For Undergraduates: Joining a Research Lab
Welcome!
Exciting news that you are considering joining a lab! I'm sure that everyone in the lab is so excited to have you get started. If you were joining my group, I know that we are all looking forward to introducing you to the wonderful world of academic science, as well as learning from you! :)
I wanted to write a post for new undergrads joining their first research lab. I originally wrote a version of this post for undergrads working in my lab, so not everything here will be generalizable to all labs. However, hopefully you can get some general take-aways from this post.
First, some notes on lab culture:
What is being in a lab like?
You've been selected to join the lab because we believe that you have the potential to succeed in science by pursuing your own, original research. It may be hard or overwhelming to get started, but you should know that we believe that you will succeed!
Working in the lab will be a little different for everyone. What work you are a part of depends on your interests and goals, as well as projects that the lab has available at the time, and what skills you come into the lab having.
But first, how does a lab work?
A research lab functions as a unit within a larger university or college. You might be familiar with a "school" within the university, such as the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford, within which there are departments, such as the Department of Biology. Within a given department, there are faculty members, many of which you might be familiar with as professors who teach some of your classes. These faculty members generally lead teams of undergraduates, graduate students, people who have completed a PhD (also known as a doctorate) called postdocs, and others such as researchers visiting from other universities, laboratory technicians, and even teachers. These research labs generally have a main focus that is guided by the lead faculty member (also known as a PI or Principal Investigator...yeah, just like a detective!). That faculty member is generally also is advisor, or main point person and mentor, for their graduate students. If you hear the terms faculty member, professor, PI, or advisor, generally this is referring to the same person for any given lab. In our lab, that person is Dr. Tad Fukami. That leads me perfectly to my next point...
...What should you call us?
At Stanford, people are generally informal. At Stanford, most people, graduate students, postdocs, as well as faculty, prefer to be called by their first name. I ask my students to call me Callie and my advisor goes by Tad. Of course, the culture at different institutions differs, so I'd recommend talking to other undergraduates or graduate students at your school to learn what the norm is there. If you feel more comfortable using someone's title, you can call people with a PhD "Dr." or "Professor" + their last name. For example, you could also call Tad "Dr. Fukami" or "Professor Fukami". Even though not everyone has a PhD, it is usually a good default to refer to them as "Dr." or "Professor" and definitely not "Mr.", "Ms." or "Mrs.". Sometimes people feel uncomfortable calling their professor for a class "Professor" in the classroom and by their first name in the lab. That's totally fine! Just do whatever you feel comfortable. Just no "Mr."/"Ms." for people with PhDs! It's pretty cool that we get a gender neutral title--let's use it!
Types of undergraduate projects:
Undergraduate projects usually fall into one of three categories, generally decided between mentor and student based on level of experience and motivation of the student. There is no "best" way to do research, just what works best for you! Of course, this varies a lot between labs. In some labs, all undergraduates have the same kind of experience, whereas in other labs, there may be more flexibility.
Work directly with mentor on their project: In this sort of project, your mentor will teach everything you need to know and you'll work directly with them to complete a part of their pre-existing project.
Work on a sub-project of your mentor's project: You might be working on a sub-project or side-project associated with an existing project your mentor is working on. While you may be organizing and planning the day-to-day experiments for your project, you will be working closely with your mentor, since you're working towards the same goal in the same main project.
Work on your project, either associated with or not related to your mentor's project: This project is usually at the level of an Honors Thesis and is developed after you have been working in the lab for a while and have independent ideas you'd like to pursue. Typically, when you start in the lab, you'll be working on a project in the first category. As you gain more experience, you might move to a project in the second or third category.
Expectations:
Specific expectations between you and your mentor will be slightly different and should be something you and they both create and agree on. However, there are some general guidelines that should apply to everyone.
Time:
The amount of time you spend in the lab is highly dependent on your schedule, which we understand is probably very busy. Our main expectations of you is that you communicate clearly how much time (and when) you can spend in lab at the beginning of the quarter, and you are consistent about meeting these time expectations. At least with me, I expect students who work with me to please show up on time and we won't expect you to stay later than you committed to stay. If you say you'll be at lab from 3-5 PM on Tuesday, we'll expect you to come at 3 (5 minutes late or early is fine, but 30 might not be) and we'll expect you to be ready to go at 5.
Of course, emergencies do happen, so do not hesitate to tell us if you need to take time off for mental/physical health, etc., but the time expectations in the lab are similar to that of having a part-time job. Treat your research position as if it was a job.
Some experiments are limited by time. For example, if you expect on doing cell-growth time course experiments, you may need to be in lab for several days at set times to measure cells. Some experiments are much more time flexible. You need to clearly communicate with your mentor how flexible your time will be by sharing your course schedule and any other extra-curricular activities or jobs that influence when you can be in lab. We want to accommodate other things you have going, but need to know a little about your schedule so we can plan experiments and also make sure you are doing work that is compatible with your schedule.
If you are working on your own independent project, your work hours might be much more flexible, so it's important that you talk to your mentor about their expectations about your work.
Compensation:
Students working in the lab are compensated one of two ways. Either, students are working for course credit, or they are being paid. Some labs offer volunteering opportunities, but I would strongly encourage you to not do that. Not only does it create inequality between those who can afford to volunteer and those who cannot, your time is also valuable!
Lab Notebook:
While you are in the lab, you are expected to keep a lab notebook. There's a lot of information about good lab notebook practices, but you'll want to see the stand-alone blog post about this for more information. Bottom line is you're expected to keep a good lab notebook and your mentor should provide you with the materials to keep one, so you don't need to purchase anything. Check with your research mentor about what the policies are like in your lab.
End of semester:
At the end of the semester, you may be asked to do something summarizing your work. This might include writing up a summary about what you completed in the lab that quarter, you can also present at lab meeting by giving a short talk, create a poster, or communicate your work in a different way. Talk to your mentor about what your lab's expectations are.
Developing shared expectations:
Of course, most of the learning process and good mentorship is developing shared expectations, which are slightly different for each mentor-mentee pair. This is where we get to talk about shared expectations and talk about what works for us and what we expect from each other. And of course, these change, so it's important to discuss if an expectation we create here changes and how we want to revise it.
1. Goals:
What are your goals for the quarter? What are my goals? How can we design an experience that will facilitate us each accomplishing our goals? These goals could be answering a scientific question, developing a new skill, learning about a new topic, or many other things!
What are my and your long-term career/life goals? How can we make this experience help move us towards these goals?
hat do you and I enjoy? How can we integrate things we're passionate about into this project?
2. Communication and meetings:
What is the best way to get a hold of each other (text, email, Slack, phone call, etc.)? What is an appropriate time and timeframe to expect a response? Are there any times we'd prefer not be contacted?
How can we meet in person? How frequently should we meet (and how)? How frequently should your mentor expect to be updated on your progress? How should they be updated (by talking, by email, by Trello, by written report?) How long will meeting expect to be?
3. Student and mentor's role on project:
What is the student and mentor's primary role on the project?
What training will the student receive to succeed on the project?
Will the student need to do any additional work outside of lab on the project (i.e. reviewing the literature, learning R, etc.)
4. Participating in other lab activities:
Attending lab meeting is optional but encouraged. Usually a reading or activity is sent out ahead of time, so if you attend lab meeting, please have this completed. At the beginning of lab meeting, everyone shares a short update (1-2 sentences) about what they were working on the previous week.
Departmental events or Happy Hours are a good opportunity to meet and talk to graduate students and faculty in the department
Sometimes the lab will have other social events (such as getting dinner, having a barbecue, etc.) that you might be invited to. You're not required to attend, but we'd always love to see you there!
Your department and other departments sometimes has talks and host speakers that are relevant to our research that you can attend.
5. Authorship: One 'currency' in academia is writing research papers that are published in peer reviewed journals. Authorship on papers is important to confer credit for work on a project, as well as recognize responsibility for the quality of the work. While working in the lab, you will likely be contributing to research that will be part of a project with larger scope than what you might be directly involved in. We want to recognize your hard work in the lab and know that authorship on a peer-reviewed publication is a good way to recognize your work. Although the criterion for authorship differ between labs and different people have different ideas about what constitutes significant contributions to a project, I like the guidelines from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Although our lab doesn't work on medical topics or generally publish in medical journals, I think their criterion is also applicable to our field. The ICMJE authorship recommendations include the following 4 criteria:
"1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND 2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND 3. Final approval of the version to be published; AND 4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved."
I used the language the ICMJE uses on their website (http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html) and I would highly recommend reading the rest of this article from the ICMJE about considerations involving authorship. Generally, if you are taking part in research that is likely to be included in a publication, we will have a conversation up-front about the authorship expectations and revise those expectations based on your goals and interests.
Projects that typically constitute a substantial enough contribution to be considered for authorship on a publication generally take 1 or more years worth of work, working 8-10 hours per week, and more than a summer's worth of work, working full-time. If you intend on working in the lab for less than 1 year, or are only planning on working in the lab for the summer, it is unlikely that your project will have a large enough scope to be considered for publication. However, this has happened in the past because of the exceptional work of some students, so don't rule out the possibility, but it takes a lot of work and an upfront conversation about this as a goal at the beginning of your time working in the lab.
Regardless of authorship, your contributions should ALWAYS be acknowledged in the acknowledgement sections of any papers that utilize data that you have collected or contributed to, as well as presentations that involve a figure that includes data that you have collected or contributed to.
Expectations around authorship vary significantly from lab-to-lab and even between individuals, so make sure you have an upfront conversation with your mentor about this.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is very exciting that you are considering joining a lab! The lab you are joining is lucky to have you, and I'm sure you'll have a great experience if you act respectfully, clarify expectations, and are enthusiastic!
Good luck!