Lessons on Running a Laboratory Experiment (in Graduate School)

2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (02) ◽  
pp. 406-409
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Mallinson
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Laboratory Experiment ◽  
Graduate School ◽  
Time Management ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Practical Experience ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Laboratory Notebook ◽  
Early Career Researchers ◽  
First Time

ABSTRACTExperimentation has taken on a new life in political science. As the use of experimental methods proliferates, it is important for researchers to share their experiences and best practices, particularly with early-career researchers. This article provides reflections from practical experience in the laboratory, particularly geared toward graduate students and early-career researchers who are conducting their first laboratory experiment. These lessons do not apply only to first-time experimenters. Experiences are presented regarding time management, using confederates and deception, incentivizing participation, and keeping a laboratory notebook. Finally, early-career researchers are encouraged to “go for it” if the methods are appropriate to their research question.

scholarly journals First person – Sachiko Fujiwara

2020 ◽  
Vol 133 (14) ◽  
pp. jcs251082
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Biology ◽  
Graduate School ◽  
Assistant Professor ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Early Career ◽  
First Person ◽  
Postdoctoral Fellow ◽  
Collective Migration ◽  
Early Career Researchers ◽  
Selection Of

ABSTRACTFirst Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Journal of Cell Science, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Sachiko Fujiwara is first author on ‘Disease-associated keratin mutations reduce traction forces and compromise adhesion and collective migration’, published in JCS. Sachiko conducted the research described in this article while a Postdoctoral fellow in Thomas M. Magin's lab at Institute of Biology, Division of Cell & Developmental Biology, Leipzig University, Germany. She is now an assistant professor in the lab of Kazunori Imaizumi at the Graduate School of Biomedical & Health Sciences, Hiroshima University, Japan, investigating the physiological roles of cytoskeletons.

scholarly journals Editorial

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
Hannah Ditchfield ◽  
Shuhan Chen
Keyword(s):  
Conference Proceedings ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Early Career Researchers ◽  
New Directions ◽  
The World ◽  
Media Research ◽  
The University ◽  
Media And Communication ◽  
First Time

The first issue of for(e)dialogue is composed of a collection of papers given at the New Directions in Media Research (NDiMR) postgraduate conference in June 2015 at the University of Leicester. NDiMR is a one-day postgraduate focused conference organised by PhD students from the Department of Media and Communication. This conference has a similar aim and purpose of this journal as a whole which is to provide postgraduate students, PhD students and early career researchers with a platform and opportunity to develop and share their research and critically contribute to discussions of theory and methodology on a variety of Media and Communication issues. The NDiMR conference has been held annually since 2012, each year growing in size and attracting more delegates and presenters from across the world. However, this is the first time that some of the events’ presentation papers have been collected for a published conference proceedings.

scholarly journals First person – Fumiya Okawa, Yutaro Hama and Sidi Zhang

2021 ◽  
Vol 134 (8) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Graduate School ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Structure And Function ◽  
Early Career ◽  
First Person ◽  
Early Career Researchers ◽  
School Of Medicine ◽  
And Function ◽  
The University ◽  
Selection Of

ABSTRACT First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Journal of Cell Science, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Fumiya Okawa, Yutaro Hama and Sidi Zhang are co-first authors on ‘Evolution and insights into the structure and function of the DedA superfamily containing TMEM41B and VMP1’, published in JCS. Fumiya and Yutaro are PhD students and Sidi is a postdoc in the lab of Noboru Mizushima at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Japan, where they are investigating the molecular mechanisms and origin of autophagy.

scholarly journals I won’t be #BulliedIntoBadScience

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corina Logan
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Public ◽  
Early Career Researchers ◽  
Research Administrators ◽  
Central Resource ◽  
Peer Community ◽  
The Individual

Watch the VIDEO.The #BulliedIntoBadScience (BIBS) campaign consists of early career researchers leading individuals and institutions in adopting open practices to improve research rigor (from all fields, not only the sciences). I will share how BIBS started and discuss what we as researchers are doing to stop exploiting ourselves and the public when sharing our research with each other and the public. We are developing best practices for facilitating higher quality research and tackling biases in this rapidly changing world of scholarly publishing. I will share case studies at the individual level (e.g., how a PI can run an open and transparent lab), at the level of the academic community (e.g., changing editorial practices via efforts such as Editors4BetterResearch and Peer Community in Ecology), and at the level of institutions (e.g., serving as Data Champions and advising governments). We at BIBS aim to be a central resource for people to share and organize best practices, thus it is useful for researchers, librarians and research administrators.

scholarly journals First person – Takeshi Harada

2020 ◽  
Vol 133 (21) ◽  
pp. jcs256024
Keyword(s):  
Graduate School ◽  
Assistant Professor ◽  
Early Career ◽  
First Person ◽  
Contact Sites ◽  
Early Career Researchers ◽  
School Of Medicine ◽  
Mitochondrial Functions ◽  
Selection Of

ABSTRACTFirst Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Journal of Cell Science, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Takeshi Harada is first author on ‘Palmitoylated CKAP4 regulates mitochondrial functions through an interaction with VDAC2 at ER–mitochondria contact sites’, published in JCS. Takeshi is an assistant professor in the lab of Akira Kikuchi at the Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Japan, investigating the role of CKAP4 at ER–mitochondria contact sites.

scholarly journals First person – Shohei Yamamoto

Biology Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. bio058621
Keyword(s):  
Graduate School ◽  
Biochemical Properties ◽  
Early Career ◽  
First Person ◽  
Pharmaceutical Sciences ◽  
Early Career Researchers ◽  
Physiological Chemistry ◽  
The University ◽  
Selection Of

ABSTRACTFirst Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Biology Open, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Shohei Yamamoto is first author on ‘Biophysical and biochemical properties of Deup1 self-assemblies: a potential driver for deuterosome formation during multiciliogenesis’, published in BiO. Shohei conducted the research described in this article while a PhD student and then postdoc in Daiju Kitagawa's lab at Department of Physiological Chemistry, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Hongo, Tokyo, Japan. He is now a postdoc in the lab of Manuel Théry and Laurent Blanchoin at the Interdisciplinary Research Institute of Grenoble, CEA, Grenoble, France, investigating in vitro reconstitution of cytoskeleton systems.

scholarly journals Response to Flournoy (2021): Reflections on the benefits and challenges of communicating the results of a pre-registered study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica E Ellwood-Lowe ◽  
Ruthe Foushee ◽  
Mahesh Srinivasan
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Review Process ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Scientific Process ◽  
Journal Review ◽  
Final Version ◽  
Early Career Researchers ◽  
Thoughtful Comment ◽  
Dissemination Of Results

In 2020, we posted a preprint online presenting the results of two pre-registered studies, now published in revised form (Ellwood-Lowe et al., 2021; original preprint archived at https://osf.io/ktsdp/). While undergoing the journal review process, circulation of this preprint encouraged open feedback from peers, including a thoughtful comment on our studies and pre-registration best practices by Dr. John Flournoy (Flournoy, 2021). Here we respond to the points raised in Flournoy’s comments, and discuss the benefits and challenges of pre-registering “high-risk” studies, particularly as early career researchers. We begin by reflecting on our scientific process between the first pre-registration and the ultimate dissemination of results—pulling back a curtain to reveal a piece of the research process that is often occluded. Next, we address Flournoy’s comments directly and explain how they were helpful in shaping the final version of our paper. Finally, we make suggestions for pre-registered studies in the future.

scholarly journals Downstream funding success of early career researchers for resubmitted versus new applications: A matched cohort

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. e0257559
Author(s):  
Jamie Mihoko Doyle ◽  
Michael T. Baiocchi ◽  
Michaela Kiernan
Keyword(s):  
Intervention Strategy ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Underrepresented Minority ◽  
Early Career Researchers ◽  
Academic Faculty ◽  
Log Odds ◽  
Original Application ◽  
Funding Environment ◽  
New Applications ◽  
First Time

Background Early career researchers face a hypercompetitive funding environment. To help identify effective intervention strategies for early career researchers, we examined whether first-time NIH R01 applicants who resubmitted their original, unfunded R01 application were more successful at obtaining any R01 funding within 3 and 5 years than original, unfunded applicants who submitted new NIH applications, and we examined whether underrepresented minority (URM) applicants differentially benefited from resubmission. Our observational study is consistent with an NIH working group’s recommendations to develop interventions to encourage resubmission. Methods and findings First-time applicants with US medical school academic faculty appointments who submitted an unfunded R01 application between 2000–2014 yielded 4,789 discussed and 7,019 not discussed applications. We then created comparable groups of first-time R01 applicants (resubmitted original R01 application or submitted new NIH applications) using optimal full matching that included applicant and application characteristics. Primary and subgroup analyses used generalized mixed models with obtaining any NIH R01 funding within 3 and 5 years as the two outcomes. A gamma sensitivity analysis was performed. URM applicants represented 11% and 12% of discussed and not discussed applications, respectively. First-time R01 applicants resubmitting their original, unfunded R01 application were more successful obtaining R01 funding within 3 and 5 years than applicants submitting new applications—for both discussed and not discussed applications: discussed within 3 years (OR 4.17 [95 CI 3.53, 4.93]) and 5 years (3.33 [2.82–3.92]); and not discussed within 3 years (2.81 [2.52, 3.13]) and 5 years (2.47 [2.22–2.74]). URM applicants additionally benefited within 5 years for not discussed applications. Conclusions Encouraging early career researchers applying as faculty at a school of medicine to resubmit R01 applications is a promising potential modifiable factor and intervention strategy. First-time R01 applicants who resubmitted their original, unfunded R01 application had log-odds of obtaining downstream R01 funding within 3 and 5 years 2–4 times higher than applicants who did not resubmit their original application and submitted new NIH applications instead. Findings held for both discussed and not discussed applications.

scholarly journals EMBARKING ON RESEARCH IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES: UNDERSTANDING THE FOUNDATIONAL CONCEPTS

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Raqib Chowdhury
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Methodological Choices ◽  
Early Career Researchers ◽  
The Social ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
First Time

Written primarily for new or early-career researchers and postgraduate students, this paper problematises some of the foundational concepts any beginning researcher will come across when conducting research for the first time. Understanding the oft-confused, abstract, yet important notions of ontology, epistemology and paradigms can be a daunting obstacle in the experience of a new researcher, yet there are nearly no ways of sidelining these if we were to meaningfully plan, construct and execute our research. Through familiar examples, this article engages in discussing the research approach and design and how these are grounded in the ways a researcher thinks about and understands the world - in other words, how their ontological and epistemological positions determine the methodological choices they make. As well as problematising these concepts, the article also compares the qualitative and quantitative approaches, and critically considers how, in some ways, qualitative studies can yield richer results in the social science disciplines, including in Education.

Mentoring gone wrong: What is happening to mentorship in academia?

2020 ◽  
pp. 147821032097219
Author(s):  
Francesco E Marino
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Current Model ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Research Institutions ◽  
Recruitment And Retention ◽  
Early Career Researchers ◽  
A Priority ◽  
Teaching Programs

Mentorship is one of the most important founding elements of academia. In fact, it can be easily argued that mentorship was born with academia. An effective mentorship in training and teaching programs results in the recruitment and retention of qualified students and early-career researchers. However, what are the current best practices of mentoring? And is mentorship currently a priority in academic and research institutions? The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief overview of the current model of mentorship in academia and highlight some of the key qualities of an academic mentor.

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