This chapter describes the structure and culture within the PALM Lab. The goal is to be clear about expectations for the members of the lab (ones that I have, as well as for each other) and importantly for myself.
This section aims to provide a picture of what mentoring and working with me will be like in the PALM Lab. It will continually be in-progress, shaped by (and including) feedback from lab members and others alike. -- William
Our lab environment¶
The lab should be a welcoming space for all members to work and conduct research. Everyone should be respectful and kind to each other, providing support and encouragement at all times. We are a team that shares in our successes, rather than competes with each other to get ahead (and resists current incentive structures in science). In fact, lab members are encouraged to take an interest in each others’ work, learning from each other and collaborate on research.
Getting to know each other beyond being colleagues at work provides a strong basis for developing community within the lab. I encourage (and will help fund and/or organize) social events for the lab, but note that participation will always be optional. The goal is to have every member feel like they belong in the lab. (Note that I welcome any opportunity to take a quick break from work to grab a coffee and chat.)
I am mindful that conflicts may arise between lab members or with others externally. I will do my best to mediate any issues to the best resolution for all parties. To this end, I value clear communication - I will try my best to ensure the lab space is safe to bring up any disagreements or problems, especially so if they involve me. I hope that in a world that seems to be increasingly divided, we can nurture an environment that can resolve conflicts by listening to each other and having mutual resepct. -- William
It is the responsibility of all lab members to keep any shared physical spaces (e.g. testing booths) organized and tidy, and to maintain a good working environment for all (including our collaborators and colleagues). This includes:
Cleaning any rubbish or waste found in common spaces
Putting lab equipment back in place after use
Being considerate with resources (including dividing shared spaces or resources equitably, and communicating if something occurs that may impact others)
Being mindful about taking up one’s time or interrupting others’ work (for example, the volume of nearby conversations)
Taking an interest in other lab members’ research projects (such as paying attention during talks or lab meetings)
Offering to pilot each others’ experiments or assist with data collection (such as gelling in EEG)
Expectations about work¶
It is important to maintain work-life balance (in the face of capitalistic academic structures) to ensure one’s health, enjoyment in doing science, and to prevent burnout. Do prioritize taking breaks during the day or when you need them, managing life’s responsibilities and keeping one’s commitment to others. Remember that doing your best will look different on each day, it does not mean always working at full speed.
Full-time research is essentially equivalent to a full-time job (i.e. ~40 hours/week, 5 days per week). A rough guideline for the PALM Lab is a ‘hybrid model’ where lab members are expected to spend at least three days of the week working on campus/in lab, and have the option to work either from home or in lab on the remaining days. The work hours themselves are largely flexible and dependent on the available spaces -- to ensure overlap between members in lab for collaboration and discussions, lab members are asked to have 10am to 3pm as part of their in-person hours. Ultimately, all lab members are responsible for managing and organizing their time to ensure research goals are met. You are not expected to work during evenings, weekends or public holidays. (The one possible exception may be during critical deadlines, such as for conferences or grants. William will be as mindful as he can be of this, and if he does ask for something, you can be upfront and say it is not possible.)
You are expected to stay home when you are sick, so that others (lab members, colleagues, participants) do not catch any illnesses. If this happens, please be mindful of others’ time and reschedule any meetings as soon as you can.
I like to get out of the office and work at a nearby café - especially to code or write. It would be fun to co-work together as a lab! I find working with others keeps me accountable and productive. -- William
Requesting time off¶
Progress does not happen in a linear fashion -- working more or harder does not always lead to faster or better outputs. Breaks are necessary for preventing burnout, for developing fresh ideas and for consolidating learning. Relaxing is not a waste of time when it is an investment in your future self to recover and keep going!
I trust lab members to be responsible for maintaining work hours and ensuring research progress is being made, and won’t be strictly policing your hours. However, please check-in with me about taking any time off (mainly so that I am aware, as well as to make plans for your time away as needed). I recognise that there is more to life than science and research, so as a supervisor, I hope to make sure that there is balance (both enough work is being done and enough life is being lived.)
As your mentor, I will set regular (~weekly) check-in meetings with you to align expectations on what work needs to be achieved and if they are being met. These meetings will be an opportunity to communicate to me about any concerns or struggles, so that I am aware and can help support you or make plans to continue to make progress. -- William
Expectations around communication¶
Communication should always be with kindness and respectful of each other’s time. General guidelines for various forms of communication are as follows:
For most communication about lab-related matters, the PALM Lab uses Microsoft Teams.
Teams can cause a lot of interruption to workflows. For this reason, it is not expected for Teams to be open at all times; it is recommended curating (or turning off) notifications to help maintain their focus on work. However, Teams should be checked periodically (~twice a day) to ensure no messages are missed.
Communication in Teams may mostly be one-off in nature (quick questions/brief check-ins/notifications). Lab members are expected to maintain good organizational and note-taking practices for their projects.
Lab members are encouraged to set statuses (e.g. do not disturb, in lab, working from home, on holiday). William will also set statuses for a quick sign of his availability (e.g. in office, teaching, etc.).
For any important communication (e.g. anything that might need documentation/record-keeping, such as where a decision is being made) or any messaging with a large group or external collaborators, use email.
Remember to be mindful of email etiquette - try to avoid spam by batching multiple questions into the one email, keeping them within the one thread.
I will try to organise in-person meetings (~weekly) for discussing research projects (i.e. ideation, results, etc.). I might drop by the lab sporadically to check-in with whoever is around (and will try to be mindful of placing pressure on being in lab.)
For emergencies, do not hesitate to contact William by phone.
Making mistakes¶
An important part of our lab culture (and science overall) is our attitude and response towards mistakes. In the PALM Lab, we recognize that mistakes (small or large) can happen despite our best efforts, and that it is unhelpful to respond poorly and place blame. We all make mistakes! In fact, mistakes should be treated as moments that one can grow from, and that others can learn from when we share them. I will make an effort to lead by example and share both present and past mistakes that I have made!
As a lab, we will prioritize careful, rigorous research rather than speedy, flashy research outputs, committing to open scholarship (see our approach to Open Science in the next chapter). This means that we take additional steps towards preventing mistakes (for example, piloting experiments and code review). Nevertheless, sometimes mistakes can (and will) pop up. The members of the PALM Lab will be encouraged to take ownership of their mistakes - not to hide them but share and work through them with others (especially when it impacts others, or influences the research outcomes).
Some mistakes can feel very big - for example, a bug in the experiment means a large amount of time and resources have been wasted, or an incorrect analysis changes the results of the experiments dramatically - but these things do happen in science! I believe one should be challenging themselves and putting themselves in positions to make mistakes and fail, because that leads to growth. Any mistake that happens in the lab will partly be my own, so I hope you feel that you can share them with me when they do happen. What’s most important is to correcting the mistakes in a transparent manner together. -- William
Mentorship¶
Lab members are encouraged to seek mentorship from many people and places, such that they learn from a diverse set of perspectives and experience. This could be from a senior graduate student or postdoc in the PALM Lab or in another lab, from a research collaborator or co-supervisor, and of course, from myself. All PALM Lab members are recommended to think about what skills they would like to learn, what goals they have in life and in science, and what may be an inspiration to them, and to seek out mentors who can help them with that (it may not always be me!).
Expectations for William as a research supervisor¶
The Research Education and Supervision Policy is a good place to start. I am expected to provide mentorship that includes:
Research training on experimental design, programming, data collection, data management, statistical analysis, computational modeling, manuscript writing, open scholarship, and further.
Providing feedback in a timely manner (such as comments on project ideas, approval on conference submissions, suggestions on talks, edits on manuscripts, etc.)
Giving thoughtful advice on and provide opportunities for achieving future success and preparing you for your the next step in your career (in science/academia or otherwise)
Creating a healthy learning environment that encourages you to attempt things yourself and to fail at, asking questions without judgment and gives you the space to develop
Being accessible both in-person and virtually (e-mail or otherwise), including regular meetings to discuss research (or anything else)
I hope to be a supportive supervisor for all PALM Lab members, fostering a working relationship that lasts throughout their journey in academia and science. I like to think of the mentor role as being a coach - to me, it gives the sense that the mentee has the agency in what they can achieve!
I will help all mentees navigate the obstacles and challenges of academia as best I can, and I hope to set an example of how to conduct impactful and rigorous science, through open scholarship practices and service for the community. -- William
Mentorship style¶
I will always strive for my mentees to achieve success towards their goals. I try to balance being a hands-on supervisor (for example, getting involved with programming, data collection, data analysis, and further), while encouraging independence and self-directed learning. I operate on a so-called ‘open-door’ model -- lab members are encouraged to reach out to me with any questions at any time, and to openly ask for the support they need. This includes, where appropriate, emotional support and encouragement while navigating challenges in science and academia.
I think I am fairly flexible in mentoring style, adapting to the mentee -- lab members are encouraged to ‘mentor up’ (see this useful guide on mentoring up by Lee et al., p.141). This includes discussing and aligning expectations, asking for and accepting advice and feedback, and having a roadmap for personal development (which I could help you plan!). You can also read more on expectations of students below.
You can find out a little bit more about me on my personal academic website.
Weaknessess¶
I believe one key characteristic of a good scientist is their humility, because it goes hand in hand with accepting one’s imperfections and being open to change. I acknowledge that I have weakenesses and imperfect understsanding, which I list below so that you are better aware when working with me. -- William
I set a high standard of science for myself and the work that I am involved in -- one that goes beyond the norm for the field. For example, I take the additional steps of code review, reproducibility checks, replication of experiments and preparation of data for open access, rather than seeing the end goal as a publication. This high standard can put pressure on my collaborators - for example, rethinking how things are being done and potentially slowing research outputs from reaching stages of progress.
I can see that this high standard might mean I appear overly critical, especially if I were to give critique without kindness or not to voice any positive feedback. My past mentees have not voiced this concern, but please do not hesitate to remind me to say what went well!
As I am newly starting the PALM Lab, I am inexperienced with conducting research specifically at the University of Adelaide, and am yet to secure my own external research funding.
I have a tendency to overcommit, having trouble saying ‘no’ when new opportunities arise. This may mean I am spread thin at times, leading to less timely responses or feedback.
I value work-life balance, but do go through phases where I am doing ‘work’ late or on weekends -- I am usually reading related papers, or getting fixated on fixing programming issues or solving other problems. This may lead to message or responses at odd times, which I hope does not lead to the expectation that you should also work odd hours. (I will be very clear about this!)
Expectations for PhD students {#student-expectations}¶
under construction
Typical course of the PhD¶
At the start (0 - 6 months)¶
The very first thing to do is to make sure that you’re settled into the lab and the School; this means making you clear on your scholarship and the policies, meeting your peers in the School, you have access to all the resources (emails, card access, etc.), etc. We will make some time to organise and plan the PhD ahead across various timescales (the entire PhD, the next year, the next month), which will help us align expectations and structure.
At the beginning of the candidature, it is all about getting a sense for the research field and situating yourself and our future work in the literature. One of the main things we will do is to bounce relevant papers back and forth - I will ask you to summarise and present the papers to me/the lab, which will help give me a sense for your understanding, how you work, and how you write and present.
I think it will also help for you to get “stuck in” - I will work with you to get started on a research project; this may be a secondary analysis/re-analysis of an existing dataset or adapting some existing experiment code to run a new experiment. This will give you something to switch to (say, when reading gets tiring) and a bit more diversity in your day-to-day to prevent things being too repetitive.
Main milestone: Completing the research proposal at 6 months.
The first half (6 - 18 months)¶
Yearly reviews.. etc.
Resources¶
[Link graduate research handbook here.]
Meetings¶
I expect to have a one-on-one meeting with PhD students once a week, plus a weekly lab meeting during semester.
This can be flexible depending on the stage of the research project, the time in the year, current timetables for the student, of if we have already checked in on progress earlier (as mentioned above, I have an ‘open door’ policy - you can ask me about anything at any time!). There is an underlying expectation that you will work independently on your project, and I will try my best to make sure that you are on track.
Expectations for Honours students (work in progress)¶
Although it is a large undertaking, the Honours research project is an amazing opportunity to conduct research from beginning to end, learning a wide variety of research skills and diving deep into a particular topic. My goal is to work with you to make the experience a worthwhile one across many aspects - I hope to make each step of the project as smooth as possible, and I do hope that the project is one that you find interesting and that you like!
Ask for feedback! As part of “mentoring up”, you should be actively seeking feedback from me and asking me directly.
Choosing a research project¶
At the start of the year, I will likely have a few research projects to offer, so that you can choose the one that best interests you or suits you. This can be tailored to your future goals - whether you want to become a researcher or not, if you want to work in a specific topic area, etc. If none of the ideas fit or if you have a particular idea beyond these research projects, I am more than open to working with you and designing an experiment together - I would rather that you work on something that you like rather than you begrudgingly work on something that you don’t!
You can visit the lab website for a better sense of the research we do. My research projects tend to take a psychophysical approach - we will design a cognitive experiment (for either in-person or online data collection), and use computational methods for data analysis (statistical analysis and mathematical modelling). This will likely involve some form of programming (typically MATLAB or jsPsych for the experiment task; MATLAB or R for the data analysis) - this provides a good opportunity to learn programming (and I will guide and teach you throughout the year). It is okay if you have little or no experience with programming, I will support you at every step but the expectation is to try and attempt any problem-solving yourself first.
Some suitable qualities for Honours students working with me:
Comfort with mathematical concepts - no background
Meetings¶
For the best chance of success in the research project, it will take sustained effort across the entire Honours year. For this reason, I expect to meet with Honours students once a week to discuss progress (what was done in the past week, what steps to take in the coming week). This can be flexible depending on the stage of the research project, or current timetables for the student, of if we have already checked in on progress earlier (as mentioned above, I have an ‘open door’ policy - you can ask me about anything at any time!). There is an underlying expectation that you will work independently on your project, and I will try my best to make sure that you are on track.
Resolving conflicts {#conflicts}¶
Conflicts within the lab or with others can occur despite our best intentions and efforts to prevent them. The hope is that conflicts will be resolved through listening to each other, sharing and understanding all perspectives, and respectfully reaching an agreed upon course of action.
If there is any potential for disagreement or unhappiness that cannot be resolved by discussing with the other party, the first person to talk to is me. However, if I do not seem to be the right person (or the conflict is sourced by or with me), then the following resources and contacts may be helpful:
Disclosing or reporting an incident of unacceptable behaviour to the Integrity Unit.
The university’s Counselling Support provides free, short-term help with issues affecting student life.
Contacting and seeking advice from the Research Coordinator (Dr Rachel Stephens), the Research Integrity Advisor (Professor Carolyn Semmler), and/or the Postgraduate Coordinator (Associate Professor Diana Dorstyn).
Student wellbeing¶
The University of Adelaide is highly committed to supporting its students and their wellbeing. The Hub Central located on Level 3 of the North Terrace Campus, underneath the Hughes Building, is a 24/7 place where students can seek advice with all things. The staff will be more than willing to direct you to where you can receive relevant support, if they can’t provide it themselves.