NAVIGATION
You are free to do whatever you like. You need only face the consequences. —Sheldon B. Kopp
I expect everyone to be “good citizens” of the POIS lab. Be prosocial, do good work, and care about what you do.
There are “mundane things” that always seem obvious in hindsight but are worth stating explicitly anyway.
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See the ‣ for a summary of grad student responsibilities.
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There are a few expectations in addition to the above, specific to being a Ph.D. graduate student.
Make time for research (at least 6–10 hours/week in addition to your other responsibilities). It’s easy to let research deadlines pass because they tend to be more flexible than class deadlines, so rigidly protect your research time. One way to do this is to schedule writing time and treat it like a meeting. That means you start at the scheduled time and avoid scheduling meetings over it. “Writing” includes everything that ultimately goes into disseminating your research (e.g., cleaning data, drafting outlines, doing literature reviews, submitting IRB revisions).
Contribute to lab projects. If you join this lab, you should be interested in the research we do. You don’t have to be on every single lab project, but I expect you to be working on more than one lab project at a time—in whatever capacity (e.g., running analyses, writing, running participants)—on top of your independent projects (e.g., thesis, dissertation). Sometimes, this may mean working on a project that doesn’t completely align with your research interests, and that’s OK. It’s important to get exposure to related topics so you get breadth in your training.
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If you lead a project, the expectation is that you are responsible for planning next steps, unblocking team members, meeting milestones, and producing deliverables (with my support). You may not be the one engaging in all these tasks, but you are the person overseeing overall progress and ensuring project steps are executed according to the study timeline.
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Give back to the research community and hone your critical thinking skills by completing at least one peer review a semester (this will be a co-review between us initially but independent once you’re further along). If you submit manuscripts, you will benefit at some point from someone else volunteering precious time to review your work and provide constructive feedback, so this is part of being a team player. Unfortunately, the problems with the academic publishing industry are endless, and many (over 20,600 as of July 2024) researchers have understandably chosen to boycott Elsevier. If you choose to take this or a similar stance (i.e., refuse to review, publish, or do any editorial work for journal publishers whose practices you disagree with), I respect that and won’t ask you to do this.
Meet program milestones (e.g., thesis, dissertation). Know when deadlines are and plan accordingly to ensure you meet them. Sometimes there are specific submission requirements, so make sure you’ll have everything done before the deadline. If you need help, ask for it and I will support you.
Proactively seek out research opportunities. Propose study ideas, find collaborators whose interests overlap with yours, and ask about ongoing lab projects. Because this is a research-focused lab, I expect its members to be curious and motivated to participate in multiple projects besides their theses and dissertations. As a general rule, aim to have at least one empirical study and one manuscript in progress at all times.
Begin to develop your program of research. Ideally, your dissertation builds on your thesis and further clarifies the direction in which you see your research going. You don’t need to know exactly what the rest of your career will look like, but by the time you’re planning your dissertation, you should have in mind a big-picture topic or problem you’re motivated to spend hundreds of hours on. Literally, hundreds.
Make your dissertation count. Whether you like or agree with the academic model, a dissertation is ultimately what gets you your Ph.D., so in that sense, it’s the culmination of the time and effort you’ve put into graduate school. Select a topic you care about and that will have a meaningful impact on the population you wish to help. Experimental or longitudinal process-oriented designs are okay; cross-sectional surveys are not.
Apply for funding and awards as often as you can, especially if the application is relatively simple (e.g., abstract and CV). It doesn’t hurt to try, and it’ll be nice to get additional funds for your research or travel. Sometimes, these awards are less competitive than they seem. Another plus: they look good on your CV.
Think of yourself as an active contributor to your graduate school experience. There is a lot that is challenging about grad school (e.g., taking out loans, navigating power dynamics, juggling multiple roles) and there is a lot outside your control. However, there are also things within your control (e.g., engaging with class material, single-tasking during meetings, doing research with integrity). I expect you to take ownership over the parts of grad school you can control. As my adviser once reminded me, you don’t have to be in grad school. If you’re choosing to be here, be intentional about that choice.
Opt out of conversations that pollute your training environment. The department will always be messing up in some way, your instructor will be a jerk sometimes, and I will do things that frustrate you. In turn, you will find it tempting to complain or vent to other students who reinforce that behavior. The result is you feel validated in the short-term, but the air we all breathe becomes more toxic. Instead, problem-solve (e.g., talk directly to the person you are upset with), complain to people outside the department, or find another way to get what you need without adding to program pollution.
All of the above (except the graduate students part) applies to you, but it might also be helpful to know what you can expect from being an RA in this lab.