Being a scientistSome modest advice

Student/supervisor relationships Planning your degree/ what’s next

Time management

Academic integrity

Some modest advice for graduate students

Stephen C. Stearns and Raymond B. Huey

• Nobody Cares About You

• Psychological Problems are the Biggest Barriers

• Write a Proposal and Get it Criticized

• Manage Your Advisors

• Start Publishing Early

Some modest advice for graduate students

Stephen C. Stearns and Raymond B. Huey

• Be active and independent

• Be a professional

• Learn to write proposals and grants

• Surround yourself with good people

Back up your data!!!

Student-supervisor relationships

• The student duality

• Expectations – Funding– Work habits– Amount of supervision– Writing drafts

Student-supervisor relationships

• Annual progress report/ committee meeting

• Problems?– There is help!– Be professional– Document

Planning your degree

• What do you want your thesis to look like?

• Make a calendar of expected time at SFU

• Work backwards from intended defense date

• Mark important dates• Scholarship deadlines• Conferences• Self-imposed deadlines

Graduation timelines

PhD

Graduation

http://www.lib.sfu.ca/help/writing/theses

Submissionto library

(last business dayof term)

Defense

Corrections& printing

Final copyto committee

4 wks

Approval ofthesis

4 wks

Graduation timelines

MSc, MET, MPM

Graduation

http://www.lib.sfu.ca/help/writing/theses

Submissionto library

(last business dayof term)

Defense

Corrections& printing

Final copyto committee

2 wks

Approval ofthesis

4 wks

Plan in bite size

Bad plan Good plan

• Write thesis• Publish paper• Collect data

• Lit review of topic x• Data entry for exp y• Design experiment z• Write methods for exp z

Pay attention to your plan!

Planning what’s next

• Plan well in advance

• Make contacts

• Apply for funding

Time management

• Analyse how you spend your time

• What did you achieve?

• Were you efficient?

• How much time did you spend on thesis/ research?

• How much time did you spend on unimportant stuff?

• What didn’t get done?

Time management matrix

Urgent Not urgent

No

t im

po

rtan

tIm

po

rta

nt

Common procrastination excuses

• The perfectionist ‘…but I want it to be perfect’

• The crisis maker ‘…but I only work well under pressure’

• The one with good excuses ‘…but I’ve been reading papers/ organising samples’

• The one-track mind ‘…but I need a big chunk of time to do it’

How to avoid procrastination

• Recognise you are doing it• Divide large tasks into smaller pieces• Make an arbitrary start• Set deadlines and keep them• Reward yourself• Keep working

Academic integrityAcademic integrity is a cornerstone of academic

reputation (for you, your supervisor, and the university)

The university• Provides resources to help you to do the right

thing, e.g.,– www.lib.sfu.ca/help/writing/plagiarism– learningcommons.sfu.ca/

• Imposes penalties when necessary; these can be severe.

Academic integrity• Students have a responsibility to know the

rules.

• The rules apply to thesis work as well as coursework, including drafts.

• The rules can be found at http://www.sfu.ca/policies/Students/index.html

• If you are not sure, ask.

• If you think you are sure, ask anyways.

Academic integrity

• Writing and plagiarism

• Collection and presentation of data

Plagiarism

• Exact copying without quotation marks

• Patchwriting (making only superficial changes)

• Not attributing ideas/data to source

• Self-plagiarism

Patchwriting vs. paraphrasingOriginal:

Drought, high salinity, and low temperature are the most common environmental stress factors that influence plant growth and development and place major limits on plant productivity in cultivated areas worldwide.

Rabbani MA et al. 2003. Plant Physiology 133: 1755-1767.

Patchwriting:

Drought, high salt levels, and freezing temperature are the most common environmental stress factors that may affect plant growth and development and place significant limits on plant productivity in agricultural areas worldwide (Rabbani et al 2003).

Patchwriting vs. paraphrasingOriginal:

Drought, high salinity, and low temperature are the most common environmental stress factors that influence plant growth and development and place major limits on plant productivity in cultivated areas worldwide.

Rabbani MA et al. 2003. Plant Physiology 133: 1755-1767.

Patchwriting:

Drought, high salinity, and low temperature place major limits on plant productivity in cultivated areas worldwide and are the most common environmental stress factors that influence plant growth and development (Rabbani et al 2003).

Patchwriting vs. paraphrasingOriginal:

Drought, high salinity, and low temperature are the most common environmental stress factors that influence plant growth and development and place major limits on plant productivity in cultivated areas worldwide.

Rabbani MA et al. 2003. Plant Physiology 133: 1755-1767.

Patchwriting:

The most common environmental stress factors that influence plant growth and development are drought, high salinity, and low temperature (Rabbani et al 2003).

Patchwriting vs. paraphrasingOriginal:

Drought, high salinity, and low temperature are the most common environmental stress factors that influence plant growth and development and place major limits on plant productivity in cultivated areas worldwide.

Rabbani MA et al. 2003. Plant Physiology 133: 1755-1767.

Paraphrasing:

Agricultural productivity is limited in part by environmental stresses on crop plants, and the greatest reductions in yield are caused by drought, high salinity, and low temperature (Rabbani et al 2003).

Point APoint B

Point C

Point D

Plagiarism of structure

Point A

Point B

Point C

Point D

Tips on avoiding plagiarism• Understand the material.

• Take notes in your own words.

• Paraphrase as your write.

• If you "cut and paste" with the intention of paraphrasing later, put quotes around text you have cut, and include citation RIGHT AWAY.

• Integrate ideas from more than one source.

• Ask supervisor/instructor how much “editing” by others is OK.

Collection and presentation of data

Problem:

• pressure to publish/ obtain a certain result

Types of dishonesty

• Fabricating data

• Falsifying/ misrepresenting data

• Using confidential data/ ideas

Misrepresenting data

• Removing outliers

Misrepresenting data?

Misrepresenting data?

Misrepresenting data?

Misrepresenting data?

Misrepresenting data?

Misrepresenting data

• Removing outliers

• Selective use of statistics, e.g.,– t-test p = 0.04; Wilcoxon p = 0.07

• Selective reporting of experiments, data sets

Collection and presentation of data

Try to avoid bias,

including in the language that you use, e.g.,

• The objective of my study is to show that factor X affects trait Y

Why are applications rejected?Biased position

Grant submitted to SSHRC:

Detrimental effects of popularizing anti-evolution's "intelligent design theory" on Canadian students, teachers, parents, administrators and policymakers.

http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2006/04/canadian_sshrc_.html

Collection and presentation of data

Try to avoid bias,

including in the language that you use, e.g.,• The objective of my study is to show that factor X

affects trait Y• The objective of my study is to determine whether

factor X affects trait Y• Given that we know that factor X affects trait Y,

the objective of my study is to determine the mechanisms through which factor X affects trait Y.