Template for lab expectations in EEE.docx
Purpose: This document is a template for a document to establish expectations between students and their advisor on how to foster a productive research environment and relationship. It should be tailored by each advisor with what they expect their students to produce and prioritize, and provide clear guidelines of what support they provide to students. Advisors can also highlight what sort of culture they aim to cultivate within their lab group. Additional information about how labs and meetings are run can be provided at the group’s discretion.
Blue text denotes where advisors/labs should provide additional details about how things are run specifically in your group.
Please explore options for how it will be made available to prospective students. Some groups that use a github might publish it there, other groups would keep it in a google drive/shared dropbox.
Students and scientists are expected to conduct their research professionally, and prioritize safety and ethics in their research, however this may apply to your respective field. Seek help if you are stuck or have difficulties, either with your advisor or with others in the group. Working with others involves respectfully managing interpersonal relationships with all group members. Most students work on their own project but often there are opportunities for collaborations within a research group and also outside the lab with other groups or researchers.
As a researcher, you should be prepared to present your near finished work to major conferences and to submit the work to journals. The frequency of conferences and paper submissions vary, you should discuss specific expectations with your advisor. Plagiarism or appropriating anyone’s idea internally or externally will not be tolerated.
For PhD students, the PhD experience is not just about research or grades. There are other “metrics” of success, such as teaching, data generation, scripts, or communication. If there are things you as a student would like to prioritize, discuss and identify them with your advisor and see how they could be integrated within your research.
Some advisors may wish to identify key values for their groups here, for example: empathy, respect, collaboration, pursuit of innovative solutions.
Your advisor should supervise your work, provide guidance within their intellectual/knowledge capacity, and facilitate collaborations where additional expertise is necessary. You should have one-on-one meetings at an agreed frequency (Every other week is a common schedule. Whatever frequency is realistic for the PI should be stated during the interview process, and updated to current students as often as necessary, to ensure everyone is on the same page) depending on your preference and their availability where you present your progress and discuss challenges. Individuals will have different needs, you should work with your advisor on what will make your individual meetings most productive (e.g. coming with slides to show data, having a list of questions ready, sharing an agenda before a meeting, bringing a paper to work on).
Your advisor should provide full funding throughout your PhD period or as a scientist. Fellowships however can be a plus for your CV and are a good experience for proposal writing. Your advisor should support your career choices and assist your job search at the end of your time in the group, whether the goal is a position in academia or a transition away from academia. Advisors should facilitate their students’ recruitment and success in whatever positions they seek to the best of their ability.
Collaboration is a key component of research and can increase your knowledge of the field as well as expand the tools available to you. Detail the group’s approach to collaboration (should students speak with the advisor prior to speaking to a potential collaborator, what level of involvement should the advisor have, can students ask the advisor to facilitate the introduction or suggest groups that could be directly relevant to research).
Most groups have a weekly group meeting where people from the group present their recent results in an informal setting with feedback from the group. This is a great opportunity to gain experience presenting and developing ideas with others. Some groups also have a journal club where they discuss papers.
Detail the group’s meeting setup, for example: Our group meets weekly for an hour long group meeting, the date and time is determined at the beginning of the semester by everyone’s schedule. In meetings, for the first 30 minutes, everyone gives a 1-2 minute update on what they worked on this week. In the second half, one group member gives a detailed presentation on their current results, and receives feedback from group members. Everyone signs up to present at the beginning of the semester, find our sign up sheet here (provide the link).
If you are having problems with non-compliance of your advisor to these guidelines, you can contact any faculty member on the Graduate Committee. The members of this committee as of Spring 2023 are: