Grad school getting you down? Is your advisor too demanding? Do you need to seek solace in others who share your situation? Check out Piled Higher and Deeper, a grad student comic strip.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Piled Higher and Deeper
Grad school getting you down? Is your advisor too demanding? Do you need to seek solace in others who share your situation? Check out Piled Higher and Deeper, a grad student comic strip.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Mentor-mentee relationships
I just spotted this blog on Sciencewomen that discusses the job of a mentor and being a mentee. I like this passage, paraphrased from a talk SciWo attended, in particular:
"Dr. Cassell also talked about the characteristics of a good mentor, qualities that included accessibility, empathy, honesty, savvy, humility (most important), consistency, open-mindedness, and understanding of the current/new research/academic/professional environment. Mentors should be providing networking opportunities, offering moral support, and encouraging creative thinking. In turn, good mentees are proactive, probing, gracious, and humble in accepting critical feedback.
Of course, you are not going to meet all of your mentoring needs in a single relationship, so Cassell suggests to never let go of old mentors, establish both official and informal mentors and also find a set of confidants. She urges mentees to keep meetings professional."
I'll let that speak for itself.
"Dr. Cassell also talked about the characteristics of a good mentor, qualities that included accessibility, empathy, honesty, savvy, humility (most important), consistency, open-mindedness, and understanding of the current/new research/academic/professional environment. Mentors should be providing networking opportunities, offering moral support, and encouraging creative thinking. In turn, good mentees are proactive, probing, gracious, and humble in accepting critical feedback.
Of course, you are not going to meet all of your mentoring needs in a single relationship, so Cassell suggests to never let go of old mentors, establish both official and informal mentors and also find a set of confidants. She urges mentees to keep meetings professional."
I'll let that speak for itself.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
More on writing
When you write, yes I mean you, you use far too many words and write in a passive voice. We're all guilty of this sometimes, but the student writing that I've been reading lately is riddled with it. Scientific writing is meant to communicate information, not the place to wax poetic. I will ask students in my group to read about three ways to significantly improve their writing and to apply these to their own writing before asking me for edits:
Why My Writing Sucks discusses several common problems in writing, and gives two good examples of problems using 'too many words' and 'passive voice' in particular:
5. Do not use empty, cliche words and phrases in your writing. These include "Generally," "in general," "basically," "it went as follows," "really," "it has been proven time and time again that...," "the fact of the matter is..." Here is a very wordy example:
Bad: It is a safe assumption to state the idea that the attitudes of our forefathers have affected the entire course of history.
Better: Delete the first ten words. Begin the sentence with: The attitudes of our forefathers...(Communicates the same idea much more forcefully and directly.)
6. Avoid the passive voice wherever possible. Use the active voice instead.
Passive voice: President Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth.
The same information, recast in the active voice: John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln.
(The passive voice is usually in the form shown in the first example: the word "was," followed by the past tense of the verb, followed by a preposition.)
Overuse of the passive voice is one of the most common style errors in college student papers. The passive voice is weak; things are happening to people rather than people doing things. Also, the passive voice is wordier, therefore more boring. (One cannot always avoid the passive voice, especially if the subject is not known, or if it would sound strange [or be wordy] to specify a subject.)
One other common problem leading to wordiness and, therefore, confused readers is the overuse of prepositional phrases. Here is an exerpt from Painless Writing:
A preposition is a word used to link a noun to a sentence, and in so doing, related the noun to either another noun or a verb. Some common prepositions that we use all the time in our writing: by, under, for, near, about, on, against, to, with, next, inside, because, during, from, like, over, in, until, across, above, toward, outside.
A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition and a noun acting as a preposition’s object. Within this phrase, the preposition depicts a relationship to the noun. Some prepositional phrases are: on the beach, near the desk, against the wind, from the beginning, under the table, off the cuff, during his speech, across the continent, toward the end, until the last.
If your sentences contain only a few verbs, especially verbs in the passive voice, and many prepositions, your writing is probably wordy and confusing.
Here is an extreme example of overuse of unnecessary prepositions as well as passive voice sentences from Painless Writing. Notice how difficult the passage is to follow.
Exploring Mars
At this point in time, Mars is the target of the modern astronaut. By reason of its relative closeness to Earth, Mars is being studied by scientists for the purposes of a future mission. In a manner similar to the earlier study of the Moon by scientists, a probe is planned to be sent by NASA to within the immediate vicinity of the planet with a view toward collecting data with respect to the atmosphere of the planet. NASA plans to send in excess of one dozen of these probes during the course of the next five years.
From the point of view of a nonscientists, this proposed expenditure of billions of dollars for the purpose of studying an inhospitable planet appears to be a waste of money and human effort. At this point in time, our own planet and its inhabitants are in need of attention, particularly with regard to the environment. However, on the basis of what I have seen thus far, this concern will not be addressed at this point in time or at a point later into the future.
We must not succumb to this attack of viciousness on our common sense. Of course, I am writing in reference to the concerted effort of the community of scientists, the politicians, and the groups with special interests. We must persevere in our quest to bring this question of social importance to the attention of the public.
God, that was painful!
I bet you would end up with an essay half that length if you simply removed all the unnecessary words and re-wrote it in an active voice. That's most of what I do when I edit your writing. Once you learn to do that too, you can begin to write more effectively.
Why My Writing Sucks discusses several common problems in writing, and gives two good examples of problems using 'too many words' and 'passive voice' in particular:
5. Do not use empty, cliche words and phrases in your writing. These include "Generally," "in general," "basically," "it went as follows," "really," "it has been proven time and time again that...," "the fact of the matter is..." Here is a very wordy example:
Bad: It is a safe assumption to state the idea that the attitudes of our forefathers have affected the entire course of history.
Better: Delete the first ten words. Begin the sentence with: The attitudes of our forefathers...(Communicates the same idea much more forcefully and directly.)
6. Avoid the passive voice wherever possible. Use the active voice instead.
Passive voice: President Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth.
The same information, recast in the active voice: John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln.
(The passive voice is usually in the form shown in the first example: the word "was," followed by the past tense of the verb, followed by a preposition.)
Overuse of the passive voice is one of the most common style errors in college student papers. The passive voice is weak; things are happening to people rather than people doing things. Also, the passive voice is wordier, therefore more boring. (One cannot always avoid the passive voice, especially if the subject is not known, or if it would sound strange [or be wordy] to specify a subject.)
One other common problem leading to wordiness and, therefore, confused readers is the overuse of prepositional phrases. Here is an exerpt from Painless Writing:
A preposition is a word used to link a noun to a sentence, and in so doing, related the noun to either another noun or a verb. Some common prepositions that we use all the time in our writing: by, under, for, near, about, on, against, to, with, next, inside, because, during, from, like, over, in, until, across, above, toward, outside.
A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition and a noun acting as a preposition’s object. Within this phrase, the preposition depicts a relationship to the noun. Some prepositional phrases are: on the beach, near the desk, against the wind, from the beginning, under the table, off the cuff, during his speech, across the continent, toward the end, until the last.
If your sentences contain only a few verbs, especially verbs in the passive voice, and many prepositions, your writing is probably wordy and confusing.
Here is an extreme example of overuse of unnecessary prepositions as well as passive voice sentences from Painless Writing. Notice how difficult the passage is to follow.
Exploring Mars
At this point in time, Mars is the target of the modern astronaut. By reason of its relative closeness to Earth, Mars is being studied by scientists for the purposes of a future mission. In a manner similar to the earlier study of the Moon by scientists, a probe is planned to be sent by NASA to within the immediate vicinity of the planet with a view toward collecting data with respect to the atmosphere of the planet. NASA plans to send in excess of one dozen of these probes during the course of the next five years.
From the point of view of a nonscientists, this proposed expenditure of billions of dollars for the purpose of studying an inhospitable planet appears to be a waste of money and human effort. At this point in time, our own planet and its inhabitants are in need of attention, particularly with regard to the environment. However, on the basis of what I have seen thus far, this concern will not be addressed at this point in time or at a point later into the future.
We must not succumb to this attack of viciousness on our common sense. Of course, I am writing in reference to the concerted effort of the community of scientists, the politicians, and the groups with special interests. We must persevere in our quest to bring this question of social importance to the attention of the public.
God, that was painful!
I bet you would end up with an essay half that length if you simply removed all the unnecessary words and re-wrote it in an active voice. That's most of what I do when I edit your writing. Once you learn to do that too, you can begin to write more effectively.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Writing a professional e-mail
The subject of how to write an e-mail to a professor or other senior scientist came up in our research group today. I'd like to add my two cents to some resources I found online here, here, and here (that you should spend five minutes to read). While the suggestions on these two websites are most relevant for students in a large enrollment general education course, many of the same pieces of advice should be followed when you want to contact a scientist at another university or lab. Basically, a professional e-mail should be treated more like a formal letter and not a text message to your BFF. And make sure you avoid common pitfalls (that will annoy the very person you're trying to impress).
1) First, can your question be answered by information available on their website (or on iLearn), elsewhere on the web, or by simply looking at their schedule posted outside their office door? Even senior students and grad students still ask me questions they can answer themselves. A good example from two weeks ago: A geology major graduating this semester who missed class to attend an optional geology field trip not related to any course he was taking asked "Did we miss the X lab while we were on the X field trip?". My response: "I don't know. Did you check iLearn?". I spend a lot of time maintaining course web sites to make things more convenient for both me and students. Use those resources.
2) Always (always) address the e-mail to "Dr. X" or "Prof. X". And don't forget to identify yourself: "My name is John Smith and I'm a graduate student working with Prof. Jane Doe at State University". Likewise, close your e-mail "Regards" or "Best Regards" and not "Thanks!" or nothing at all. Include a sensible subject line and keep the e-mail short, but provide enough information so that a response is easy. Don't write "May I have a copy of your 2008 paper?", write "May I have a copy of your Johnson et al. (2008) paper that appeared in the Journal of Important Scientific Discoveries"? Consider whether their response requires knowing more about the context of your question - what kinds of rocks are you working on? where did you collect your rocks? etc. It also can't hurt to start off with a compliment: "I very much enjoyed your recent paper in EPSL. May I ask a question about your EBSD results?".
3) It's always best to use your university e-mail account to send these kinds of e-mails. That makes it very clear you're actually a student at that university and not spam or some random wacko.
4) Get a professional e-mail address. "sillybear714@sfsu.edu" or "toadjuice@gmail.com" should be reserved for personal e-mail communication (if you must). Ideally, grab a firstname.lastname@univeristy.edu account, or (if it's too late for that) a firstname.lastname@gmail.com account.
5) Punctuate, capitalize appropriately, check your spelling, and write in complete sentences. A no-brainer really.
6) If you get a response to your e-mail, you need to take time to say "Thanks!". It's annoying to spend the time to answer questions, etc. and just have it disappear into the ether.
And if you're not sure how to write a tricky e-mail, run it past your advisor first... Particularly if there might be intellectual property issues with your e-mail or if there is any chance you might step on someone's research toes. Not sure? Ask your advisor.
1) First, can your question be answered by information available on their website (or on iLearn), elsewhere on the web, or by simply looking at their schedule posted outside their office door? Even senior students and grad students still ask me questions they can answer themselves. A good example from two weeks ago: A geology major graduating this semester who missed class to attend an optional geology field trip not related to any course he was taking asked "Did we miss the X lab while we were on the X field trip?". My response: "I don't know. Did you check iLearn?". I spend a lot of time maintaining course web sites to make things more convenient for both me and students. Use those resources.
2) Always (always) address the e-mail to "Dr. X" or "Prof. X". And don't forget to identify yourself: "My name is John Smith and I'm a graduate student working with Prof. Jane Doe at State University". Likewise, close your e-mail "Regards" or "Best Regards" and not "Thanks!" or nothing at all. Include a sensible subject line and keep the e-mail short, but provide enough information so that a response is easy. Don't write "May I have a copy of your 2008 paper?", write "May I have a copy of your Johnson et al. (2008) paper that appeared in the Journal of Important Scientific Discoveries"? Consider whether their response requires knowing more about the context of your question - what kinds of rocks are you working on? where did you collect your rocks? etc. It also can't hurt to start off with a compliment: "I very much enjoyed your recent paper in EPSL. May I ask a question about your EBSD results?".
3) It's always best to use your university e-mail account to send these kinds of e-mails. That makes it very clear you're actually a student at that university and not spam or some random wacko.
4) Get a professional e-mail address. "sillybear714@sfsu.edu" or "toadjuice@gmail.com" should be reserved for personal e-mail communication (if you must). Ideally, grab a firstname.lastname@univeristy.edu account, or (if it's too late for that) a firstname.lastname@gmail.com account.
5) Punctuate, capitalize appropriately, check your spelling, and write in complete sentences. A no-brainer really.
6) If you get a response to your e-mail, you need to take time to say "Thanks!". It's annoying to spend the time to answer questions, etc. and just have it disappear into the ether.
And if you're not sure how to write a tricky e-mail, run it past your advisor first... Particularly if there might be intellectual property issues with your e-mail or if there is any chance you might step on someone's research toes. Not sure? Ask your advisor.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Making an effective poster
Creating an effective poster is part art and part understanding the purpose of your poster. Tell a story with your poster and be prepared to have a 2-minute “elevator conversation” telling that story ready to give meeting attendees. This is your chance to highlight your work and get constructive feedback from famous scientists interested in your work! It is important to make your poster look attractive (i.e., not filled with text or data tables) and make it easy to read (can someone actually read the text from 3 feet away?).
The format
Create a 6’ x 3’ (poster sizes vary) landscape layout template in Adobe Illustrator or PowerPoint (check physical limitations on the maximum poster size that can be plotted and how much space you will be allotted at the conference – often a maximum of 36” height on plotters, sometimes you will be allowed as much as an 8’-wide poster).
The different elements of a poster
Use layers in Illustrator to make making changes to your poster less problematic. Create a layer (a box) to fill that template and lock that layer; you can choose a background color or gradient later. In a new layer, place the title of your paper (abstract) prominently at the top of the poster board to allow viewers to identify your paper easily. Include 1) the title, 2) the author(s) names, and 3) their affiliations (addresses) centered underneath. The title should be the largest type size (a minimum of 72 point type, and perhaps as much as 120 point type depending on the font), but also highlight the authors' names and address information in decreasing font sizes in case the viewer is interested in contacting you for more information. Lock that layer. Create white boxes on which you will group text and figures of related content. Put your text and figures in yet another layer on top of those boxes.
Legibility and sizing of the different elements
Prepare all figures neatly and legibly beforehand in a size sufficient to be read at a distance of 2 meters. Be sure that text and figures pulled from a .pdf, for example, will be legible and of a high resolution when printed at the final size of the poster. Paragraph and figure caption text should be at least 24 point font (0.9 cm height) and headers at least 36 point font (1.2 cm height). Use creativity by using different font sizes and styles, perhaps even color (keep in mind some people are color-blind and have a difficult time distinguishing reds and greens – opt for dark oranges and blue-green hues instead). A serif font (e.g., Times, Helvetica, Palantino) is often easier for reading the main text, and a sans-serif font (e.g., Arial, Geneva, Verdana, Tahoma, Lucidia Sans) for titles, headers, and figure labels. Left-aligned text may be easier to read than justified text.
Organize the paper on the poster board so that it is clear, orderly, and self-explanatory. You have complete freedom in displaying your information in figures, tables, text, photographs, etc. The presentation should cover the same material as the abstract. Use squares, rectangles, circles, etc. to group like ideas (the “white boxes” described above). Don't clutter your poster with too much text and keep data tables to a minimum! Include at least the text of your abstract, captions for all figures, a short geologic background, a summary of results (even prior results) and conclusions, references, and acknowledgments (any funding that supported your work, anyone who helped with analyses or field work who is not an author on your poster, etc.).
Ready to plot?
You should print your poster out on 11” x 17” paper before heading to the plotter to check for mistakes, problems with fonts or special characters, etc. When you’re ready to plot, save the file as a pdf and format the page in Adobe Acrobat to equal the size and orientation of the actual poster.
There are more suggestions at http://www.aapg.org/meetings/instructions/guide.html, but keep in mind this was written before it was common to print out a poster on a large-format plotter…
The format
Create a 6’ x 3’ (poster sizes vary) landscape layout template in Adobe Illustrator or PowerPoint (check physical limitations on the maximum poster size that can be plotted and how much space you will be allotted at the conference – often a maximum of 36” height on plotters, sometimes you will be allowed as much as an 8’-wide poster).
The different elements of a poster
Use layers in Illustrator to make making changes to your poster less problematic. Create a layer (a box) to fill that template and lock that layer; you can choose a background color or gradient later. In a new layer, place the title of your paper (abstract) prominently at the top of the poster board to allow viewers to identify your paper easily. Include 1) the title, 2) the author(s) names, and 3) their affiliations (addresses) centered underneath. The title should be the largest type size (a minimum of 72 point type, and perhaps as much as 120 point type depending on the font), but also highlight the authors' names and address information in decreasing font sizes in case the viewer is interested in contacting you for more information. Lock that layer. Create white boxes on which you will group text and figures of related content. Put your text and figures in yet another layer on top of those boxes.
Legibility and sizing of the different elements
Prepare all figures neatly and legibly beforehand in a size sufficient to be read at a distance of 2 meters. Be sure that text and figures pulled from a .pdf, for example, will be legible and of a high resolution when printed at the final size of the poster. Paragraph and figure caption text should be at least 24 point font (0.9 cm height) and headers at least 36 point font (1.2 cm height). Use creativity by using different font sizes and styles, perhaps even color (keep in mind some people are color-blind and have a difficult time distinguishing reds and greens – opt for dark oranges and blue-green hues instead). A serif font (e.g., Times, Helvetica, Palantino) is often easier for reading the main text, and a sans-serif font (e.g., Arial, Geneva, Verdana, Tahoma, Lucidia Sans) for titles, headers, and figure labels. Left-aligned text may be easier to read than justified text.
Organize the paper on the poster board so that it is clear, orderly, and self-explanatory. You have complete freedom in displaying your information in figures, tables, text, photographs, etc. The presentation should cover the same material as the abstract. Use squares, rectangles, circles, etc. to group like ideas (the “white boxes” described above). Don't clutter your poster with too much text and keep data tables to a minimum! Include at least the text of your abstract, captions for all figures, a short geologic background, a summary of results (even prior results) and conclusions, references, and acknowledgments (any funding that supported your work, anyone who helped with analyses or field work who is not an author on your poster, etc.).
Ready to plot?
You should print your poster out on 11” x 17” paper before heading to the plotter to check for mistakes, problems with fonts or special characters, etc. When you’re ready to plot, save the file as a pdf and format the page in Adobe Acrobat to equal the size and orientation of the actual poster.
There are more suggestions at http://www.aapg.org/meetings/instructions/guide.html, but keep in mind this was written before it was common to print out a poster on a large-format plotter…
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Journal e-alerts
E-alerts for new publications come in the form of notifications for specific journals and/or subjects to track within a given society’s or publisher’s journals. This is a great way to keep up-to-date with new publications of direct relevance to your research project. You may need to register with the service using your university e-mail address. I have e-alerts set up for these journals:
American Geophysical Union
The journals to track with AGU are “Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems” (otherwise known as G-cubed), “Geophysical Research Letters”, “JGR (Journal of Geophysical Research) – Solid Earth”, and “Tectonics”.
Subjects in AGU’s e-alerts that are relevant to my research group include “Geochemistry”, “Geochronology”, “Mineralogy and Petrology”, “Physical Properties of Rocks”, “Structural Geology”, and “Tectonophysics”. I find the e-alert service does a very good job of choosing papers of interest to me tracking these subjects (i.e., so far, it has found every paper I wanted to download that I had independently spotted in the journal alerts).
GeoScienceWorld
Journals to monitor include the GSA’s journals listed above, “American Mineralogist”, “The Canadian Mineralogist”, “European Journal of Mineralogy”, “Geological Magazine”, “Geology”, “Geological Society of America Bulletin”, “Geosphere”, “Journal of the Geological Society”, “Lithosphere”, “Mineralogical Magazine”, “Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry”.
ScienceDirect – Choose the “Alerts” menu
Track “Chemical Geology”, “Earth and Planetary Science Letters”, “Earth-Science Reviews”, “Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta”, “Journal of Asian Earth Sciences”, “Journal of Geodynamics”, “Journal of Structural Geology”, “Lithos”, “Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors”, “Precambrian Research”, and “Tectonophysics”.
IngentaConnect
Track Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, European Journal of Mineralogy, The Island Arc, Journal of Metamorphic Geology, and Mineralogical Magazine.
American Geophysical Union
The journals to track with AGU are “Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems” (otherwise known as G-cubed), “Geophysical Research Letters”, “JGR (Journal of Geophysical Research) – Solid Earth”, and “Tectonics”.
Subjects in AGU’s e-alerts that are relevant to my research group include “Geochemistry”, “Geochronology”, “Mineralogy and Petrology”, “Physical Properties of Rocks”, “Structural Geology”, and “Tectonophysics”. I find the e-alert service does a very good job of choosing papers of interest to me tracking these subjects (i.e., so far, it has found every paper I wanted to download that I had independently spotted in the journal alerts).
GeoScienceWorld
Journals to monitor include the GSA’s journals listed above, “American Mineralogist”, “The Canadian Mineralogist”, “European Journal of Mineralogy”, “Geological Magazine”, “Geology”, “Geological Society of America Bulletin”, “Geosphere”, “Journal of the Geological Society”, “Lithosphere”, “Mineralogical Magazine”, “Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry”.
ScienceDirect – Choose the “Alerts” menu
Track “Chemical Geology”, “Earth and Planetary Science Letters”, “Earth-Science Reviews”, “Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta”, “Journal of Asian Earth Sciences”, “Journal of Geodynamics”, “Journal of Structural Geology”, “Lithos”, “Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors”, “Precambrian Research”, and “Tectonophysics”.
IngentaConnect
Track Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, European Journal of Mineralogy, The Island Arc, Journal of Metamorphic Geology, and Mineralogical Magazine.
Monday, June 29, 2009
On grants
I recalled a post by Female Science Professor that deals with the issue of grants and research funding that I dug up and partially re-post below. I'm doing this because I see no need to re-invent the wheel (and because even though I've recommended her blog, I'll bet that very few students have navigated over to that site nor spent much time there), but I would add one more point to what she's written - grants are written to conduct very specific research: The budgets are detailed and MUST be spent in the way spelled out in the grant (mas o menos) unless specific permission is granted by the program officer at (in my case) the National Science Foundation. The grant itself is a contract between the Principal Investigator (me) and the funding agency - it's my job to see that research gets done in the way that I've laid it out in the grant proposal.
"Over the years I have found that even moderately well informed and apparently sane graduate students have trouble understanding some basic issues involving grants and research. These issues include:
- Grants have start and end dates. They do not go on forever. This might be confusing in part because PIs can get no-cost extensions for a year (or two), so grants may have a longer life than their original start and end dates might suggest.
- Grants have budgets. They do not contain an infinite amount of money. Even when some students are told exactly how much is available for a certain activity, they seem to think that somehow there will be more and/or they are surprised and upset when the money runs out.
- The total $ amount of a grant is not equivalent to the amount the PI has available for the research. A substantial amount of the money in a grant goes to the university, not to the PI.
- Grant funds for grad students may be much more than just salary. Some institutions also require that the PI pay tuition and benefits. Grad students may not be highly paid, but they may be a significant component of a grant budget.
- Proposal budgets for most proposals can't be too high. PIs develop a sense for what the funding agency/program would consider to be reasonable vs. too high. For this reason, PIs have to do some delicate balancing between grad stipends (+ related costs) and research activity expenses.
- Students supported on a grant may start their graduate studies before or during a particular grant's lifetime. It may not seem fair to the student, but this timing relative to a grant's lifetime may affect the advisor's stress level about doing the research on a particular time scale, and that stress level may be transmitted to the student.
- The time between proposal submission and notification of the proposal's fate may be long.
- Some university accounting systems are so bizarre and complicated that it can be difficult for a PI to know exactly how much money is left in a grant. For example, it can be difficult to determine what is encumbered and what is not, and whether all outstanding invoices have been paid. There have been times when the actual amount remaining in one of my grants has been off by tens of thousands of $$ from what the accounting tables indicated. This is particularly stressful near the end of a grant. Budget stress level may fluctuate depending on when PIs look at accounting statements. A graduate student might perceive this as erratic behavior in an advisor.
- In some cases, departments/institutions make new policies that cost PIs money in existing grants even if this money was not originally budgeted. For example, my department occasionally mandates that graduate students receive raises that are effective immediately, even for existing grants. I supported the raises, but the money has to come from somewhere in finite budgets. This means less money for research activities.
Most of us could do a much better job of explaining the proposal/grant system to our students, but I think that it is inevitable that when issues of money, time, and stress are involved, as they are during a typical graduate program in Science, there are going to be difficult situations. I also think that grant management is one of those things that you have to experience yourself before you can really understand what is involved.
Maybe some computer science person will create a video game - SimGrant. Advisors can give it to students and postdocs to play and see how they do with the various decisions involved in writing transformative proposals, keeping various members of a research group funded, and dealing with kafkaesque accounting situations. I think this would be great, but the only problem is that the game couldn't use a proposal submission system like grants.gov or else no one would play, and those forced to play would end up shooting their computers."
"Over the years I have found that even moderately well informed and apparently sane graduate students have trouble understanding some basic issues involving grants and research. These issues include:
- Grants have start and end dates. They do not go on forever. This might be confusing in part because PIs can get no-cost extensions for a year (or two), so grants may have a longer life than their original start and end dates might suggest.
- Grants have budgets. They do not contain an infinite amount of money. Even when some students are told exactly how much is available for a certain activity, they seem to think that somehow there will be more and/or they are surprised and upset when the money runs out.
- The total $ amount of a grant is not equivalent to the amount the PI has available for the research. A substantial amount of the money in a grant goes to the university, not to the PI.
- Grant funds for grad students may be much more than just salary. Some institutions also require that the PI pay tuition and benefits. Grad students may not be highly paid, but they may be a significant component of a grant budget.
- Proposal budgets for most proposals can't be too high. PIs develop a sense for what the funding agency/program would consider to be reasonable vs. too high. For this reason, PIs have to do some delicate balancing between grad stipends (+ related costs) and research activity expenses.
- Students supported on a grant may start their graduate studies before or during a particular grant's lifetime. It may not seem fair to the student, but this timing relative to a grant's lifetime may affect the advisor's stress level about doing the research on a particular time scale, and that stress level may be transmitted to the student.
- The time between proposal submission and notification of the proposal's fate may be long.
- Some university accounting systems are so bizarre and complicated that it can be difficult for a PI to know exactly how much money is left in a grant. For example, it can be difficult to determine what is encumbered and what is not, and whether all outstanding invoices have been paid. There have been times when the actual amount remaining in one of my grants has been off by tens of thousands of $$ from what the accounting tables indicated. This is particularly stressful near the end of a grant. Budget stress level may fluctuate depending on when PIs look at accounting statements. A graduate student might perceive this as erratic behavior in an advisor.
- In some cases, departments/institutions make new policies that cost PIs money in existing grants even if this money was not originally budgeted. For example, my department occasionally mandates that graduate students receive raises that are effective immediately, even for existing grants. I supported the raises, but the money has to come from somewhere in finite budgets. This means less money for research activities.
Most of us could do a much better job of explaining the proposal/grant system to our students, but I think that it is inevitable that when issues of money, time, and stress are involved, as they are during a typical graduate program in Science, there are going to be difficult situations. I also think that grant management is one of those things that you have to experience yourself before you can really understand what is involved.
Maybe some computer science person will create a video game - SimGrant. Advisors can give it to students and postdocs to play and see how they do with the various decisions involved in writing transformative proposals, keeping various members of a research group funded, and dealing with kafkaesque accounting situations. I think this would be great, but the only problem is that the game couldn't use a proposal submission system like grants.gov or else no one would play, and those forced to play would end up shooting their computers."
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