The Graduate Student Laborer
Joe McGrath is a second year graduate student who will begin to
write his master's thesis at the end of the term. Joe has worked
extremely hard during the two years of his master's program,
regularly working six or seven days a week. The effort has paid
off, however; Joe already has four publications with two additional
papers in preparation and, most importantly, a starting date for a
new job at a small pharmaceutical company. The company is very
excited to have hired Joe because they are starting a new
initiative and need Joe's expertise to get the project off the
ground. This situation puts Joe on a very tight time schedule to
finish his last set of experiments and write his thesis, but the
job is exactly what he had hoped for.
It is Friday afternoon. For the past week, Joe has put his
experiments on hold. Instead, he has been making graphs and figures
for a presentation that Dr. Smith, his research adviser, will be
making at a conference the following Wednesday. Smith has requested
specific figures based on data from experiments completed by Joe
and his predecessors in the lab. At 3 p.m., Smith comes into Joe's
office and says, "I hate to ask you to work on a weekend, but will
you come in and work tomorrow? It is really important that the
presentation is ready on Monday."
Joe hesitates. He was a bit taken aback by Smith's request,
because he almost always comes into the lab Saturday mornings,
"Isn't Smith aware of this after two years?" he asks himself.
Furthermore, he had planned to start the last set of experiments he
needs for his thesis, which he has been delaying all week.
Finally, Joe replies, "Yes, I can come in and finish up these
figures tomorrow." "Thanks, Joe," Smith says. "I really appreciate
the fact that you have spent so much time compiling and analyzing
the data collected by Dave and Frank, who left without finishing
their degrees; without that information, the presentation would
have been very thin. By the way, I've decided to list you as the
fourth author on the presentation, because it was the other
students who actually collected the data," Smith says. Although Joe
feels disappointed that he will be listed as the last author on the
presentation, he doesn't want to quibble about whether doing the
data compilation and analysis was more significant than collecting
the raw data.
After discussing a few more details about the presentation with
Smith, Joe closes the conversation by saying, "Well, have a good
evening and I'll see you tomorrow!" Smith stops as he is leaving
the lab and replies with a surprised tone, "I'm not working
tomorrow."
Should Joe spend Saturday making the figures for the
presentation, or should he start his experiments as planned?
Discussion Questions:
- Is it appropriate for Smith to ask Joe to work on Saturday? Is
it appropriate in light of the fact that Smith is not going to
work? Are there valid reasons why Smith might ask Joe to work
although he is not planning on working himself?
- Would it seem less onerous a request to complete the figures
and graphs at the sacrifice of his dissertation work if Joe were
compiling and analyzing data from his own experiments rather than
data from students who left the program?
- What are the proper roles and responsibilities of graduate
students in preparing presentations that include the entire
research group's efforts?
- What are appropriate criteria for authorship?
- Is data collection always more significant than data
compilation and analysis?
- Should Joe ask to be placed higher on the list of authors? How
should he approach Smith about his concerns?
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Commentary: The Graduate Student Laborer
Commentary on the responsibilities of research advisers and graduate students inregard to completing work related to research. It also discusses issues of authorship in regards to graduate students in laboratories.
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Additonal Commentary: The Graduate Student Laborer
Additional commentary on the responsibilities of research advisers and graduate students inregard to completing work related to research. It also discusses issues of authorship in regards to graduate students in laboratories.