in off-peak hours, and scheduled for when the machines would not be in use, and use grad students, for example, to operate the equipment. Anything we would do would definitely not be 'by the book' scientific method, but more along the lines of the amazing things that can be seen by examining ordinary or unusual items or processes. Things that would be entertaining in a very nerdy, geeky way, but scoffed at as a 'waste of time' when compared to 'legitimate science.'

I'm sure things like this get done by students, but no one ever hears about it. I remember when electron microscopes became affordable to many institutions, people were taking photos of everything. That was 20 years ago, and I haven't seen an explosion of publicly available data like that with the newer inventions.

Know any scientists, students, or institutions that would like to help out? Where should I start, and who should I talk to first at the university/hospital/research facility?