In the BIAPT lab, we aim to conduct rigorous scientific research, driven by clinically meaningful problems, and to have fun doing it. In order to create a lab culture that allows us to meet these goals, I expect my graduate students to:
Behave like a professional researcher.
One of my main goals is to train you to be a good scientist, and to teach you to conduct rigorous, innovative research. You can expect me to set you a research question/area that is clinically or scientifically meaningful, to guide you in designing your experiments and interpreting your results, and to mentor you through the peer-review process to get your results published. In turn, I expect you to:
a) Stay focused on your research question
Your research question will define the methods you use, the appropriate analysis of your data, and even the impact of your results. Stay focused on it! If you don’t, at best you’ll be inefficient. At worst, you’ll end up wasting everyone’s time and money. This is not how we operate in our lab:
It’s easy to go off on tangents. Sometimes the tangents lead to the next research question, sometimes they’re just shiny distractions. Please talk to me if something unrelated to your research question piques your interest. I’ll work with you to figure out whether or not it is worth pursuing, and support you in the next steps (e.g. filing a patent, applying for a grant, starting a new project) if it is.
b) Pay attention to details
I will help you keep track of the big picture aspects of your project, but I will not be able to keep track of the details. Those are your responsibility, and it is important that you pay attention to them. The code you’ll write, the nuances of the instructions that you give your research participants, etc. all have an impact on the final research results and I expect you to make sure that your work is thorough and accurate at all times.
c) Document your progress daily
Research doesn’t happen linearly – it’s a messy, iterative, complex process. Documenting allows you to keep track of it all. I expect you to document your progress daily, so that anyone can retroactively track the development of an algorithm over time, sift through the hundreds of graphs you generated before you created the one you published in Nature, review old protocols, etc. I’m not picky about the medium you use for documentation. If you want a traditional pen-and-paper lab notebook, I will provide one for you. If you want to keep track of your progress through software such as OneNote, that’s fine too. The important thing is that your work is documented thoroughly and regularly.
d) Stay up to date in your field
Research is only publishable if it pushes at the boundary of the scientific community’s limits of knowledge, not if it pushes on your own personal limit of knowledge.
(here’s a good illustrated guide to this principle)
The way to get these two limits to align is to remain up to date with the literature. When you start out in the lab, you can expect me to provide you with seminal papers that set the stage for your research question. You can also expect me to pass on any papers I come across that are relevant to your research. As you progress in your research, I expect you to take ownership of this process, actively searching out relevant articles and regularly reading the literature. I strongly recommend joining google scholar and signing up for alerts so that relevant articles come directly to your inbox, joining research gate and following the leading researchers in your field, and staying on top of the latest science news.
Corollary from c & d:
It’s a waste of time to read a relevant article if you can’t find it again when you need it. Sign up for a reference software to keep track of what you’ve read. (This will also make things easy when it comes time to write papers!) I personally use Zotero, which has a nice plug-in built into Microsoft Word, but I’ve also used Refworks and Endnote. The specific software you use doesn’t matter, as long as you use it, and keep it up to date!
e) Behave in an ethical manner
I am unwavering in my demand for the highest ethical standards in your research, your studies and your interactions with fellow students and faculty. Unethical behaviour includes plagiarism, cheating on coursework, and fabricating experimental data. Unethical behaviour will results in immediate dismissal from my research group.
f) Work hard, play hard
Unsurprisingly, the outcome of your graduate studies will depend on what you put into them. Graduate school isn’t a 9-5 job – the demands of research often require working evenings and weekends. I expect you to work hard, throughout the year. (You can take time for vacation in accordance with McGill policy – if you need to take more time away, please talk to me and we can work something out). I also expect you to play hard – take care of yourself, be active, join teams, meet your friends. Graduate school is a marathon, not a sprint, and you need to make sure that you don’t burn out.
- Be a good lab citizen.
Working in the lab should be a fun and stimulating experience. You can’t create this experience all on your own – it’s dependent on the professional relationships you build with your fellow grad students and other researchers. I expect you to help create an environment where this is possible for everyone by:
a) Being present in the lab
Our lab is located at the Montreal General Hospital. I recognize that getting there requires a commute, but I expect you to be present on a regular basis. The best ideas and thoughts come out of spontaneous, informal interactions that can only happen when people are present in the same space. While your fellow grad students aren’t necessarily working on the same problem, many techniques are similar across projects, and you can help each other when you’re in the lab.
b) Attending all lab meetings
Lab meetings are formal times where we can discuss the progress of everyone’s projects and learn from everyone’s experience. I will set a time each semester that works for everyone, and I expect all students to attend and fully participate.
c) Learning to give and receive critical feedback
The “lab family” is the place where new ideas should be aired, new presentations should be tried, and experiments should be critiqued. We want to think very critically about each other’s work so that the hardest questions and criticisms come from within the lab, and interfacing with others (e.g. thesis committee members, conference audiences, peer reviewers) is easy. If there’s a fatal flaw in your work, it’s infinitely better to have it discovered by your lab mates than by the general scientific community! However, “critical” does not mean negative. I expect you to develop and practice the skills of presenting your perspectives clearly, without sugar coating, and to work with your lab mates to find ways of improving their work. I also expect you to learn to receive critical feedback well, and to use it as an opportunity to improve your projects and skills.
d) Being willing to help around the lab
I will protect you from too many non-research demands on your time, but I expect you to pitch in to help out with the day-to-day needs of the lab. Visitors may want a tour, students from other labs may want to learn a technique, equipment and software may need to be set up. All of this needs to happen so that the rest of the lab work can go smoothly. I also hope that you’ll be willing to help your fellow students succeed in their projects by, for example, filling in if they have an emergency that prevents them from meeting a scheduled participant. A lab where we can rely on each other and where research is a team effort produces much better results than a lab where everyone is focused solely on their own work!
In return, you can expect me to:
Support you financially for 4 years for your Ph.D. and 2 years for your Masters. I will work with you to apply for scholarships and fellowship, and will top up the award if you’re successful in your application.
Provide you with timely feedback. I will turn around documents that you send me as quickly as possible. You can expect feedback on documents such as study protocols and REB proposals within 1-2 days, and documents such as draft manuscripts within a week.
Provide guidance on your research studies. I will help you set study protocols, decide on research questions, interpret your results and set your research priorities.
Give you opportunities for professional development. I will support you to present your work at appropriate conferences, provide you with opportunities to speak to scientific and lay audiences as they come up, review papers, etc.
Support you in publishing your work. I aim to have my Ph.D. students publish at least 3 papers by the time they graduate, and for my Masters students to publish at least 1 paper. I will work with you to make sure this work is published in venues with the greatest potential impact, and will guide you through the peer-review process.
These expectations are not rules, and the way that you execute them will (of course) vary according to your needs and circumstances. If you find yourself struggling to meet them, please talk to me so I can help you do so and ensure that both of us get the most of your graduate experience.