├── Bahlai Lab_Lab Specific Training.pdf ├── Code_of_conduct.md ├── Committee_expectations.md ├── Consulting.md ├── Graduate_programs.md ├── Individual_Investigation_guidelines.md ├── Oddly_specific_rules.md ├── Project_completion.md ├── README.md ├── general_guidelines.md ├── lesser-used-policies └── research_help_response.md ├── letter_to_prospective_student.md └── tips_for_new_personnel.md /Bahlai Lab_Lab Specific Training.pdf: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/BahlaiLab/Policies/ab416cc9c47110a9d552205043237a5a3abaf81b/Bahlai Lab_Lab Specific Training.pdf -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /Code_of_conduct.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Code of Conduct 2 | 3 | Science is hard, and the work of making sure science isn't harder than it needs to be is on all of us. We create our culture, and in the Bahlai lab, our culture is inclusive. 4 | 5 | We value the participation of every member of our community and want to ensure an that every lab member and collaborator has a positive, educational experience unhindered by unnecessary challenges caused by non-inclusive behavior. Accordingly, everyone who participates in any Bahlai Lab project is expected to show respect and courtesy to other community members at all times. 6 | 7 | Christie Bahlai, as head of the Bahlai Lab, and all lab members, are dedicated to a ***harassment and discrimination-free experience for everyone.*** Discrimination or harassment based on racial or ethnic background, citizenship status, religion (or lack thereof), political affiliation, gender identity/expression, sexual orientation, dis/ability status, appearance or body size will not be tolerated. **We do not tolerate harassment or discrimination by and/or of members of our community in any form**. 8 | 9 | These are overt non-inclusive behaviors, however exclusionary behavior can often include more subtle or indirect actions, and these actions can contribute to a hostle enviroment. Exclusionary behavior includes actions which may not target specific individuals but nevertheless contribute to an unwelcoming environment, and includes but is not limited to: preferential treatment of people based on markers of status or belonging in dominant social groups, dominating discussion or allowing specific individuals to dominate or talk-over discussion, making statements or taking actions that contribute to the marginalization or ‘othering’ of groups of people. Exclusionary behavior can also manifest in scientific practice or policy development, and includes implicit or explicit endorsement of conservation or environmental actions that do harm to people living in those spaces, or exploitative extraction of data, labor or resources. 10 | 11 | We are particularly motivated to support new and/or anxious collaborators, people who are looking to learn and develop their skills, and anyone who has experienced discrimination in the past. 12 | 13 | To make clear what is expected, we ask all members of the community to conform to the following Code of Conduct. 14 | 15 | * All communication - online and in person - should be appropriate for a professional audience including people of many different backgrounds. Sexual or discriminatory language and imagery is not appropriate at any time. 16 | 17 | * Be kind to others. Criticism is essential in science, but it must be constructive if we're going to move it forward in a supportive, inclusive way. 18 | 19 | * Behave professionally. Remember that harassment and sexist, racist, or exclusionary jokes are not appropriate, but even more generally, treat others with respect. Give colleagues your attention and courtesy. 20 | 21 | * Please make an effort to make an inclusive environment for everyone. Give everyone a chance to talk and an opportunity to contribute. Don't dominate, talk over, or try to compete with your colleagues. Lift up and make space. 22 | 23 | * ***Be aware that your actions can be hurtful to others or contribute to a negative environment even if you had no intent of harm.*** We all make missteps. That's ok! Listen. Offer a genuine apology. Commit to learning and doing better. 24 | 25 | * A SPECIAL NOTE: Your work in this lab will be publicly available and recorded permanently on github. Please conduct yourself accordingly. 26 | 27 | Unacceptable behavior includes offensive verbal comments related to gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, religion, sexual images in public spaces, deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of discussions, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention. 28 | 29 | ***Participants asked to stop any harassing or discriminatory behavior are expected to comply immediately.*** 30 | 31 | Members of the community who violate these rules - no matter how much they have contributed to the Bahlai lab, or how specialised their skill set - will be approached by Christie Bahlai. If inappropriate behaviour persists after a discussion with Christie, the issue will be escalated according to procedures laid out by the relevant entities in Kent State's organizational structure. This is not centralized- it depends on who you are, your position, and what happened. I'm sorry about this- it's not the most straightforward. Here's [a list of resources from the student ombuds office](https://www.kent.edu/studentaffairs/student-ombuds/resources). 32 | 33 | **To report an issue** please contact [Christie Bahlai](https://github.com/cbahlai). All communication will be treated as confidential. 34 | 35 | 36 | > The material in this code of conduct is derived from "[Whitaker Lab Project Management](https://github.com/WhitakerLab/WhitakerLabProjectManagement)" by Dr. Kirstie Whitaker and the Whitaker Lab team, used under CC BY 4.0. Bahlai Lab Code of conduct is licensed under CC BY 4.0 by Dr. Christie Bahlai 37 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /Committee_expectations.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Graduate Committees, and the meetings with them. 2 | A graduate committee is your official team of mentors and, effectively, instructors, as you move through your graduate program. These are the people that assess your progress, administer examinations, and ultimately sign the paperwork to award your degree, so chosing people that both have expertise in what you're doing AND you have a good rapport with is important. There's a few rules about grad committees in BSCI programs at Kent State- namely, they must be composed of MAJORITY of members from the BSCI department. PhD committees also must contain at least ONE 'outside dicipline' member. For really interdiciplinary people (like the folks in my lab tend to be!), the challenge is balancing your interdiciplinary advising needs with constraint #1. These 'outside dicipline' people can be from other departments at Kent, other universities, or experts in government or industry that hold PhDs. The catch is we need to appoint them as 'graduate faculty' so there's a bit of paperwork involved if we go farther afield, and other academics tend to be most familiar with the procedures in grad advising. 3 | 4 | The first member of your committee is your advisor. If you're reading this, that's probably Christie. This is your on-the-ground mentor- this is typically the person that provides the space and front-line advising. You probably knew this (and her!) going in. Your advisor is the one who is ultimately *responsible* for the administration of your program and the quality of the work you send out into the world while enrolled in the program. 5 | 6 | For master's students, you need to have 3 (and rarely, 4) faculty members on your committee. Your advisor is 1, and you need to select at LEAST TWO other members of the BSCI graduate faculty to sit on your committee as the second and third. Your fourth member can be from BSCI, or can be an external person. 7 | 8 | For doctoral students, your committee starts in basically the same form, with the same constraints, as a master's student, with 3, and rarely four members. After you pass your candidacy exam, you will be required to add one additional member- this is when most students add the external person because the paperwork works out nicer. 9 | 10 | ## Asking people to be on your committee 11 | Work with your advisor to identify a list of people you'd like to ask to be on your committee. It's a good idea to have an alternate or two in mind, because sometimes even the perfect fit faculty member will have too many other commitments and need to say no. Usually students first aproach asking somone to be on their committee by email, and requesting a meeting. In that email, you'll want to introduce yourself, breifly describe your project, and explain why you'd like that person to be on your committee. The person in question may agree right away, they might want to have a meeting to learn more, or they might say no. If a no comes up at any time, dust yourself off, and move down the list. It's not personal! It's just faculty can get really busy. 12 | 13 | ## Holding a committee meeting 14 | 15 | Once you have a committee, you're going to need to meet with them regularly. Department rules say you should meet with them all together at least once a year, but it certainly doesn't hurt to meet more often than that (okay it might, if you're not using your time well- but we'll cover that in this section). 16 | 17 | Committee meetings are initiated by, and generally led by the student. They are for you to update your committee about where you are, get advice about next steps, and practicing talking about your work (and committee meetings are in addition to particular program meetings which are held for very particular milestones- candidacy exams, prospectus, and the like, though sometimes meetings are combined for efficiency). 18 | 19 | The main things you need to think about when putting together a committee meeting are scheduling, establishing goals of the meeting, and providing information to update your committee on the progress of the project. 20 | 21 | - First is scheduling. This is always a bit hard- you are herding cats. Use a scheduling poll, give many options. Expect to give a lead time of at LEAST two weeks. I'm sorry, I know myself and I know my colleagues and we're hard to pin down. Virtual and hybrid meetings are fine, despite what anyone says. If they need to be 100% in person there is a good chance scheduling will be impossible- so think flexibly. If you need to book a room, don't forget to do so- and tell everyone where you'll meet. 22 | 23 | - Next is establishing goals. Please cirulate an agenda/ meeting goals and any documents you'd like the committee to review at least a week before the meeting. This helps set the tone and make sure we get to the things we need to get to in the time alotted. Not sure what your goals are? Use [this degree timeline](https://github.com/BahlaiLab/Policies/blob/master/Graduate_programs.md) to help sketch that out. 24 | 25 | - Finally, run the meeting. This usually works best if you prepare some kind of presentation: basically, put together some slides to tell your committee what you've been up to, what you've found, what your next steps are, and what your timeline is for completion. This should combine both the science you're doing and the programmatic milestones that you're aiming to hit. Ask lots of questions and encourage the committee to ask lots as well- ideally this is a conversation, but with structure. Committees are happiest when they can both see that the student has direction, and can take re-direction, but also when they feel useful- so lean into this group of experts to help you form your project. Think about your goals in the near and far term and talk about them in the context of how your project and your program help you get there. 26 | 27 | A special note: for your first committee meeting, it's possible that you and the committee don't know each other well, so it's a good idea to do a round of introductions. Start with introducing yourself, give a bit of your background, and what your overarching goals are, and invite each committee member to introduce themselves too to get started. Icebreaker! 28 | 29 | Happy meetings! 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /Consulting.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | ## Consultation and meeting policies 2 | 3 | I'm happy to help members of my community work through their statistical, data and coding problems! That said, I get *a lot* of requests for help, and so I've adopted a system to help prevent over-booking, to manage how my work in this area is credited in my effort reporting and personal accomplishments, and to protect a bit of my time for my own research. 4 | 5 | First, if your question is for a class, particularly if your question involves work you will be graded on, please consult with your instructor regarding their policies on external consults(1). Otherwise: 6 | 7 | In general, simple problems that can be handled in a single meeting ("Am I using the appropriate statistic here?" "Can you help me find the bug in my code?" "What is the best tutorial to use to do [x] with my data?"), I expect no compensation beyond an acknowledgement. 8 | 9 | For problems where I am required to make a substantial intellectual contribution to the work (i.e. writing custom analysis code, data manipulation and quality control, teaching you a new method, or substantial input in experimental design or interpretation), I will generally require some form of credit beyond a simple acknowledgement. This form of credit is negotiable and depends on the exact circumstance, but can include (and is not necessarily limited to): 10 | - For graduate students, an invitation to serve on your thesis/dissertation committee 11 | - Authorship on manuscripts or other research products resulting from work where I have made these contributions 12 | - For external requests, service contracts can be negotiated with the Bahlai Lab via Kent State University Division of Research and Sponsored Programs 13 | 14 | If you'd like to reach out, send me an email! My email is my first initial followed by my last name, at kent.edu. 15 | 16 | ____ 17 | (1) That time I accidentally did a student's homework for them made for a very awkward conversation with their instructor. 18 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /Graduate_programs.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Graduate programs 2 | 3 | In general, I will take students via Kent's Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Graduate program. Typical master's programs are 2 years, and typical PhDs will take 5 years. In our programs, students typically take 2-3 classes per semester during their first two years of study. Some of these courses will be prescribed by the program, and others will be selected in conjunction with your committee, based on students interests, goals, and project. 4 | 5 | Each student will complete original research as the core goal of their graduate program. "Research" is dificult to quantify in the context of a grad program at an Ohio public university without using the constructs of western (Eurocentric) academic standards, but generally the expectation is that the quantum we use is a "paper" and a MS student will produce 1-3 papers of research and a PhD student will produce 3-5. Original scientific software, a lucid database interface, or a major extension document might also 'count' as a quantum of research for our purposes. 6 | 7 | I expect students to complete an extensive literature review of their topic in their first year of study- this will be the underpinning of all your future research: it is essential you know what's been done in the field previously before you know how you can build on it by addressing your specific problem. 8 | 9 | Below is a rough timeline, with approximate order of tasks you'll be expected to complete over the course of your degree program. We defer to the official rules from the program handbook but these are the general milestones with the approximate timing of things that we strive for in my lab. 10 | 11 | ## Master's timeline 12 | Offical program checklist [here](https://www-s3-live.kent.edu/s3fs-root/s3fs-public/file/ms%20prog%20checklist%20-%20UPDATED%202021.pdf) 13 | 14 | - ### First year (assuming Fall admission) 15 | - [ ] Choose classes for first semester (summer before you start) 16 | - [ ] Start literature review 17 | - [ ] Form advisory committee (by December) 18 | - [ ] [Lead first committee meeting](https://github.com/BahlaiLab/Policies/blob/master/Committee_expectations.md) 19 | - [ ] Program of study form 20 | - [ ] Take classes 21 | - [ ] Design research (write proposal and submit to committee by April) 22 | - [ ] Complete literature review 23 | - [ ] Begin experiments/data collection 24 | - [ ] Proposal presentation to committee 25 | - [ ] Thesis topic form (near end of first year) 26 | - [ ] Summer of research 27 | 28 | - ### Second year 29 | - [ ] Complete classes 30 | - [ ] Continue research/data collection 31 | - [ ] Write up first experiment/product 32 | - [ ] Host a committee meeting to update your committee 33 | - [ ] Design, deploy second and subsequent experiments 34 | - [ ] Update literature review 35 | - [ ] Write thesis 36 | - [ ] Complete defense and oral examination 37 | - [ ] Make revisions and submit final thesis 38 | - [ ] Submit all program forms 39 | - [ ] Graduate! 40 | 41 | ## Ph.D timeline 42 | Offical program checklist [here](https://www.kent.edu/biology/doctoral-program-checklist-2021-0) 43 | - ### First year (assuming Fall admission) 44 | - [ ] Choose classes for first semester (summer before you start) 45 | - [ ] Start literature review 46 | - [ ] Form advisory committee (by December) 47 | - [ ] [Lead first committee meeting](https://github.com/BahlaiLab/Policies/blob/master/Committee_expectations.md) 48 | - [ ] Program of study form 49 | - [ ] Take classes 50 | - [ ] Design research (write proposal and submit to committee by April) 51 | - [ ] Complete literature review 52 | - [ ] Begin experiments/data collection 53 | - [ ] First summer of research 54 | 55 | - ### Second year 56 | - [ ] Complete classes 57 | - [ ] Continue research/data collection 58 | - [ ] Write up first experiment/product 59 | - [ ] Host a committee meeting to update your committee 60 | - [ ] Design, deploy second experiments 61 | - [ ] Candidacy exam (by end of spring semester) 62 | - [ ] Second summer of research 63 | 64 | - ### Third Year 65 | - [ ] Write prospectus 66 | - [ ] Host a committee meeting to update your committee 67 | - [ ] Present prospectus (by end of fall) 68 | - [ ] Continue research 69 | 70 | - ### Fourth Year 71 | - [ ] Update literature review 72 | - [ ] Host a committee meeting to update your committee 73 | - [ ] Begin writing dissertation 74 | - [ ] Continue research 75 | 76 | - ### Fifth year 77 | - [ ] Complete research 78 | - [ ] Host a committee meeting to update your committee 79 | - [ ] Write dissertation 80 | - [ ] Submit papers/products 81 | - [ ] Complete defense and oral examination 82 | - [ ] Make revisions and submit final dissertation 83 | - [ ] Submit all program forms 84 | - [ ] Graduate! 85 | 86 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /Individual_Investigation_guidelines.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Individual investigation guidelines 2 | I often host students interested in doing research for academic credit through Biology, Biotechnology, and our MA (masters by coursework) program. These experiential learning components are often quite varied and customized to the students needs, but since this is also a course, I need a means of assesment at the end of the semester. Typically this takes the form of a Research Report, and this document is intended to provide an outline. The length requirements will vary with number of credits and class level of the student, but all will contain common elements. Some reports will have some sections more developed than others but the goal here is to at least have some information in each section. We are essentially looking for a record of what you did, so we can build on the work in the future (or know what went wrong if the experiment flops and someone else wants to study something similar later on!) 3 | 4 | Reports should include: 5 | 6 | ## 1. Project title 7 | Give the project a descriptive title 8 | ## 2. Personnel involved 9 | If your work was to become an academic publication, who, besides you, was a part of making this work happen? please list and describe roles of students, graduate assistants, helpers from the community, and faculty involved. 10 | ## 3. Introduction 11 | What do we know about the system you're studying? Include a brief literature review including scientific literature setting up the system and problem you are studying (this is not an exact ratio, but let's say at least four papers per credit hour you're enrolled in should be included in this review). 12 | ## 4. Problem statement / objectives / hypothesis 13 | This can take a few forms, but basically, a paragraph explaining why you're doing the work you're doing, what you expect to see, and why. 14 | ## 5. Methods 15 | Write down everything- and I mean EVERYTHING you did. Think of it as a recipe card for other scientists to follow and all the notes on the recipe. This includes, materials you used, measurements you took, tools or machines you used to take the mesurements, and for the analysis this means anything you did to your data prior to analysis (pre-processing), the statistical tests or models you used, and the assumptions or options you made. If you're doing field or lab work, include details about when the work was done, where, and how many times. For many of you, you will be composing analysis code- please provide a saved copy of your original code and include it in the report (It can be saved as a 'supplemental file' and just included in the package you send me at the end of the semester). 16 | ## 6. Results 17 | What did you find? Please include a results section that comments on patterns you found. Please include any graphs/charts tables produced as part of your analysis, photos of your work, and, THIS IS IMPORTANT, the raw data tables (in excel or CSV format) for any data you collected. 18 | ## 7. Discussion 19 | What does it all mean? What did you see? How do you interpret it? Was the approach you used good? Did the approach answer the questions or problems you set out to examine? What would you do next time? 20 | ## 8. References cited 21 | Cite your references!! (use referencing software like Zotero for fewer headaches) 22 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /Oddly_specific_rules.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Hmm. 2 | Here are some oddly specific rules for the Bahlai Lab. 3 | ## Writing and Presentations 4 | - Never, ever use "Size matters:...." in the title (or anything else) of a presentation/poster/article you write. Not only is it an inappropriate joke about genitalia, which is gross, it represents a _trivial hypothesis_. More treatment = more effect? Don't embarrass us like that. You can do better. 5 | - Significant figures! A mean should never be reported to a greater degree of precision than the first significant figure of its corresponding error. 123.456 +/- 6.789 is lying to make your data look more scientificer. Be honest, and report 123 +/-7, it's less precise but more accurate. 6 | - Similarly, question the heck out of _magic numbers_- those numbers that are presented as a single, solid fact about how a biological system operates, without any representation of variability. More often, this is a model output or a mean, and you need to be really thoughtful: is this number a meaningful representation of the underlying process that created it? 7 | - Use referencing software. Start now. You'll thank me later. 8 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /Project_completion.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | 2 | # Project completion checklist 3 | 4 | In the Bahlai Lab, we strive to make our work as reproducible and as transparent as possible. Different projects may vary from this format slightly- this is intended to be taken as a guideline covering the components of most of our common projects. It's preferable, and probably easier on you, if you keep these requirements in mind while developing your project, but all elements should be present at project wrap-up. Here are the common documentation standards I expect to be met with the completion of each project. 5 | 6 | ## General project documentation 7 | 8 | - [ ] Project components are all hosted in a public repository on Github 9 | - [ ] Declare a license in the README so people know how they can use your work (I'm partial to [CC-BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)) 10 | - [ ] README includes project abstract or description 11 | - [ ] README includes file navigation within repo, description of file contents 12 | - [ ] README includes links to papers, preprints 13 | - [ ] README Includes contact information for authors, and if data is proprietary, for data creators 14 | - [ ] Make the readme pretty by including a snazzy graphic, if applicable 15 | - [ ] Include a folder in the repo containing slides/posters from presentations on this project if applicable 16 | 17 | ## Data 18 | Data used in support of the project must be: 19 | - [ ] Saved in an appropriate, non-proprietary format with accompanying metadata 20 | - [ ] In a public archive, or, if data is proprietary, a 'snapshot' version of the data used in the project must be saved in a private repository accessible to lab members 21 | - [ ] Linked and briefly described in the project README 22 | 23 | ## Code 24 | Code used or developed in support of the project must be: 25 | - [ ] Well commented and complete 26 | - [ ] On Github, in the public project repository 27 | - [ ] Described in the README- what does each file do, what language was used, etc 28 | - [ ] Tested! can at least one other person (but more is better) make your analysis go on a different computer? 29 | 30 | 31 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /README.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Policies 2 | 3 | This repo contains a collection of policies, standard procedures and guidelines we adhere to in the Bahlai lab. These documents are intended to help lab members get aquainted with the culture of the lab, and to help collaborators and colleagues see how we do things. Generally, you'll probably want to read these in the following order: 4 | 5 | 1. [For prospective students](https://github.com/BahlaiLab/Policies/blob/master/letter_to_prospective_student.md) So, you think you might want to be a computational ecologist. GREAT. Here's some stuff you need to think about before you sign up. 6 | 2. [General guidelines](https://github.com/BahlaiLab/Policies/blob/master/general_guidelines.md) Wherein you can figure out the Bahlai Lab's general vibe. 7 | 3. [Code of conduct](https://github.com/BahlaiLab/Policies/blob/master/Code_of_conduct.md) Some ground rules for interacting in and with the lab. 8 | 4. [Consulting policy](https://github.com/BahlaiLab/Policies/blob/master/Consulting.md) You: "Nope, nope nope, I don't want to be in your lab, thanks. But I do need your help!" 9 | 5. [Graduate guidelines and timelines](https://github.com/BahlaiLab/Policies/blob/master/Graduate_programs.md) You're a grad student now! What should you be working on? How much of it do you need to do? Breaking it down in rough order. 10 | 6. [Tips for starting in the lab](https://github.com/BahlaiLab/Policies/blob/master/tips_for_new_personnel.md) Here's a Bahlai Lab quickstart guide, in peppy protip format. 11 | 7. [Oddly specific rules](https://github.com/BahlaiLab/Policies/blob/master/Oddly_specific_rules.md) Christie is a human being with pet peeves. 12 | 8. [Project completion guidelines](https://github.com/BahlaiLab/Policies/blob/master/Project_completion.md) You're here, you're doing stuff, but what does it look like to be PhDONE? Getting at the finer scale documentation requirements of your quanta of sciences. 13 | 9. [Safety training and stuff](https://github.com/BahlaiLab/Policies/blob/master/Bahlai%20Lab_Lab%20Specific%20Training.pdf) Docs for lab specific safety training etc. 14 | 15 | ## Legal stuff 16 | 17 | ![Public domain](http://i.creativecommons.org/p/zero/1.0/88x31.png) 18 | 19 | UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED on individual documents, to the extent possible under law, the Bahlai Lab has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work. 20 | The policy documents available in this repository are [public domain](http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). Please feel free to copy, remix and adapt these policies for your own lab. Credit is cool but not strictly necessary, if you want to give a shout out, link back to us. Actually, forks and stars are useful, too. 21 | 22 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /general_guidelines.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # General Lab Policies and Guidelines 2 | Welcome to the [Bahlai Lab of Applied Computational Ecology](https://bahlailab.org/)! I'm very excited that you're here. In this lab, we study a variety of habitats, taxa and processes, with the core elements of using data, math and computational techniques to gain better understanding of ecological systems. We're committed to applying what we learn to making the world a better place- by supporting sustainability and productivity in working ecosystems, by making the work we do accessible to the broader community, and by drawing in diverse viewpoints to enhance mutual understanding of science, scientists, and the needs of the world. 3 | 4 | ## Open philosophy 5 | First and foremost, the Bahlai Lab is an [open science](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_science) lab. There are several major facets to this, but the core is: *the way this lab operates is grounded in my personal belief that participation in science is a public act, and done in the public good.* Science allows us to be part of something bigger, and to foster a *healthy, collaborative and truly inclusive and equitable scientific enterprise, it's essential that we give back at least as much as we take from the community*. I could get down into the weeds about specific tools and techniques that we use in our open science infrastructure here, but those tools are used to support these values, [they themselves are not the values](https://www.americanscientist.org/article/open-science-isnt-always-open-to-all-scientists). What we commit to do, as open scientists, is: 6 | 7 | * Seek out expertise from conventional and unconventional contributors in our work. Invite comment and participation. Maintain a dialogue. Welcome feedback. Break down the barriers that prevent any and all interested parties from engaging in your corner of science. 8 | 9 | * Make supporting research data freely available whenever possible, to support future use in meta-analyses, reviews, and revisitations of our work. 10 | 11 | * Respect privacy and confidentiality in cases where data or research products contain sensitive information, or information that otherwise does not belong to you. Do no harm. 12 | 13 | * Produce and share reproducible, re-usable data manipulation and analysis code, so people can understand our assumptions and workflows, and so future scientists can learn from our efforts without duplicating them. 14 | 15 | * Publish final manuscripts AND intermediate research products in the most universally accessible formats available to us. 16 | 17 | * Acknowledge contributions to our work. Provide [territorial acknowledgements](http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/territorial-acknowledgements-indigenous-1.4175136). Cite the ideas of others. Don't pretend we work in a vacuum. Use your platform to lift others and give them a platform, too. 18 | 19 | * Act as ambassadors of open science, and science in general, to the broader scientific community and the world. Help people see what we do, but *respect the constraints others must work under.* 20 | 21 | ## Mentoring philosophy 22 | I believe that the role of a mentor is that of a guide and a support for you as you work towards your goals. I strive to maintain an open dialogue with my mentees about their goals and directions, and provide direction, support, and resources wherever I can, and connect you to people that can help, when I can't. I believe the single most important product of science is human capital- people who can go forward in the world, work hard, and make changes to make lives better. I am deeply invested in helping you develop as a colleague, a scientist, and a citizen of the world. I mainly ask that you bring a willingness to work hard and think hard, be open to changing and developing yourself, and a commitment to science, truth, and kindness- I will endeavour to bring the same things to our relationship. 23 | 24 | I expect all lab members to maintain a commitment to professionalism while working in the lab. I know 'professionalism' is a loaded term that many use to police people into looking and behaving in a way congruent with the dominant culture. I mean it in a slightly different way, but there is some overlap in practice with the typical definition. I expect you to reliably attend and contribute to scheduled meetings. I expect you to be engaged and respectful when your colleagues are sharing their ideas. I expect you to approach your work ethically and engage with your research and the broader community earnestly and honestly. I expect you to make your education, research and development a priority- not your only priority, but really, to grow as a researcher, it needs to be up there near the top of your list. I expect you to put earnest effort in becoming an expert in your area of research by reading the literature and other relevant texts deeply, and I expect you to seek out opportunities to broaden your knowledge by participating in conferences, seminars, and other engagements. Professionalism, to me, is taking your development as a scientist and a community member seriously. 25 | 26 | I prefer to be a cheerleader to a boss, however, there will be situations where I will have to push you, make tough calls, and offer correction- this is to be expected- you're learning. I do expect my personnel to bring considerable self-motivation to the table: for this relationship to work, I need you to want to not just learn and attain a credential, but to take responsibility for, and leadership over, your individual projects. **I can't make you the world expert on what you do, but you can- and that is your job now.** Read deeply, ask lots of questions, think creatively. Science in my lab is very different from science in the classroom- we don't have right answers, we chip away at figuring out how things work, in the context of what other people, chipping away, have found. Learning to thrive figuring out stuff at the edge of the unknown- that's what science is to me, and what I hope it will become for you. You will be wrong. All the time. That is normal. 27 | 28 | I generally offer positive feedback profusely, and negative feedback in the form of re-direction. This sounds good on paper, but it doesn't work great for people who want/need a lot of very specific guidance from a supervisor on their project. Part of this is intentional- I want you to take the lead in your project. If something isn't working and I offer suggestions for dramatically different paths, it means it's because I perceive you are stuck and I would like you to try something new to get unstuck. Being stuck is the worst- I would rather you tried 10 different wrong things than not try anything because you're stuck on finding the right way to start. Not all of my suggestions will be the final word! Seek feedback from others, research the problem deeply, but more than anything- keep trying, keep doing. 29 | 30 | I believe that science is better when it's diverse and inclusive, and that means removing barriers and meeting people where they are, whenever possible. If you want to work in the Bahlai Lab, or are currently working here and facing a barrier affecting your ability to do work and contribute to your fullest extent, please let me know (in as specific or nonspecific terms as you are comfortable) so we can work together with campus resources and build necessary accomodations. 31 | 32 | ## Grad student-specific expectations 33 | *This may seem obvious, but to be clear: **to work in my lab, I expect all graduate students to have strong interests in insects** (and/or other taxa, I'm cool with plants and stuff), **math and modelling and programming and informatics and quantitative ecology, and drive for doing original work that advances science.** I also want to you think about why you want a graduate degree- how does this program and this research advance your personal goals?* I am here to support you but I also have very high expectations for you- I expect all of my students to be driven: to do, to learn and to make, in pursuit of their goals. I expect you to be committed to immersing yourself in your program: I want you to have a full life with friends and family and hobbies but a graduate program, by its nature, will take a lot of you, and a lot of time. This IS A BIG COMMITMENT and you need to be both available and open for it. We can do amazing things with your work but the ultimate drive needs to come from you. *I will not drag you through a graduate program.* 34 | 35 | The expectations of graduate students enrolled in our MS and PhD programs in the [Kent State University Department of Biological Sciences](https://www.kent.edu/biology) are outlined in our [graduate student handbook](https://du1ux2871uqvu.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/file/BSCI%20Grad%20Handbook%202017.pdf). The back of this guide contains links to specific forms, including a checklist of degree completion requirements for both the MS and PhD programs. We will use this as a [template for your individual expectations within the lab](https://github.com/BahlaiLab/Policies/blob/master/Graduate_programs.md). I generally expect incoming PhD students to come in with an MS or equivalent research or work experience. Incoming MS students may decide to matriculate into a PhD program at a later date, if that is their goal, in consultation with me, their committee, and given good research progress early in their program. 36 | 37 | 38 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /lesser-used-policies/research_help_response.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | I created this boilerplate in response to a large number of interview requests from students who had been assigned an "Interview an Expert" project. I love kids, I love science, but these assignments are really hard on me (and others like me). First, most of the requests are not targetted at my research area, so honestly I'm not much better than a person on the street- but a lot of these queries don't need expertise. Frankly, they need a wikipedia article. Secondly, I take my position as an expert seriously- and because many of these proposed interviews are supposed to be recorded- I don't want to misspeak or make a generalization that goes on the record. Experts speaking on their area of expertise is hard work. Thirdly, while I prioritize some of my time towards public outreach, speaking to lots of people, individually, is not very efficient-and responding to each request would quickly fill my time. 2 | 3 | Finally. These requests are really stressful to say no to. This is me being really honest. I've been socialized as a woman and a fat person: the cultural expectations for people like me are to be friendly, compliant, and accomodating. I know if I don't meet that expectation it comes with social costs, and these social costs are greater for me than people who don't have these expectations connecting to their identity. 4 | 5 | Anyway, if you send your students out into the world to interview experts for the sake of interviewing experts, they will get some version the below as a reply. There's some links also below that you may find helpful. 6 | 7 | ------ 8 | 9 | Hi Student! 10 | 11 | I’m a biology and data science professor, so I don’t think I can be much help to you on X, but I can offer you a few general research tips to get started. Generally, it’s not a good idea to reach out to experts until you have specific questions you need them to answer, and you’ll want to read some general references first- I suggest starting with Wikipedia! (I know a lot of teachers like to say Wikipedia isn’t a reliable source, but they’re confused- it’s a secondary source so it’s one removed from the original information, but it’s generally verified better than a lot of sources because people are constantly checking it) and that will let you think about questions and point you to primary sources- these are the places where the information was recorded for the first time. 12 | 13 | Asking professors for help is a great idea, but only once you have specific questions that can't be answered easily online and you can make sure you’re directing your questions to the right people. Generally we put a fair bit about what we do on the web, either through our university or personal websites. You can look at directories (For example [ directory of a department that actually does X ]) and once you find someone whose expertise/ research area aligns with the question you’re asking- and then reach out to them- you might want to ask them specific questions about their opinions on things relevant to your research topic, but you have to be specific: asking a professor about general information that's available on the web isn't the best use of their (or your!) time. 14 | 15 | I understand you're likely reaching out to fulfil the requirements of an assignment- please feel free to share my response with your instructor. Scientists get many requests like this and a lot of us just can't keep up with them, so please share [these](https://smallpondscience.com/2015/04/13/in-which-k-12-teachers-assign-students-to-contact-an-expert/) [links](https://www.astrokatie.com/student-requests) with them to help give context. 16 | 17 | Good luck with your project! 18 | 19 | Best, 20 | Dr. Bahlai 21 | 22 | 23 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /letter_to_prospective_student.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Hi Student! 2 | 3 | Thank you for your interest in my lab. Our program will next be accepting applications in Fall 2024, for admission in the following Fall (starting August, 2025). 4 | 5 | I expect incoming graduate students to have strong interest and familiarity in the work that is done in my lab (because presumably, this is the type of work you want to do!). I am a computational ecologist and data scientist. All my students' projects have very strong components of modelling, coding and computation, or data and information processing, as those subjects intersect with ecology and environmental science. Students will be expected to lead and disseminate original scientific work as part of their graduate program. Here’s my Google Scholar profile with examples of work completed by me and my students, be sure to sort by date as my more recent publications are the ones that are most relevant to what my group is working on right now: 6 | 7 | https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=WL0EyIUAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate 8 | 9 | For a glimpse into my most up-to-date research directions, you can peruse two recently funded grant proposals: 10 | 11 | https://github.com/BahlaiLab/CAREER2020 12 | 13 | https://github.com/BahlaiLab/Managing_expectations_EAGER 14 | 15 | I've also recently been part of a project focused on synthesizing insect populations to better understand biodiversity loss. More information about that is here: 16 | 17 | https://statusofinsects.github.io/index.html 18 | 19 | If you’re interested in working with me I strongly encourage you to read some documents I’ve prepared about my lab culture. The lab policies and procedures guide is here: 20 | https://github.com/BahlaiLab/Policies 21 | 22 | This repository contains information about my advising style, approaches and expectations. All lab members are expected to adhere to the lab code of conduct. 23 | 24 | If you’re interested in pursuing a graduate program with me after looking at these materials, please drop me an email detailing your background, research interests and career goals. If I find there are significant synergies between my research and your goals, I’m happy to set up a meeting to talk about our program and the application process. 25 | 26 | My best, 27 | 28 | Christie Bahlai 29 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /tips_for_new_personnel.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | ## A Compendium of tips for people joining the lab 2 | *by Bahlai Lab members* 3 | 1. If you don't know what you should be doing, that's normal- grad school is a lot more open and wishy washy than undergrad. Your time is mostly yours to define, with lots to do but a lot of flexibility in how you do it, and this can be tricky to figure out at first. Find other graduate students who have been here a while and ask them what they do in a day. Watch what your collegues do. You don't need to manage things the same way as others, but this will help you understand pace, and culture, and expectations for how you will work. 4 | 2. Take advantage of opportunities on campus. Go to all relevant seminars possible. Join journal clubs. These are SO SO SO important to steeping yourself in the culture of your field, for building connections, and for your learning. Your full-time job is to become a scientist- consider these opportunities job duties. 5 | 3. Your writing is not going to be great when you start out. That's normal! Edit each other's drafts, and please allow time for 2-3 complete overhauls of writing you'll be submitting anywhere. Christie will expect at least several drafts, back and forth, before the work goes out into the world! Think of your work as a conversation, not a endpoint. 6 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------