A Resource for Scientists Launching
R e s e ar c h Car e e r s i n E m e r g i n g S c i e n c e C e n t e r s
A Resource for Scientists Launching
R e s e ar c h Car e e r s i n E m e r g i n g S c i e n c e C e n t e r s
© 2009 by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund
Acknowledgments
All rights reserved.
The course on which this manual is based was
conceived and driven by Maryrose Franko (Howard
Hughes Medical Institute) and the late and muchmissed Martin Ionescu-Pioggia (BWF), and this book
owes much to—and draws from—the manual produced
from that course, Making the Right Moves: A Practical
Guide to Scientific Management for Postdocs and
New Faculty. We are grateful to the team which built
the earlier manual and to HHMI for making it easy for
us to move ahead with Excellence Everywhere.
Permission to use, copy, and distribute this manual or
excerpts from this manual is granted provided that (1)
the copyright notice above appears in all reproductions;
(2) use is for noncommercial educational purposes
only; (3) the manual or excerpts are not modified in any
way; and (4) no figures or graphic images are used,
copied, or distributed separate from accompanying
text. Requests beyond that scope should be directed
to [email protected].
Some parts of Excellence Everywhere are taken directly
from Making the Right Moves.
The views expressed in this publication are those of its
contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of
the Burroughs Wellcome Fund.
This manual is also available online at
www.excellenceeverywhere.org.
Project Developer: Victoria McGovern, Ph.D.
Editor: Russ Campbell
Designer: Liaison Design Group
Copyeditor: Ernie Hood
Burroughs Wellcome Fund
21 T.W. Alexander Drive
P.O. Box 13901
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-3901
www.bwfund.org
Thank you to the scientists who are quoted throughout this book. They have provided personal insights
and frank comments without which this book would
be much diminished. Many, many other researchers
from around the world—too many to list- provided
informal input and critical reading of drafts, and we
thank them all for their time and for helping us make
this manual a resource worth sharing.
Thanks especially to patient colleagues Jill Conley
and Maryrose Franko at the Howard Hughes Medical
Institute and Barbara Sina at the Fogarty International
Center of the U.S. National Institutes of Health for
their long term encouragement, support, and help
over the course of this project, and to HHMI editor
Pat Davenport for helpful comments throughout the
process. Thanks to HHMI and to the Wellcome Trust
for access to their international awardee networks,
and to Jimmy Whitworth and Pat Goodwin at the
Wellcome Trust for helpful discussions. Thanks to
science writers Heather B. McDonald and Christopher
Thomas Scott, who provided some additional writing.
Appreciation to Queta Bond, president emeritus now
of BWF, who has been a great supporter of this work.
Finally, deep gratitude to Dan Colley, Stephanie
James, and Michael Gottlieb, who on seeing the
U.S.-focused Making the Right Moves in 2005 told us
“You need to make one of these for the rest of the
world.” Who can resist such good advice from such
wise people?
Table of Contents
VII
Preface
33
C h ap t e r 3 Getting Started:
1
C h ap t e r 1 E q u i pp i n g Y o u r La b
Getting Started:
and Hiring People
Finding and Moving
33 Designing and Equipping
Your New Lab
into a Job
2 The Job Search
33 Putting the People You Need
In Place
6 The Job Application
38 Interviewing Applicants
8 The Job Interview
40 Evaluating Applicants
14 Negotiating Your Position
41 Making the Offer
18 Resources
42 Asking Staff to Leave
19
C h ap t e r 2 44 Resources
entry and re-entry:
establishing yourself as
a scientist in a new job
45
C h ap t e r 4 Ma n a g i n g Y o u r
20 People You Should Get to Know
Ma n y R o l e s
21 Support Facilities and Services
46 Your Role as a Laboratory Leader
24 Working with Human Subjects
47 Developing Leadership Skills
26 Responsibilities Beyond the Laboratory
48 How to Improve Your
Leadership Skills
27 Scientists and the Outside World
28 Understanding Your Institution
and How to Progress Within It
50 Creating Your Vision as a Leader
51 Developing Your Leadership Style
32 Resources
table of contents
III
53 Building and Sustaining an
Effective Team
97
Getting Funded
54 Good Practice for Laboratory
Notebooks
97 Understanding the Review Process
100 Preparing a Strong Grant Application
61 Making Decisions
62 Setting and Communicating Rules
of Behavior for Members of
Your Laboratory
71
C h ap t e r 7 106 Resources
107
C h ap t e r 8 Teaching and
65 Keeping Lab Members Motivated
Course Design
67 Managing Conflict in the Lab
107 Why Teach Well?
70 Resources
109 Becoming an Effective Teacher
110 The Principles of Active Learning
C h ap t e r 5 Ma n a g i n g Y o u r T i m e
114 Developing Examination Questions
72 Strategies for Planning Your Activities
115 Course Design
74 Making Choices
117 Teaching Others to Teach
74 Managing Your Time Day-to-Day
118 Time Management When
Balancing Teaching and Research
76 Making the Most of the Time You Have
119 The Teaching Portfolio
77 Managing Non-Research Tasks
120 Resources
79 Family Matters
80 Resources
121
C h ap t e r 9 I n c r e a s i n g Y o u r I m pa c t :
81
IV
C h ap t e r 6 Getting Published
P r o j e c t Ma n a g e m e n t
121 Understanding Publishing
82 Deciding on a Project
127 Writing Your Paper
84 Getting Started
129 Submitting Your Paper
87 Tools for Developing Schedules
132 Publishing Honestly
90 Controlling the Project
133 Promoting Your Work
91 Resources
134 Resources
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
135
C h ap t e r 1 0 157
E x pa n d i n g Y o u r
C h ap t e r 1 2 intellectual property
Influence: Training
157 Understanding Intellectual
Property Rights
the Next Generation
of Scientists
135 Training Others
160 Intellectual Property in a Global
Environment
139 Strategies for Effective Training
163 Case Studies
140 Different Needs at Different Stages
166 Resources
143 How to Get the Career Help and
Advice That You Need
167
C h ap t e r 1 3 M o v i n g Ma t e r i a l s
144 Resources
and Equipment
144 When Mentoring, Advisory, or
Supervisory Relationships are not
working out
168 Regulations and Relevant
Organizations
169 Appropriate Packaging
145
C h ap t e r 1 1 170 Important Issues and Practical Advice
Collaboration
172 Service and Maintenance
145 The Collaborative Effort
174 Responsibility for Materials
148 Setting up a Collaboration
174 Animals and Plants
151 The Ingredients of a Successful
Collaboration
174 Physical Challenges to Shipping
Materials Long Distances
152 Dealing with Authorship and
Intellectual Property Issues
154 Special Challenges for the
Beginning Investigator
176 Resources
177
app e n d i x
155 When a Collaboration is Not Working
156 Resources
table of contents
V
“ E v e r y
v i r t u e o r e x c e ll e n c e b o t h b r i n g s i n t o g o o d c o n d i t i o n t h e t h i n g o f w h i c h i t i s t h e e x c e ll e n c e a n d m a k e s t h e w o r k o f
t h a t t h i n g b e d o n e w e ll ;
t h e e x c e ll e n c e o f t h e e y e m a k e s b o t h t h e e y e a n d i t s w o r k
g o o d , f o r i t i s b y t h e e x c e ll e n c e o f t h e e y e t h a t w e s e e w e ll .
S i m i larl y t h e e x c e ll e n c e o f t h e h o r s e m a k e s a h o r s e b o t h
g o o d i n i t s e l f , a n d g o o d a t r u n n i n g , a n d a t c arr y i n g i t s r i d e r ,
a n d a t a w a i t i n g t h e a t t a c k o f t h e e n e m y .
T h e r e f o r e , i f t h i s i s t r u e i n e v e r y c a s e , t h e e x c e ll e n c e o f
a p e r s o n al s o w i ll b e t h e s t a t e o f c h ara c t e r w h i c h m a k e s a
p e r s o n g o o d a n d m a k e s h i m d o h i s o w n w o r k w e ll .
a r i s t o t l e
VI
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
”
preface
Launching a scientific career is difficult. Success
as a scientist will depend on many things—from
intelligence and creativity to luck; from being a
good team player to being an independent thinker
and driver of your own work; from bringing out
the best in the people with whom you work to
being an accurate and respected authority whose
fairness and good ideas are known to other
researchers, research organizations, and perhaps
governments. At the top in research, people
almost universally want the same things: to be
excellent scientists, to do their best work, and to
see good things come of it. Integrity is at the core
of a good career, everywhere. A successful career
in science pays off by advancing knowledge, and
often by helping to make the world a healthier or
easier place, by earning one the respect of other
scientists, and by providing new opportunities to
do good work and share in a better life.
The Burroughs Wellcome Fund is proud to support
many excellent life scientists during the early part
of their careers. Although we are a research funder,
our focus is actually not just on the research
but also on the scientists who carry it out. Put
simply, we look for the best young scientists and
then invest our resources to help them reach
new levels of excellence. We believe that giving
scientists room for creativity, for taking risks, and
for moving their interests between fields to look at
existing problems in new ways is a strategy that
produces a catalytic effect. Foundations are fairly
small in the overall scheme of scientific funding,
so like an enzyme we hope to pick a good spot
from which to bring things into line so that the
barriers to activation can be reduced.
Several years ago, we asked our awardees who
were just starting faculty careers in the United
States and Canada to think about how we could
help them better. What we heard back from them
surprised us—they did not ask for more money
or more scientific resources. Instead, they asked
us for help in understanding how to succeed at
many activities—managing people, getting grants,
spreading one’s reputation, and more—that are
critical for scientific success and are not taught at
the bench.
Their replies stirred us to action. The Burroughs
Wellcome Fund teamed up with the Howard
Hughes Medical Institute, another researchsupporting organization that, like us, is interested
in what it takes to make a good career great
and a great career magnificent. Together we
put together a short course for our early-career
awardees. The response to the course was so
strongly positive that we put together a book to
make the material covered in the course available
to a broader audience.
When BWF’s awardees and advisors who work
in other parts of the world saw it, they said that
this information was needed far beyond North
America, the region in which we make almost
all of our grants. So we set about making this
material relevant to scientists starting careers
preface
VII
outside our region. This volume focuses on starting
careers in the emerging scientific communities in
the South—the low- and middle-resource regions
of the tropics and sub-tropics.
The material here features insights from researchers
in Africa and South and Central America, and we
hope it may be useful to those in other regions as
well.
The work on re-interpreting this material for
scientists in many other countries has taken place
in several phases. It began with asking North
American researchers who work closely with
investigators and field sites in the South to provide
commentary on parts of the original book that were
especially “North Americo-centric.” Next, a number
of researchers from the South, but working in the
U.S., were asked for their ideas. Then BWF staff
sent the revised material to researchers who
have established their careers in South America,
Central America, and Africa and asked for both their
critiques and corrections and, more importantly, for
stories from their own early experiences in starting
research careers. Their comments and thoughts
are found throughout the book. We hope that
these will help you feel that you are in kinship and
in conversation with these scientists, even though
they may be far from you.
It would be impossible to create a book that fits the
experiences of researchers in every place where
science is expanding and new opportunities are
arising for young researchers. But the material in
this book is “open source.” If you are in an institution, organization, or government that is interested
in custom-tailoring our laboratory management
resources to use in your own country or region,
we are glad to hear it.
Science is an international endeavor. Wherever it
is done, it connects us to the scientists, scholars,
and philosophers of the past and the future. Our
work as a scientific community can make human
lives better, healthier, and longer, and can improve
the economies of nations, regions, and the world.
To be a scientist is both a privilege and a passion.
We hope the insights in this book will help you
build a career where you consistently aim higher,
reach farther, and perform even better than you
may have thought would be your best.
John E. Burris, Ph.D.
President
Burroughs Wellcome Fund
Victoria McGovern, Ph.D.
Senior Program Officer
Burroughs Wellcome Fund
VIII
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
chapter 1
GETTING STARTED:
Finding and Moving into a Job
“ L a
c i e n c i a n o t i e n e p a t r i a p e r o e l h o m b r e d e c i e n c i a s í la t i e n e .
”
B e r n a r d o H o u s s a y
As you complete your scientific training and
prepare to move forward into a position of greater
scientific and often managerial responsibility, you
are probably starting to think about the next step
in your research career. For some of you, this
may mean a position as the head of a laboratory
at a university or as a researcher in an industry or
government laboratory. For others, it may mean
working more independently than during your
training, but still under another scientist or official’s
authority. You may have lined up a job even before
starting your training or you may have to embark
on a job search, perhaps with little idea of how to
begin. You may have completed your training in
the same country where you hope to find permanent employment, or you may be returning to your
home country after having trained elsewhere.
This book focuses on scientists with doctoral
degrees, but there are several levels of training
for professional scientists, and in many countries
there are jobs at each of these levels that can
lead to positions of power and responsibility. For
example, in many places people who hold the
MPhil or MSc degree and have relevant experience
will become program coordinators or managers of
complex partnerships, while experienced people
with PhDs will more commonly lead one or a
group of research programs. It is a good idea to
be familiar with what kinds of jobs and responsibilities generally go with the degree you have in
the place where you will work.
The process of obtaining a research appointment
varies greatly from country to country and from
situation to situation. This chapter will provide
some general advice and strategies to help you
find the type of job that suits your ambitions and
goals. If you will be moving to a new position in
the same institution or department or into a job
that has been held for you, you may not need to
carry out a job search. Still, this chapter may
provide some insight into how to make sure you
and your institution—whether it is a university,
research institute, clinic, or government—have the
same expectations as you begin a new phase of
your career. That insight will help even if you find
yourself in a totally different country, neither your
own nor the one where you trained, but where
you may have secured a job or hope to find a job.
The quote above: Houssay, referring to a famous quote by Pasteur, reflects that while science itself has no country, scientists do.
GETTING ST A R TED : F i n d i n g a n d M o v i n g i n t o a J o b
1
As you start your job search or prepare to move
into new responsibilities, you will confront a series
of challenging questions:
n
What do I want and need from my scientific work?
n
What do I want and need from a job?
n
If a job is being held for me, is it still the next job I want, and one that makes sense for me?
n
How has time away affected my standing at an institution to which I might return?
n
What will my career progression be like if I return to this institute?
n
If I find I have more than one opportunity in front of me, how will I chose between them?
n
How can I ensure that my achievements and
capabilities, which may have been developed far from where I want to work, will be recognized?
n
If I have more than one job offer, how will I choose?
n
How can I ensure that the resources I need to launch my career and succeed as a researcher are made available to me?
n
How can my skills and knowledge be used to
address the needs and opportunities in the
institution and position in which I will work?
Most people also confront a very basic question:
n
How do I go about finding a job?
There are no universally correct answers to these
questions, but this chapter will raise some things
to consider as you look for your own answers.
the job search
If you need to find a job, make your search a
concentrated effort. Ideally, doing so may bring
multiple offers your way at about the same time.
Even if resources and opportunities in the region
where you will work are scarce, still try to enter
the search mindful that you have choices and
opportunities, and that you are bringing something
excellent—yourself!—to your potential employer.
Making the job hunt a focused and dedicated
effort also makes the labor-intensive process of
gathering your credentials and references much
more productive.
If you have your heart set on getting one specific
job, it may still be useful to think through other
possibilities. As you think more broadly, you may
find that many different possible futures are
available to you. You may still love the job that
was your original favorite, but also find some
other ways forward that will allow you to develop
contingency plans in case the preferred job does
not work out. There are many reasons an excellent
candidate may not be selected for what seems
like “the perfect job,” including personalities not
quite fitting, funding being cut, and governments
changing directions.
W h i l e y o u ar e s t i ll i n t ra i n i n g
If you know that you will train abroad for a few years and then return to your home country, you can
help pave the way for your future job search by forming an informal advisory group of past teachers and
advisors, young scientists who are slightly senior to you and who will enter jobs while you are finishing
your training, and any friends and relatives who may have useful knowledge of the scientific job market
which you plan to enter.
Keep these advisors informed of your scientific and career progress while you are gone so that in a few
years, when it is time to begin moving toward a long-term position, you have some allies in your own
country keeping you in mind and watching out for job opportunities that may fit you.
Meanwhile, if you are training in a wealthy country, be on the lookout for re-entry grant funds, which are
available from a number of agencies. These modest grants are meant to help you successfully establish
your research project when you return to your own country.
2
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
knowing what you want
The concept of job-hunting does not apply
exactly in the scientific activity in my country.
Apart from the very few companies that may
offer jobs for scientists (really negligible), most
scientists start their careers as investigators of
the CONICET and/or as teacher/professors at
public universities. In both cases the most critical issue is to find the lab/institute or university
department where to work, and only then one
applies. The position is obtained through open
contests where there is not a personalized job
offer but a peer review analysis of your CV,
your work plan, and the institution you chose.
In the case of universities, a contest includes
a public lecture, and the analysis of previous
teaching activity, all assessed by a jury.
Alberto Kornblihtt, Argentina
”
Even if a position is being held for you or you are
moving on to a new role in your current institution
without a formal job search, it can still be worthwhile to set aside some time to put together your
curriculum vitae (CV) as you are finishing up your
training. The CV is the professional passport for
scientists, and it is a document you should always
be ready to produce on request. You should also
make contact with those involved in your training
and others who will be preparing letters of
recommendation for you, to let them know that
you are about to move on to a new stage in your
career. Sending a copy of your newly-updated CV
to these individuals will help them remember your
experiences and goals and will show them the
progress you have made. This will help them write
their strongest letters of recommendation with
scientific specifics, rather than just statements
about their own relationships with you and your
good character.
In your job search, you will have a greater chance
of finding a job that fits you well if you have your
own needs and wants firmly in mind. Career
options in specific countries and regions will vary
greatly, and the choices you make will be very
dependent on the nature of scientific careers in the
place you plan to work. In some places, universities
will be the principal and perhaps only settings for
research. Elsewhere, research may be concentrated
in government facilities or in research institutes.
Whatever opportunities are available, you should
consider the following questions:
n
Do you need to be working at the “top”
institution to achieve your goals as a scientist,
or would an excellent but less competition-driven institution be acceptable or even preferable, given your personality, talents, ambitions, and commitments?
n
Do you want to devote yourself exclusively to
research, or would you prefer some combination
of research and teaching, consulting, government service, or clinical practice?
n
Do you prefer an urban, rural, or suburban location?
n
Will personal responsibilities or the professional needs of other family members set limits on what you might do or where you might live?
n
If you are a physician-scientist, will you want to see patients? How much time will you want to
devote to research versus clinical practice? If you are rarely in the clinic, how will you make the time
to keep your clinical credentials (licenses, etc.) up to date?
n
Is the timing right? Have you finished what you hoped to accomplish in your training? Are you ready
to succeed at the job you are considering?
In some cases, one has to start with
whatever is available so as to be able to feed
your family or to look after your parents. As
long as you are passionate about science and
have your goals clear, you will eventually find
your way back to science.
Abdoulaye Djimdé, Mali
GETTING ST A R TED : F i n d i n g a n d M o v i n g i n t o a J o b
”
3
Learning What Jobs Are Available
Often, we ‘create’ our job by what we bring
to the opportunity, including our perspective
of the position and setting. Where some see
problems, others perceive opportunity.
Reliable formal and informal sources of information
to find out about available jobs include:
n
Informal discussions with current and former colleagues—for example, the supervisor of your current training, other scientists with whom you have a relationship (especially those with whom
you have collaborated), teachers from your undergraduate education, government officials and civil
servants you may know, and your peers. If you
are doing part of your training in a different country
from where you will seek permanent employment,
it is critically important to keep in contact with
a broad array of people back home, not just family
and your closest friends, so that you can find out
about job opportunities or changes to a position
you have been promised in advance.
n
Job announcement letters sent to your department or your professional society.
n
Announcements (print and online) in major
scientific journals such as Cell, Science, and Nature
and in publications devoted to your subspecialty.
n
Advertisements in local scientific and medical
journals.
n
Advertisements in national and regional
newspapers and international magazines. The
Economist frequently carries advertisements for
jobs (mostly not research-oriented but requiring
scientific knowledge) at Non-Governmental
Organizations (NGOs), Quasi-Autonomous
Non-Government Organizations (QANGOs),
Nancy Gore Saravia, Colombia
”
Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), and other
wide-reaching international organizations.
n
Web sites of academic institutions, particularly
university Web sites, and of research institutes,
as well the ministry of education or equivalent
government body in your country.
n
Employment bulletins published by professional
associations.
n
List serves for researchers, including technical
ones focused on your scientific interests and those of multinational organizations such as the
World Health Organization.
n
Major radio stations and selected newspapers
(announcing jobs this way is a legal requirement
in some countries).
Narrowing Your Search
Job offers in your country may be scarce. If so,
you should consider every opportunity that is at
the appropriate level and involves the kind of work
you would like to do. But many readers will be able
A F e w Car e e r - R e la t e d W e b S i t e s f o r S c i e n t i s t s
Nature magazine’s Nature Jobs (http://naturejobs.nature.com) Web site advertises jobs around the
world and has a useful feature for focusing on jobs in your region of interest.
Science magazine’s ScienceCareers.org Web site (http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/) contains
a career development resource for postdocs and beginning faculty. This site is primarily focused on
American scientists, with some European content, but some of the advice will apply to scientists in
other countries.
While jobs advertised on these sites and in these magazines are mostly in countries with larger
research economies, both magazines take an international view and are adding new content and new
job opportunities from additional countries as time goes by.
4
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
q&a
Question
What Is a “Tenure-Track” Job?
answer
In Nature, Science, and frequently in career discussions you will encounter the term “tenure-track.” In
some countries, a faculty member hired in a tenure-track position will work for several years before a formal
decision is made on whether tenure—something approximating lifetime job security—will be granted. If
tenure is not granted, the investigator is typically asked to leave so that someone else can fill the tenuretrack spot. In most institutions that use this system, a tenured professor cannot be fired, except for certain
limited causes such as gross misconduct or neglect of duty. However, gaining tenure is not an easy way to
convert one’s job into a sinecure. At many tenure-granting institutions, chronically unproductive faculty will
lose their research space and much of their salary support until not much more than the professorial title
remains.
Some career opportunities and funding programs require that an investigator have a “tenure-track” or
equivalent position. That is because such a position is expected to include dedicated research space,
intellectual independence (meaning that you are the driver of your own research program), and—perhaps
most importantly—your institution’s clear statement that it is committed to your long-term career success
and that you are part of the institution’s plans for its own future. The important thing about a tenure-track
position is not that someone has offered you a job for life, but rather that your position and your institution’s
commitment to you are stable enough for you to be a researcher not only today but also far into the future.
Letters of nomination or recommendation from your institution should highlight this long-term commitment
to your research, in addition to commenting on your science and the personal qualities that make you an
excellent scientist, if your position has a similar level of stability.
In some places, a model much like that of the French system INSERM prevails—investigators who become
part of the government-sponsored research system are very secure. Some government institutions will hire
researchers for a short probationary period during which they must show they will do well in the job, and
then will move them into a permanent and very secure position.
to find several job offerings that fit well and should
be considered. Once you have a list of possible
job opportunities, compare the advantages and
disadvantages of the various jobs against your list
of priorities. Find out about:
n
The parameters and expectations of the position.
n
The department’s reputation, mission, research activities, curriculum, and collegial atmosphere.
I know of no positions (with one exception)
in Argentina that have been advertised. In
Argentina it is mostly the other way around,
with some minor exceptions—it is not the
institutions that go looking for applicants, but
former students that want to come back and
knock at the door of every institution looking
for some lab space.
n
The institution’s quality, mission, values, and
political and social climate.
Belen Elgoyhen,Argentina
There is no easy way to determine how many
positions you should apply for. If you work in a
place where there are many jobs open at the
GETTING ST A R TED : F i n d i n g a n d M o v i n g i n t o a J o b
”
5
same time, or are considering jobs in more than
one country or region, you may put in several job
applications at once. That may seem unnecessary,
but remember that job hunting has valuable
spin-offs. For example, if more than one place is
interested in you, you may get more chances to
make presentations about your work. Your ideas
are sharpened by organizing your thoughts and
making presentations, and your research itself will
benefit from this outwardly directed thinking.When
you pull together your work for presentation, you
are practicing skills you will use throughout your
career. You also get better at all parts of the process as you go along. Your self-confidence builds,
and your sense of what you want develops as you
are introduced to various research environments.
However, unless jobs are extremely scarce in the
place where you most want to work, do not apply
for a scientific job for which you are clearly not
qualified, whether it is beyond your current experience level or far below it. Nor should you pursue
employment that really does not interest you. You
do not want to waste people’s time and perhaps
damage your own credibility.
The Job Application
How you go about applying for a job varies from
place to place and from institution to institution.
Talk to those who trained you and to colleagues
to find out about the culture at the institutions you
would like to approach and what you will need to
do to put in a successful application. This section
provides some general guidelines, with specific
examples from various individuals.
Making a Good First Impression
Regardless of the type of application process,
follow the application instructions or expected
protocol carefully. Make sure your materials are
free of factual, grammatical, and spelling errors.
You do not want to be eliminated at the outset—
a sloppily-prepared document makes a bad
impression.
If there is a deadline, be sure to get your application in on time. But if you learn about the position
after the application deadline has passed, go
ahead and send in your application with an
6
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
explanation that you were unaware of the position
before the deadline. Many institutions are willing
to consider late applications, and most will be
delighted to see your application if you are
particularly well-suited for the position available.
Putting Together Your CV. Most job applications
require you to submit a CV along with your application. Typically, this career summary should contain:
n
Your name, address, and telephone number.
n
All higher education, with degrees obtained
and dates.
n
All professional positions held, with dates and
brief descriptions of the work performed.
n
Awards and honors, including pre- and
postdoctoral fellowships.
n
Membership in national, regional, and
international scientific and professional societies.
n
Major sources of independent funding.
n
Publications, including major reviews.
n
Teaching experience, awards, and interests.
n
References, including names, titles, addresses,
and other contact information.
n
Invited keynote speeches and presentations.
n
Major research projects undertaken.
n
Main responsibilities held in work-related
committees.
In some countries, it is accepted that you will
provide personal details such as your marital
status, number of children, or general health, but
in others this practice will seem peculiar and may
cause your application to be viewed less seriously
than those that conform to a less personal
standard. Ask friends and colleagues who have
positions like the job you hope to get if they will
look at your CV and tell you if there is anything
more that should be included or anything that
should be removed.
Highlight your name in bold type in your publications list so that it will be easy to see where you
fell among the authors. List manuscripts in
preparation as a separate category. Do not list
every paper you can conceive of writing in the next
year. Include only papers that you are seriously
preparing for immediate submission, or you may
be seen as dishonestly padding your CV rather than
as someone who has many irons in the fire. Be
prepared for requests for copies of manuscripts that
you have described as in preparation or submitted.
The Research Proposal. Some applications will
require you to provide a description of your
research plans. This research proposal may be
reviewed by a committee composed of people
from scientific areas outside your subspecialty.
For this reason, make sure that your proposal
is clearly written and that it provides sufficient
background for non-specialists to understand the
importance of the work.
Follow any guidelines given when writing your
research proposals. Here are some suggested
items you might include:
n
A title that succinctly describes the nature of
your proposal.
n
A statement about the problem you intend to work
on, indicating the key unanswered questions you
will tackle. State how this research is expected to
contribute to other research in your general area
of scientific interest, and if appropriate to the
proposal, how it may contribute to policy formulation or informed decision-making.
n
A description of your research plans. This section
should comprise 50-70% of the proposal. Put
forward three or four specific aims that address
a range of fundamental questions within your
discipline. Demonstrate that you have the necessary background to achieve what you propose.
Be both creative and realistic.
n
A few comprehensive figures. These can help
make your proposal more interesting to read.
Remember, figures are most useful when they
are included in the text, as they would be in a
published paper, and not tacked on at the end, as
they usually are when you are submitting a paper
for publication.
n
A detailed description of the research you conducted as part of your training, with an emphasis on
what is novel, useful, and important and how it is
the basis for your research proposal. You may
want to make clear that the work you are taking
with you will not be in direct competition with your
former supervisor, especially if you work in the
same country.
n
A short bibliography backing your research plan.
It should include your publications and manuscripts
submitted or in press, as well as pertinent
publications by others.
Your research proposal should accomplish one
goal: to spell out what you realistically hope to
accomplish in the next few years as an employee
of the organization to which you are applying. If
your plans are too grandiose, you may undermine
your case by showing that you are not a realist.
(Worse, you might land the job and then be
expected to live up to your unrealistic plans!)
If your plans are not big enough, however, you
may appear to misunderstand the position or lack
ambition. This, then, is another document where
insight from others who have landed similar jobs in
the same or similar institutions will be extremely
valuable.
Reprints. Follow instructions given for each
application. Send along any important papers that
are not yet published.
Statement of Teaching. If the job has a teaching
component, you may be asked to include a
separate section describing how you look at
teaching, your instructional style, and any teaching
experience you may have already had. This topic
will be discussed further in chapter 8.
Letters of Recommendation. Depending on the
application instructions, letters of recommendation
can be included by you in the application package or
submitted later without passing through your
hands. Typically, these letters are written by your
former supervisors. It also may be acceptable
to submit one or two more references than the
number asked for in the application. If possible,
you should check in with the organization to which
you are applying about this. Again, it is usually not
appropriate to go overboard. Sending 12 references
when three are requested would be viewed by
many employers as a sign that you are insecure or
grandiose, but some might view it as a sign that you
are well-connected. It is in your best interest to find
out which is more likely to be true at the institution
you are interested in joining. Checking in directly
with the office of the person who is hiring is one
way to make sure that you do not send the wrong
message.
GETTING ST A R TED : F i n d i n g a n d M o v i n g i n t o a J o b
7
When you approach someone other than an
advisor for a letter of recommendation, use the
conversation as an opportunity to get a sense of
how they judge your work. If you encounter any
hesitation at all, or an indication that the person
does not have time to write a letter or does not
know you well enough to do so, ask others. In
most cases it is better to ask someone who really
knows you and your work—not just someone with
an important title.
Give those who are writing you letters of recommendation plenty of time to prepare the letters.
When possible, give them your application package, any advertisements or job announcements
to which you may be responding, and your most
up-to-date CV. It is important that your more
recent accomplishments are on their minds, not
just things you may have done years ago. If you
find the process narcissistic or are uncomfortable
with the self-promotion involved, don’t worry—
many people feel the same way. But what you
are trying to do is to put on paper the facts that
will make employers want to have a look at you.
These letters may be the key to convincing a
potential employer to consider you for the job.
You need them to be as strong, current, and
laudatory as they can honestly be. Your future
depends on them.
In some places, it is not uncommon (but certainly
not common) for people to ask you to prepare a
draft of the letter of recommendation for them.
They do this so that you can highlight points that
will strengthen your application—if you are applying on the strength of your experience with a
particular technique, for example, the letter might
spend a paragraph focusing on your mastery of
the technique, in addition to paragraphs commenting on the bigger picture of your science, on your
character, and on your standing compared with
your peers. If an advisor asks you to draft a letter,
it is fair for you to ask him or her to give you some
examples of other letters, so that you can get the
format and tone correct, and for you to ask others
in your lab to help you craft the best letter you
can. Be aware that although someone may have
described this as a “draft,” he or she may sign
it and send it without adding more comments or
editing it, so check it very carefully before you
declare it complete.
8
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
In most cases, your recommenders will write the
letters themselves and will not let you see them.
When you deliver or send them your CV, point
out any strengths you have that they may not be
fully aware of. But be careful—you do not want
to appear to be dictating your letter to them, and
things you say that are meant to turn any negative
impressions of you around could backfire.
If you are able to, provide your recommenders
with stamped, addressed envelopes ready to
accept letters and be sent, or, if letters are to be
sent electronically, provide the complete URL or
email address for submission. You want to lower
the barriers to them sending the letters, or else
they may procrastinate. It is better to buy the
stamps yourself rather than have the letter languish simply because this important person was
unable to find time to go to the post office. Tell
them when each letter to each of your potential
employers will be needed, and then remind them
until they send your letters. Check in with the
office that is hiring to verify that each letter has
been received. If the people who are writing your
reference letters are established scientists with a
secretary or aide, you may want to enlist the help
of that assistant to be sure the letters are sent in
on time.
Unless a job application specifically asks for
electronic submissions only, a paper letter on the
writer’s letterhead stationery should be sent, even
if an electronic version has also been forwarded.
The Job Interview
Depending on the process for obtaining a job
in your country, a formal job interview may be
required. It might last a short time, or it could
involve a day long or over night visit to the
institution. It may be conducted by a single
person or a committee. Or you might be asked
to meet directly with the hiring official at a local
or international meeting and not be brought on
site at all. The interview could also be conducted
in stages, with some applicants being eliminated
at each step. The institution inviting you for an
interview may or may not pay your expenses for
travel and accommodations. You might meet with
several senior members of the institution, either
q&a
Question
What if I do not get along with my former or current supervisor?
answer
If you do not have a good relationship with your supervisor and cannot ask for a letter of recommendation,
sometimes it is best to explain why in your cover letter. Be completely candid about the situation. Not
having a recommendation from the very person who trained you and supervised your work can be a very
significant red flag. Sometimes if you have a good relationship with the top person at your institution or
department, you can ask that person to take on the task of helping you advance to your next position. This
may be effective in allowing you to get past conflicts with your problematic supervisor. But remember
that your publication record may make it obvious that you are not asking the person with whom you worked
most closely to give you a recommendation. Despite your insertion of a higher official into the process,
those in charge of reviewing applications may contact your immediate supervisor anyway.
Think and act carefully in this situation, but do not become too paranoid—a soured relationship with a past
boss can be inconvenient, particularly in the small world of research, but conflicts are bad for both parties
involved, and hounding you forever would probably be a negative career move for your former supervisor.
When important people are consistently bad bosses to those they train, word gets around. You should
resist the urge to complain or badmouth your nemesis, and should not be surprised if a few years later
others turn out to know of the grace with which you handled this difficult situation.
In the meantime, a letter from another scientist at your supervisor’s level at your institution who can comment on your intellect and hard work and perhaps make a comment on the difficult relationship between
you and your supervisor may be critical in this case. Often, the frictions that arise between people can be
put in a light that reflects positively on you and your supervisor—for example, if your interests in basic science grew to conflict with your supervisor’s need to use you in an administrative or bureaucratic role, then
neither of you were “bad people,” the job was simply not a good fit. It is obvious how and why some bad
feeling might come along. People do understand that sometimes the fit between individuals’ personalities
or between a scientist and a particular job is just not right, and will not always judge you harshly for it.
during the first or subsequent interviews, and they
may be asked to provide feedback about you to
the person or committee doing the hiring. You may
also be asked to give one or more talks about your
research. No matter what the format of the job
interview is, it will be your task to:
n
Convince those listening that your work is exciting and that you will be a leader in your field.
n
Convince each person you talk with that you will be a good colleague.
n
Find out as much as you can that will help you
decide if the institution, the working group, and
the job are right for you.
n
Convince the interview panel that your competencies and expertise will complement and strengthen
those of the research group and add value to
existing research activity.
Regardless of how the particular process works,
be prepared for a demanding and exhausting
experience. Get enough rest beforehand so that
you will be at your best.
GETTING ST A R TED : F i n d i n g a n d M o v i n g i n t o a J o b
9
Advance Preparation
Preparing Your Job Talk
Be well-prepared by doing the following before
your visit:
During an interview visit, you may be asked to give
a formal presentation on your current research.
At many institutions this kind of talk lasts about
an hour, including 10-15 minutes for questions.
You have probably given a long talk before, and
you know what works for you, but here are a few
guidelines on how to prepare your talk:
n
n
n
Organize the logistics of your trip, including travel tickets, hotel accommodations, arrangements for
pick-up, and the schedule of events on interview
day. Be conservative about your estimates of travel
time—you do not need the added stress of missing a connection and being late. If you will have access to email or cell phone communication during
your trip, exchange addresses or phone numbers
with the person who organized your interview so
that you can alert each other if there are problems
during your travel or any changes in plans. Do not
make assumptions about arrangements being
made for you—get the details beforehand. Find
out whether you will be given accommodations
while you are on site, particularly if you are flying in
before the day of your interview. It may be that accommodations will not be provided. Knowing this
before you arrive, so that you can make your own
arrangements, will save you plenty of confusion
and trouble later.
If you will be meeting other scientists, find out
about their scientific interests ahead of time. Read
a few of their papers or at least skim the abstracts.
Be ready to ask them about their work.
Learn as much as possible about the institution
and its mission. You want to make sure your
ambitions are in line with those of the institution.
Dress Code
Dress neatly and in keeping with scientific custom
as you know it. If you have trained abroad, talk to
colleagues who are local to the institution where
you are interviewing to make sure you understand
the dress code. A simple suit—jacket, buttondown shirt, tie for men, and matching trousers or
skirt—may be the best approach. If you end up
being over-dressed, the jacket and tie can be taken
off for a less formal look. Think through what you
will do if your luggage is lost on the way. It is
advisable to carry an extra shirt, underclothes, and
light toiletries in your hand luggage, just in case
your baggage goes missing.
10
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
First, write out the entire talk, thinking of your
audience as you write. Remember, a talk is not
presented in the same way as a scientific paper.
You must get your main ideas across to listeners
who have had little opportunity to study the details,
as well as to those whose research interests and
backgrounds are very different from yours. Assume
that your audience will be composed of intelligent
people who are uninformed about your chosen
scientific field. To help your audience follow
your talk, divide it into several clear and concise
sections, and give an overview of the talk at the
beginning. At the end, restate your conclusions
and offer an outline of your future research plans.
At the outset or at the conclusion of your talk,
include a brief statement acknowledging those
who helped you in your research.
Next, translate what you have written into the
pictures and “major points” summaries of a slide
presentation. Most researchers use PowerPoint
presentations to deliver their talks. If you use
computer slides, bring along a sturdy backup, for
example a CD or flash drive with your talk, as well
as a less technology-dependent backup like acetate
slides that go on overhead projectors. Be sure to
ask your hosts ahead of time about the type of
equipment that will be available to you and plan
accordingly. Try to vary the design of your slides,
balancing the use of text and figures. Resist the
temptation to use only bulleted points, but also
avoid long sentences. Many people who are
nervous about public speaking will place every
word that they plan to say on their slides. That
does not make a very good slide show! Keep the
text on your slides brief and to the point. Refer to
the text as you speak, but do not just read it—
elaborate on it. That will lead your audience to be
comfortably attentive to both your text and your
remarks. Be sure that your slides are readable
from the back of a lecture room and that the order
of your slides matches your written presentation.
During an interview, in some cultures it is
suggested to be very polite, never make
eye contact with interviewers, and to avoid
speaking about oneself (e.g. describing your
strengths in overt terms). Specifically, females
are encouraged to avoid eye contact with male
interviewers. When interviewing with a person
with a foreign/international background, these
principles may be viewed as major weaknesses, and thus reduce your chances of
getting hired. It is important to find out the
background of the interviewer and adjust one’s
behavior accordingly.
Abdoulaye Djimdé, Mali
”
A few back-up slides of new work or additional
experiments may occasionally add value to any
discussion arising from your presentation.
View your slides projected in a lighted room, if
possible. Many images look fine on a computer
screen but work poorly when projected. In particular, avoid using light-colored text on light-colored
backgrounds or dark text on dark backgrounds.
Finally, practice your talk in front of a mirror. Doing
so allows you to time your presentation while
getting used to the sound of your own voice. Keep
repeating the talk until you can deliver it easily,
using your slides as your only memory aid. If
necessary, edit the talk down until you can deliver
it comfortably within the time allowed. Remember
that a talk that is slightly too short is much better
than one that is too long. It may be better to focus
on only one aspect of your research, so that you
can give sufficient detail within the time you have,
saving the rest for the question-and-answer session.
When you feel comfortable giving your talk, enlist
your supervisor, your colleagues, scientifically
trained friends and any students you work with
as an audience for a “dress rehearsal” practice
talk. If you will be using a laser pointer when you
give your interview talk, practice with one, as the
jumpiness of the laser spot can be a distraction for
the audience if the speaker is not used to handling
the pointer. Encourage the group to ask questions
and offer frank criticism of your work, your manner of speaking, your gestures and any annoying
speech or gesture habits that distract from your
talk, and your professional appearance. (Especially
if you are a very sensitive person, it is good to start
by reminding your helpful crowd you are looking for
insights that will let you quickly improve the talk,
not for thorough dissection of your work, personality, and appearance.) This is a useful exercise as
it may help prepare you to respond to comments,
including difficult and unanticipated questions.
Ask the group for suggestions for improving your
PowerPoint slides. Make sure that you start preparing your talk well before the day you will have to
leave and that you ask for comments early enough
to leave time for editing your slides and your talk to
incorporate with any good advice you receive.
I n t e r v i e w i n g i n a Gl o b al C o n t e x t
When NGOs and multinational organizations recruit, they will frequently meet with researchers in
the South, but bring with them assumptions and expectations that come from institutional cultures
in Geneva, New York, Paris, London, or elsewhere. The dress code, how to interact with the organization’s staff during the process, how forward or aggressive to be during the interview, and even how
much to pursue eye contact may be different from what is right for institutions in your country.
Eye contact, in particular, is difficult to gauge. In many (but not all) Northern cultures, briefly dropping
and then re-establishing eye contact on encountering a person in a position of power is a respectful
sign, but keeping them dropped is viewed as unconfident or dishonest. In most places, whether North
or South, gaining, pursuing, and holding eye contact too much is interpreted as aggressive. Finding
opportunities to talk informally with people from the countries frequently represented will give you a
chance to experiment with different levels of eye contact.
GETTING ST A R TED : F i n d i n g a n d M o v i n g i n t o a J o b
11
Practicing the Talk
Delivering the Talk
n
n
If you can, arrive early, so that you can become
comfortable with the room and can be sure that
your slides are set up and ready to go. You may
have to ask your host to get you to the room with
enough time to prepare.
n
The most nerve-wracking moments are just before
you begin your lecture. Focus on your breathing.
Make every inhale and exhale deliberate to control
a rapid heart rate. During the talk, pause and take
a breath between transitions, just as you would if
you were telling a friend an exciting story.
n
Feeling balanced is important to your selfconfidence. Plant your feet firmly on the floor.
Break habits such as rocking from foot to foot
or pacing.
Greet your audience and tell them you are glad
to be with them. Make eye contact with a few
audience members who seem eager to hear what
you have to say. Then plunge in.
n
Let it show that you are excited about your work
and the chance of perhaps landing a job working
with the people in front of you.
n
Make sure you speak clearly and loud enough for
all in the room to hear.
n
n
Practice what you will do with your hands so that
you can break fidgeting habits or the urge to put
them in your pockets. A computer mouse and a
pointer may be enough to keep you from fidgeting—but be careful not to play with either of them.
Do not worry if some people close their eyes or
seem uninterested. Continue to give your talk
as you practiced it, making eye contact with those
who are listening closely, even if those who
remain engaged are the students, not the leaders.
n
Even though you may have done all the work
presented, it is important to sound modest in your
presentation. Begin by saying, “The work I will tell
you about today was carried out while I was in
the lab of X at institution Y.” Then, describe each
research slide in terms of “we.” Be aware that
someone may interrupt and ask, “Yes, but what of
this work did you yourself do?”
n
Practice how you will answer questions. It is okay
to answer “I do not know” if you then offer to
find out about any matters of fact later and follow
up with the questioner. It is a great opportunity to
make contact with faculty after the interview.
n
n
n
Practice your first few sentences until you can deliver them without much thought—this will help you dive into your speech even if you are nervous.
Do not memorize your whole talk and give it as a
recitation, though—know what you plan to say, but
relax and talk with your audience rather than trying
to say exactly the same words that you practiced
in the weeks before the talk.
On your own, go through your talk over and over
again, paying attention to the words you will use
to go through your slides. If there is a slide where
you find yourself saying too much or going off on
tangents, work particularly hard on moving crisply
through the data.
If you feel you will be very close to your time limit,
practice deferring questions to the end of the
session so that you are not derailed by questions
that come up during the talk.
12
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
Answering Questions
n
Repeat the question for the audience, as it is often
difficult for other audience members to hear a
question asked without benefit of a microphone.
Then take your time answering. If you need to, buy
some more time by asking for a restatement of
the question. In a pinch, give an interpretation of
what you think the questioner wants to know. Take
a moment to think through what you want to say
and then speak, formulating a beginning, middle,
and end for your answer. Give your best answer
and stop. Rambling on only conveys uncertainty.
n
If questions are slow in coming, take the initiative
by pointing out some aspect of your work that you
passed over quickly but that you believe warrants
the audience’s attention. This gives you a chance
to use some of the material you edited out of your
talk. You may generate a whole new line of questioning. In case you need to go back through your
slides to a particular one in order to clarify a point,
arrange to have your slides accessible during the
discussion period.
n
If challenged, listen to the criticism and give a
judicious response. Do not become defensive.
Questions are more often asked because the
questioner does not understand something than
because he or she is trying to make a fool of the
speaker. Give the other person the benefit of the
doubt. If the criticism seems unfair or there is
a disagreement about a matter of fact, stand
your ground politely. You might suggest a followup discussion later. Even if the person is being
quite aggressive, you can still try to end the backand-forth by suggesting that you agree to disagree
until you can talk later and find out where you are
misunderstanding one another.
Giving an Informal Talk
When you visit a potential employer, you may
also have an opportunity to give a less formal
presentation during which you can offer detailed
information about the direction of your future
research. Ask before the interview how long you
should talk and make sure that in fact the more
formal seminar is not expected.
For an informal talk, give a brief overview of your
research agenda (which you may have included
in your job application as a research proposal).
Include in this talk both your short- and long-term
objectives—both the purpose of the work you are
talking about and what you would like to accomplish during your career. For example, you may be
working on a very detailed signaling pathway, but
this work is a small part in your greater interest in
how one microbe causes disease. Understanding
a tiny phosphorylation event may seem esoteric;
putting it in the context of your long-term interest
in Dengue fever helps even the least trained person
in the room understand why you are doing the work.
Once you have established a sense of perspective,
state several specific problems you want to work
on in the next few years, and explain in detail how
you plan to proceed. Be prepared to write on a
white board and bring along an overhead projector
sheet or two of preliminary data that will demonstrate the feasibility of your plan. Show that you
are familiar with the details of any new techniques
you may need to master. Be sure to convey to your
audience why the work is important and how your
work can make a difference to your field.
Expect to be interrupted. This kind of talk is a
chance to show that you can think on your feet,
that you respect others, and that you will be an
interactive research colleague. Even if you feel
pressured, do your best to keep things friendly
and to keep any disagreements light. Saying “You
may be right, I may be right—what is the best
experiment for settling the matter?” is a good
way to turn a disagreement back to the questioner
and to the audience.
Meeting Potential Colleagues. If part of the
interview process will include one-on-one conversations with other researchers who will be at or
near your level, it is important to show interest in
their work and ask lots of questions. Remember
that these potential colleagues are looking for
someone who will benefit their own work, as well
as someone who is a good scientist, and often as
someone who will be pleasant to have as a neighbor down the hall. You may be taken out to dinner
by some of the faculty. This is a chance for them
to evaluate you as a future colleague and for you
to determine whether you would enjoy working
with them. Be yourself during these events, but
also be appropriately respectful and deferential to
your would-be colleagues.
Depending on where you are applying, you may
also have a chance to meet students or other
trainees working there.
Concluding Your Visit
Typically, your visit will conclude with a conversation with the head of the institute or department
to which you are applying or with the committee
in charge of hiring. Once the visit is over, it may
be time to wait patiently, because the institution
may be interviewing other candidates. In the
meantime, it is customary in many places that
as soon as you return home you write a formal
letter addressed to the individuals you met during
your visit, thanking everyone for their hospitality
and reiterating your interest in the position. Even
if that is not the expected protocol in the place
you are looking for a job, few individuals are
mortified to receive a formal note of thanks and
you have little to lose by sending one. If during
GETTING ST A R TED : F i n d i n g a n d M o v i n g i n t o a J o b
13
your one-on-one interviews you have promised to
share data or more information, be sure to follow
up on your commitment quickly. If being “Johnnyon-the-spot”—very quick and eager to serve any
request—is out of place in the culture in which
you will work, still follow up quickly but perhaps
note that the fast follow-up is a sign of your
enthusiasm for the question, not a rush to move
things along more quickly.
Be sure to inform those who have interviewed you
if you decide to take another job or if for some other
reason you decide to withdraw your candidacy.
They may remember you negatively if you give
them an unpleasant surprise by not revealing your
plans until after they have made an offer to you.
Evaluating the Offer
If you are offered a position, you will need to find
out as much as possible about the job and the
resources that will be made available to you if
you accept it. If you are not satisfied with some
aspects of the offer, try to negotiate better terms,
if you can (this is not possible at all institutions).
You will have to do the following:
n
Learn the details of the offer.
n
Re-read the list of priorities you made at the outset of your search to evaluate how the job stacks up
against that list. Is this the job that will work for
you and for your family?
n
Calculate precisely what you need in salary and
other benefits to determine whether the offer
measures up. For example, can you afford to live
in the community on the salary offered? Think
about your family’s expenses and other financial
factors that will be important to you in the long run.
n
Does the institution provide help in finding or
paying for housing, fees for children, and, if
necessary, transportation expenses related to the
job? Benefits such as these can be negotiated
in some institutions, but not others. In some
countries, the idea of asking your institution for
help with any of these things would be absurd,
while in others several of them are typically part
of what is available.
n
Enumerate in detail the other resources—
especially equipment not currently on site or
opportunities to travel to places where the proper equipment is available—that you believe you
need to succeed in the scientific work you have planned. Decide what is absolutely necessary and what you can live without. In some cases, it may be satisfactory for the department to guarantee
you access to shared equipment, rather than
buying you your own.
n
Make your wishes known to the institution’s
representatives, and engage them in the process
of negotiating with you. Even in situations where
salary and other personal factors are not negotiable, it is important to clearly indicate any
resources without which you will not be able to
do your work, and discuss what will be done to
make sure you have access to them.
Negotiating Your Position
Once the head of the institute or of the department
where you applied has given you a tentative offer,
or at least let you know that you are the top
candidate, you are in a position of maximum
strength for asking for what you need to do your
job well, both in terms of your salary and technical
resources. In some places it is expected that you
may be able to negotiate some aspects of the job,
while in other places it is expected that you will
take what is offered. Find out ahead of time what
the custom is for the position for which you are
applying. The best way is to ask people in similar
positions in the same area about their own experiences with starting a new position.
In some places, there will be very little room for
negotiation in salary, and there may be no money
available for start-up support. You may be given the
only space that is available, or there may be some
room for negotiating about where your lab will be.
You should gather information beforehand to better
understand what is likely to be negotiable. Even
when all of the practical details are pre-determined,
you may be able to negotiate for more independence, or to cluster your responsibilities in ways
that leave you more time for research. No matter
where you go, talking with senior scientists who
are familiar with the institution may help you learn
where flexibility is available and how to ask for it.
14
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
q&a
Question
How do I distinguish myself from the lab that I trained in if I want to continue in
the same research area?
answer
Get a letter from your mentor explaining that he or she is pleased to know that you will be continuing to
work on project X, which he or she will not pursue. Have this discussion with your mentor before you start
to write the grant application.
n
As much as possible, get everything spelled out
in writing—it helps both you and your employer to
be clear on what is promised and expected from
both sides. This is true even if you are getting
“the standard package” and no negotiations will
take place.
n
For physicians in clinical departments, job discussions should indicate the extent of clinical duties
and clinical support, time to be spent at outlying
clinics, and so on.
n
Ask for a copy of a manual that spells out the
institution’s or department’s policies for its staff, if
such a document exists. If it does not, make sure
you know who you will need to see, what forms
you will need to fill out, etc., to get yourself situated at the institution. Often finding someone
who is willing to act as a “big brother” or “big
sister” as you settle in is the most useful way to
go about learning the written and unwritten rules
of your new institution, as well as important
secrets like where to find the good coffee or who
to call when the power goes out.
n
It may be that your job is very large. For example,
you may be hired to be the person for an important
disease in your country. Even in cases like that,
you will need resources well beyond your job title
to get your work done. It may be easier to discuss
those resources before you agree to take the job
than it will ever be after you have done so.
You may need to do some homework to rule out
problems that may not have been revealed during
your discussions with people at the institution
where you have received an offer. For example, it
would be helpful to know if the working group has
experienced internal personal conflicts recently, if
the organization has financial problems, if the head
is retiring or stepping down soon, whether key
leadership or staff members are about to leave
or retire, and the rate of staff turnover, including
what levels of staff leave most frequently and
why. You also want to know whether people who
have worked in the institution and department
have been happy, well-supported, and successful.
Use the grapevine—talk to people you met during
your interview visit, and talk with others recently
affiliated with your potential department and
institution. Be discreet, but be straightforward.
You do not want to be surprised, especially if there
are issues that are not “deal breakers” but would
be better dealt with before you arrive.
When you are contacted with an offer, you might
be asked for a second interview. This time, you
will be able to ask more detailed questions about
the position. Talk with key people in your prospective department, and have a preliminary look at
available housing. A second interview visit is an
excellent time to start the discussion about
what you will need in terms of laboratory space,
materials and equipment, and staff.
GETTING ST A R TED : F i n d i n g a n d M o v i n g i n t o a J o b
15
If talking directly about money is not
socially acceptable in a given place, what
kind of conversation could yield some
general numbers without showing your
hand or asking someone else to?
You can engage in a conversation with human
resource personnel in a relaxed environment
(away from the work environment) where
you can talk about your vision of the research
group that you will be leading. This group will
be in various grades and will also have different career advancement requirements as well
as salary scales. On the pretext of this line
of discussion try to find out (how advancement works) and where you want to be in the
next five years.Also try to get the associated
advancement grades and some salary scales.
In so doing you may be able to estimate the
salaries of those that are above you and thus
compare with your own salary. It is much
easier to find out what salaries those you
supervise earn than those who supervise you.
Susan Mutambu, Zimbabwe
”
What You Need to Find Out
Here are some of the details you will need to
ask about.
The Appointment. You need to know the following:
n
Are you responsible for obtaining money for your
salary through grants, or will your institution
provide it?
n
If your institution provides it, what is the amount
of your base pay (this may determine future raises)
and is that base pay tied to a particular grant or
other funding source that may expire?
n
Can the salary be negotiated or is it a set amount
for the type of position you are being offered?
n
What benefits come with the position?
n
Can you supplement your salary from other
sources, for example by consulting or teaching or
working in an unrelated job?
n
What are your institution’s policies on outside
consulting, including how much consulting is
permitted, what approvals are required, and what
limitations apply? Are there outside opportunities
that are explicitly not allowed?
Salary. If your salary is negotiable, you should
seek out sources of information you can use to
evaluate your initial offer. Salaries differ not only
from country to country, but even within the
same country they can vary widely depending on
degree, geographical location, type of institution
(public vs. private, research institute vs. university
vs. hospital), and scientific discipline. To evaluate
the salary offered, you need comparative information on starting faculty salaries at the institution
offering you the job and in your field elsewhere,
as well as on costs of living.
n
What your job title implies about your independence and authority, length of your expected relationship
with the place where you are working, and expectations about your role(s) within the organization.
Salary numbers are confidential in many institutions, but it can be useful to draw on friends and
colleagues to at least get an idea of the appropriate
range.
n
The length of your initial term of employment.
n
The terms under which the organization’s commitment to you will be renewed or not renewed.
Research Money and Facilities. In some
countries, an institution is expected to provide an
investigator who is just starting his or her own
lab with some money for hiring workers and for
buying supplies and other resources such as office
and lab space, equipment, computers and software, a technician and other support staff, help
in obtaining grants, and support for travel to conferences and meetings. This kind of institutional
support may be ongoing, or it may be available
only for a pre-determined period of time, after
which the head of the lab is expected to obtain
funds through other sources, such as grants.
The Salary. You need to pin down the following:
n
Is the salary guaranteed, and if so, for how long?
In other words, you need to know whether part
of your salary and other support must eventually
be obtained from other sources.
16
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
If you are to set up a new laboratory yourself, it is
useful to inquire about how to get such resources
at the institution. You may inherit them or be
expected to share them with others in the research
group. However, if it works at your organization,
it is good to ask up front about the resources you
need so that you can plan appropriately. You do
not want to later find out that your assumptions do
not match those of the person or people who have
hired you.
Service within the Institution. Ask whether you
will be expected to serve on committees within
the institution and about other projects you will
be expected to become involved with, in addition
to doing your research. Early on, try to establish an
understanding and agreement with your superiors
about how your time will be divided between your
research project and other tasks.
Teaching Responsibilities. If your job will be
attached to a university, you should know that
although it is rewarding, teaching can be the most
time-consuming activity for new faculty. You will
want a clear statement about the following:
n
n
n
Your teaching load (the number of subjects and classes each term, typical enrollments, and levels
and types of students).
Expectations about teaching-related tasks such
as running student laboratories and administering
and grading student examinations, students’
accessibility to you during non-lecture times, and
advising students on their university curriculum and
their careers.
The pool of jobs is limited in our clinical
setting, which does compromise one’s ability
to negotiate. Secondly, for active clinicians,
posts are mainly clinical. Research is seen as
a secondary activity which does limit time
allocated to research and the ability to negotiate for protected research time. Fortunately,
the status quo is changing. Government has
begun to increase research funding through
the National Research Foundation and the
Medical Research Council.
Brian Eley, South Africa
Jobs are far too scarce! One has to find
something, anything, and then negotiate as
time goes by and you climb the ladder.
Abdoulaye Djimdé, Mali
Negotiation is not so common with government
positions, but this can be done in cases of
consultancies. One can negotiate their salary
and the rest of the package (transport, housing
allowances, work terms) in some parastatals
(state-run companies) and the private sector.
Susan Mutambu, Zimbabwe
Whether you are expected to draw students into
your research work and direct their thesis projects.
Protecting Research Time. If you are a physician
who is seeing patients and doing research, or if you
are a government scientist or public health official
who has administrative tasks and is doing research,
you will need to clarify as much as possible how
much time you will spend in each of your roles.
You need to know what is expected when your
other responsibilities call you away from your
research. If you do not get a clear understanding
of these issues before you start your new job, you
may become overwhelmed when opportunities or
crises put your various roles into conflict.
”
”
”
Getting What You Need and Want
How to Negotiate. If in your institution you can
negotiate some of the aspects of your job (such
as the salary, money for research, or other duties
you will need to perform), present your requests
clearly. Take some time to make a list of what you
really need, and think about how to explain those
needs to the person in charge of hiring you.
Be reasonable with your requests, but do be sure
that you maximize your opportunities to do the
research you hope to do.
GETTING ST A R TED : F i n d i n g a n d M o v i n g i n t o a J o b
17
When the institution responds and you begin to
discuss the terms of your employment, be prepared
to make trade-offs. For example, if you are asking
for a piece of equipment, indicate that you would
be willing to share it with other faculty and how it
would benefit the rest of the department. Knowing
what is essential to you is crucial at this time.
The Offer Letter. At some institutions, the fruits
of your negotiations should be reflected in an
official letter from the institution offering you a job.
Work with the institution to craft as comprehensive a letter as possible. The letter is usually your
contract, so take it seriously. In addition to the
basics (e.g., title, salary, and research support), the
letter should detail the timing, schedule, process,
and requirements for your job.
Even if offer letters are not usual in the institution
where you are accepting a job, it can be useful
to write a letter to the person who is hiring you
soon after you have talked about your needs. In it,
you can restate what he or she has said regarding
the particulars of the job. If presenting a list of
the particulars seems arrogant or offensive, one
way to accomplish the same thing is to write a
detailed thank you letter expressing your pleasure
at accepting the job and noting the features that
make it especially attractive.
Handling Multiple Offers
If you are offered more than one job, congratulations! Multiple offers are gratifying, but they also
make life complicated. The important thing is to
deal honorably with all of your suitors.
n
Be as straightforward as custom allows.
n
Be prompt to decline the offers you are not
interested in so that other candidates may be
considered for the job you do not want. Keep
in mind, however, that it can be risky to decline
all your other offers before you have accepted
your first choice in writing. There have been
cases when firm verbal offers have been withdrawn because of a university-wide hiring freeze.
18
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
n
Whether you should play the institutions against
one another to obtain a better offer varies from
place to place. Talk confidentially to some very
trusted advisors to gauge the situation where you
want to work.
n
If you need to delay making a decision, ask for an
extension of the deadline if you need to. It is much
better to try to move a deadline than to miss one
completely.
RESOURCES
Davis, Martha, and Gloria Fry. Scientific Papers and
Presentations. New York: Academic Press, 1996.
Heiberger, Mary M., and Julie M. Vick. The Academic
Job Search Handbook. Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 1996.
Rehrig, Norita H. Six Steps to Successful Interviewing:
How to Build Your Reputation by Picking the Winners.
Bethlehem, PA: College Placement Council, 1990.
Online
Austin, Jim. “You’ve Worked Hard to Get This Far.”
ScienceCareers.org (November 22, 2002),
http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_
magazine/previous_issues/articles/2002_11_22/
noDOI.15726094919902624321.
Federation of American Societies for Experimental
Biology. Career pages, http://www.faseb.org/careers/
careerresources.htm.
Golde, Chris, M. “After the Offer, Before the Deal:
Negotiating a First Academic Job,” Academe: Bulletin
of the American Association of University Professors,
January/February 1999, 44–49, http://www.aaup.org/
publications/academe/1999/99jf/GOL_JF99.htm.
Golde, Chris, M. “Be Honorable and Strategic,”
ScienceCareers.org (August 24, 2001), http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/
articles/2001_08_24/noDOI.5231522495243752553.
chapter 2
ENTRY AND RE-ENTRY:
establishing yourself as
a scientist in a new job
“Le
p r é s e n t s e ra i t p l e i n d e t o u s l e s a v e n i r s , s i l e p a s s é n ’ y p r o j e t a i t déjà une histoire.
”
André Gide
Many scientists decide to train abroad and then
return to their home countries to obtain a permanent position. The advantage of training abroad
is that you get exposure to the latest approaches
and ideas from the broader community. You
will meet people with whom you will be able to
collaborate for years to come. If you trained in a
country with many resources, you probably had
access to state-of-the-art facilities, major scientific
publications, and conferences, and so you may
have many advantages in moving your scientific
ambitions forward.
But at the same time, training abroad can pose
special challenges to a job search. For example,
you may not have maintained the necessary connections to help you find a job in your homecountry.
You may also not be as familiar with the current
system in your home country, particularly if you
left your country very early in your professional
training, before you had gained a true understanding of how and why things work in your own
country’s scientific system. It may be difficult to
adjust after working in a different system for so
many years. When you return, at first you may be
very frustrated with how slowly things get done,
especially when stocking your laboratory with supplies and equipment for the first time. In addition,
the ways of judging scientific accomplishments
differ between countries, so that the fact that you
published in top-tier journals while training abroad
may not hold as much weight as having the right
connections in your home country. Also, remember that science does not proceed at the same
pace in all countries. And even if you maintain a
high rate of work, your basic research may be
slowed as you respond to your country’s or region’s
needs for practical solutions to immediate health
problems. Even if you are doing well, it can be
frustrating to see those you trained with “race
ahead” with their careers in a richer country when
you return to a place where doing science is more
difficult from a practical standpoint.
Challenges you may face include limited research
support and its attendant need for more time
spent on preparing and revising budgets, reading
and modifying contracts, and handling your own
administrative tasks, including human resources
management and procurement of materials,
The quote above: Gide says that the present would be full of possible futures if the past hadn’t already chosen the story.
ENT R Y A ND R E - ENT R Y : e s t a b l i s h i n g y o u r s e l f a s a s c i e n t i s t i n a n e w j o b
19
equipment and supplies. Maintenance and calibration of equipment may be sub-optimal and you
may find yourself handling those tasks yourself.
Exchange rate fluctuations may eat away at grants
from international funders. Your network of nearby
colleagues may be smaller than you have grown
used to, and you may have less access to the
informal transfer of knowledge that happens when
there are more scientists working closer together.
What happens if I outrank my advisor when
I come back?
You must always bear in mind that outranking
your advisor will be a sore point for him or
her in most cases, and you should handle this
situation carefully. Communication (including
in writing) in all aspects of your work copied to
his supervisor is very important. Your advisor
may feel outranked in terms of:
n
qualifications
n
grants sourced
n
technical expertise
n
publications
One way to overcome this would be to tactfully
get your advisor involved in grant proposal
writing (if he or she is a good scientist) that
will boost the overall profile of the research
section where both of you are. This should
be done in such a way that he feels that he is
truly part of the process. The advisor should
also be a part of the planning and implementing
process of your research programme. You can
also use your technical expertise to bring into
the section some funds that can be used by
the section as agreed upon by you and your
supervisor. However, one should be careful
not to be taken advantage of.
Susan Mutambu, Zimbabwe
20
”
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
Be humble and respectful: work hard on your
relationship with him or her. No matter how
well trained you’ve come back, he or she is
better connected and will know many more
things that can help you readjust. It is in your
interest to be humble and open minded.
Abdoulaye Djimdé, Mali
People You Should
Get to Know
”
As a beginning investigator, you will want to learn
quickly which individuals can affect your career
progress. They may include:
n
Heads of departments and divisions
n
Senior scientists within your own department or
division
n
Senior scientists in other divisions who share your
research interests
n
Senior physicians (if you are a physician-scientist)
It is a good idea to get acquainted with faculty in
your own department and in other departments
whose research interests are complementary to
your own. You may find, for example, colleagues
with whom research collaboration is possible,
and/or colleagues with a good understanding of
any health and safety risks associated with your
research, who can advise you about the policies of
the university and safe procedures for controlling
research risks.
You should get to know administrators in your
department or division who can help you with
matters such as requesting maintenance, purchasing, tracking expenditures, hiring staff, and a host
of other issues you will not have time to deal with
in detail. These individuals will also be valuable
in preserving stability when inevitable changes
come, such as when the head of your department
or division retires or moves on to another position.
Support Facilities
and Services
In many developing countries it is possible
that government policy and infrastructure to
regulate safety, scientific integrity and the
ethical conduct of research are weak, or
perhaps even non-existent. Institutionalization
of regulatory guidelines and policy on scientific
integrity and the ethical conduct of research
will often require proactivity by the scientific
community.
Some universities provide considerable support
to aid faculty in their activities. Support services
include libraries and media centers, scientific or
technical services commonly referred to as “core
facilities,” and administrative offices established
to help faculty complete grant applications and
comply with regulatory requirements. To save your
time and to be compliant with your institution’s
rules and customs, you must know what centralized facilities exist to support you.
If you are remaining at or returning to the place
where you trained, you are probably already
familiar with the traditional campus-wide resources
and some core facilities at your institution, but
may never have dealt with administrative support
services. Listed below are some issues for which
you may find some administrative support at an
institution that has a large research operation.
If you are not at an institution that is primarily
focused on research, you may find that you need
to handle these important concerns yourself.
Regulatory Compliance
There may be an office or committee at your
institution to help keep track of the licenses and
approvals you will need to comply with government regulations for research. You may need to
find out about:
n
Requirements for radiation safety, if you intend to
use radioactive materials.
n
Requirements for the possession and use of bloodborne pathogens and other infectious materials
and for recombinant DNA research.
n
Licenses needed for the use of proprietary
reagents and materials, drugs and approvals for
research that is specifically regulated in your
country—for example, work with certain dangerous
pathogens, recombinant technologies in organisms
that accidentally or purposely could be released
into nature, or stem cell research.
Nancy Gore Saravia, Colombia
”
n
Approvals for human subjects research.
n
Requirements for carrying out studies on animals.
n
Requirements for using lasers or acutely toxic
chemicals, and for disposing of hazardous chemical or biomedical waste.
Health and Safety
It is important that you become familiar with the
health and safety guidelines that apply to your
research. Universities often have rules for safety,
but even if you are at an institution that does
not, you should make sure the members of your
research group know the hazards that may be
present in your laboratory, are trained in safe work
habits, and know how to deal with any emergency
that may arise. Your institution may have an office
to help you with this responsibility by providing
safety training programs, technical assistance,
regulatory compliance assistance, risk assessments, and services to test the integrity of safety
equipment, or you may have to develop these
capabilities yourself.
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21
q&a
Question
Is your institution ready to apply for international funding?
answer
It takes some preparation to get ready for managing grants from most major funding organizations. If your
institution has not already been pursuing grants from major funders, you yourself may have to see to it that
the clerical work to get ready for funding gets done. This preparatory work is not especially difficult, but it
can be bureaucratic and time-consuming.
Most large funding organizations now or will soon require electronic submission of grant proposals.
Funders supported by governments, such as the National Institutes of Health in the U.S., may require
your institution to be registered and given an identification number, which will be used on all grant-related
communications with the agency, before you can put in a grant application.
Uploading grant applications to electronic submission systems can also be a time-consuming task. Each
piece of the grant, from the proposal itself to the budget forms, may require a separate document to be
uploaded to the funder’s online form, and others may be asked to submit electronic letters of recommendation and collaboration agreements before your proposal is complete. If your internet connection is slow
or frequently interrupted, even though you begin to upload a document, it may not be properly transferred
to the funder’s computer. Incomplete grant application forms will generally be rejected by the funder’s
computer system, sometimes leaving one mystified about which of the many parts of the application has
triggered the rejection.
If your institution plans to become more involved in seeking grants, it can be very useful to have clerical
staff who can take care of background work such as registering your institution for ID numbers with various
funders and phoning or emailing funders to straighten out computer glitches. Whether you have clerical
staff to help or will be doing the submission on your own, be aware that until you have conquered these
systems’ learning curves, the process can be very slow. Begin the process as soon as you know you will
be submitting a grant to a particular agency, and begin submitting the grant several days—perhaps two
weeks—before the agency’s deadline to allow time for straightening out any problems that may arise.
Grants and Contracts
Technology Transfer
Your institution may have individuals who can tell
you about available university financial support and
help you apply for it, and can provide information
about outside funding opportunities. Some
institutions have complex procedures in place
for submitting grants—many signatures may be
needed. You should find out what the procedure
is at your institution before you write your first
grant so that you will not run into administrative
obstacles as you race to meet a grant deadline.
Some institutions have an office to manage the
patenting and licensing of any discoveries made
at the university. (See chapter 12 for a detailed
discussion of technology transfer and intellectual
property.)
22
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
Purchasing Supplies
You may be required to go through a specific
committee or office at your institution to buy
equipment and supplies. Its staff may be familiar
with the full range of vendors and products and
may be able to help you negotiate prices. Staff
members may also be knowledgeable about regulatory and shipping requirements related to the
products they buy. They may also keep track of
payments and receipt of goods, thereby providing
a valuable accounting function for your lab. If there
is not such an office, you might consider finding a
good accounting software program to use to keep
track of spending and resources.
One of the lessons I have learned as a student
in a foreign university and as part of a university
in Costa Rica is the importance of keeping good
relations with and learning from administrative
staff—executive secretaries, administrative
assistants, financial officers, etc. Even if one
is a good researcher, one may not have good
administrative skills. Besides, large organizations like universities develop a large set of
regulations, and it is difficult to keep track
of all of them.
Hiring Staff
Large institutions may have administrative
“human resources” staff people who can help you
hire research staff to work in your laboratory, or
you may be responsible for advertising the job and
attracting candidates yourself.
Recruiting Students
If you are at a well-known training institution,
excellent students may be drawn to you by the
chance to work at the institution. At smaller or
less well-known institutions, attracting students
may be more difficult, and forming alliances with
(including, perhaps, getting faculty appointments
at) other institutions may be very useful if training
a new generation is important to you.
Public Relations
or Communications Office
The public relations or communications office
at a research institute keeps the outside world
informed about the achievements of the institution
and its scholars. Its staff maintains contact with
the news media and can help you prepare for an
interview, translate your findings into “sound bites,”
and learn how to field questions comfortably.
If such an office exists in your institution, individuals
in it may have a personal interest in reading and
editing your grants and scientific papers, but this
may or may not be part of their official job.
”
q&a
Gilbert Brenes Comacho, Costa Rica
Question
Is your institution ready to administer
grant- funded work?
answer
Your institution will be responsible for a
variety of tasks, ranging from assuring good
accounting for financial support you may
receive to accounting for how much of your
working day is spent on a project. If your
research touches on human subjects, uses
animals, or requires application of “Good
Practice” guidelines discussed on page 25,
there is administrative tracking that must
be done. Hiring institutional clerical staff will
make life easier, but if hiring staff for this work
is impossible, remember to budget your own
time for the required administrative tasks.
Without timely and proper accounting and
reporting procedures for grants management,
the flow of money from funded grants will
likely stop and agencies may be reluctant to
support you in the future. Failing to keep up
with administration of human, animal, and
good practice requirements could result in
your work being stopped by regulatory
agencies until you can prove that proper
procedures are in place.
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23
Working With Human Subjects
Whether you will be using invasive techniques
or simple surveys, before you work with human
subjects you must obtain the approval of your
institution’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) or
Independent Ethics Committee (IEC). The IRB
or equivalent committee at your institution is
responsible for ensuring that all research done
with the institution’s participation is in line with
international standards for what experiments can
and cannot be done with human beings. Research
involving non-human animals and some ethically
contentious work on plants is also regulated, but
falls under different sets of standards.
Code, emerged from the trial verdicts. Among
several important statements, the Code firmly
established the concept of informed consent.
The Nuremberg Code stated:
The voluntary consent of the human subject is
absolutely essential. This means that the person
involved should have legal capacity to give consent;
should be so situated as to be able to exercise
free power of choice, without the intervention
of any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress,
over-reaching, or other ulterior form of constraint
or coercion; and should have sufficient knowledge
and comprehension of the elements of the subject
matter involved as to enable him to make an
understanding and enlightened decision. This latter
element requires that before the acceptance of an
affirmative decision by the experimental subject
there should be made known to him the nature,
duration, and purpose of the experiment; the
method and means by which it is to be conducted;
all inconveniences and hazards reasonable to be
expected; and the effects upon his health or person
which may possibly come from his participation in
the experiment.
The duty and responsibility for ascertaining the
quality of the consent rests upon each individual
who initiates, directs or engages in the experiment.
It is a personal duty and responsibility which may
not be delegated to another with impunity.
Why do IRBs exist?
n
To protect the rights and welfare of human subjects.
n
To ensure compliance with existing regulations.
n
To prevent conflicts of interest.
n
To ensure that all research conducted at a facility
is reviewed according to a uniform standard.
Why does an ethical person need IRB review
and approval?
n
No one can be completely objective about their
own work.
n
n
People underestimate the risks involved in things
they are very familiar with.
People overestimate the benefit of things that are
important to them.
Historical Background
After World War II, several Nazi physicians were
put on trial for their participation in horrendously
abusive medical experiments done on concentration camp prisoners. The first codification of
ethical principles surrounding the use of human
subjects in scientific research, the Nuremberg
24
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
In 1964, the Nuremberg Code was adapted by the
World Medical Association into a standard for
therapeutic research done in humans, the Declaration of Helsinki. The Declaration has been amended
several times since then, and continues to be
one of the international standards used for the
conduct of clinical research. A 1975 revision of the
Declaration established the idea of review by an
independent institutional committee. Revisions to
the Declaration of Helsinki continue, but there are
now competing standards. Council for International
Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS) is the
most dominant of them.
The CIOMS International Ethical Guidelines for
Biomedical Research Involving Human Subjects
cover topics that include ethical review (the review
committee process); informed consent, including whether subjects are inappropriately lured to
participate; choices of appropriate experimental
controls; rules for research in especially vulnerable
groups such as children or the mentally ill; rules
for research on women, especially while pregnant;
confidentiality; rights of anyone injured by the
research to get treatment and compensation;
and more.
Although there is considerable overlap between
the competing standards, the differences between
them are very important, especially in lower
resource countries. The Declaration of Helsinki
holds that in therapeutic trials, participants are
entitled to the worldwide best standard of care.
This standard makes it difficult to test improved
therapies that may yield better clinical outcomes
but will not come up to the benchmark of the
worldwide best standard of care.
Many national ethics bodies have pulled away from
use of the Declaration of Helsinki so that they
can continue to allow research that will improve
human lives even if it is not up to the standard of
care available to the world’s richest people. Efforts
are being made to align the standards better, but
until unified standards can be established, rules
for ethics review around the world may remain
contradictory and confusing.
The GxPs
In 1990, the International Conference on Harmonization of Technical Requirements for Registration
of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (usually called
the “Conference on Harmonization” or ICH) was
formed. It now brings together European, American,
Japanese, and other countries’ national interests
related to development of pharmaceuticals. The
ICH has developed a separate standard, Good
Clinical Practice, to focus on both ethical and
technical issues in developing new therapeutics.
It provides a framework for design, conduct,
performance, monitoring, auditing, recording,
analyses, and reporting of clinical trials. It is
meant to assure that not only are human subjects
protected, but also that data from human trials
meets the highest quality standards.
Other harmonization efforts have produced other
sets of standards. As a group, they are called the
“GxPs” (with the ‘x’ acting like a mathematical
variable, not as an initial for anything). The Organization for Economic Co-ordination and Development
has produced Good Laboratory Practice (GLP)
standards, which are meant to improve rigor in
planning, performance, monitoring, reporting, and
archiving the results of experiments, especially in
the fields of pharmacology and toxicology, which
are very involved in pharmaceutical development.
Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), which is not
yet as well-harmonized as GCP and GLP, focuses
on documenting the flow of products through
manufacturing and on quality control in manufacturing of foods and drugs. Good Regulatory
Practice (GRP); Good Distribution Practice (GDP);
Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) and others now
exist in science and science-related manufacturing. The buzzword has escaped, however—there
is also Good Feng Shui Practice (GFSP), Good
Tourism and Hospitality Practice (GTHP) and more.
Countries and corporations that are using GxP
often insist that work done with their support
must be carried out according to certified GxP
standards. Workshops for learning the rules and
procedures are becoming widely available.
GETTING ST A R TED : F i n d i n g a n d M o v i n g i n t o a J o b
25
RESPONSIBILITIES BEYOND
THE LABORATORY
As a scientist at a research-oriented university or
a research institute, you may focus principally on
research. But you may also be required to teach
classes and to train the people who work in your
laboratory. In addition, you may have to perform
various administrative functions at your institution,
and if you are a physician, you may also have to
look after patients.
Teaching
You may find juggling your teaching and research
responsibilities to be a bit overwhelming at first.
No matter when your teaching duties begin, take
the time to prepare for them. If there are any
“how to teach” courses offered on campus, take
them, and if you can, ask permission to sit in on a
few of your colleagues’ lectures to see how they
handle their classes.
Bear in mind that teaching gives you an opportunity
to meet students who may be interested in doing
research in your laboratory. There is much more
detailed discussion about teaching in Chapter 8,
“Teaching and Course Design.”
Launching a research career in biomedical
sciences in low-resource environments in
disease-endemic countries is a huge challenge.
Success may depend more on creativity and
luck than the extent of knowledge about the
subject. In these environments a genius is
best defined by Thomas Edison’s adage—90%
perspiration and 10% inspiration.
Moses Bockarie, Papua New Guinea
26
”
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
Committee Work
You may be expected to participate in one or more
committees or groups at a university. Although
you should take this responsibility seriously, you
also need to be judicious in your choice of assignments. Some committees are very labor-intensive.
Others may deal with politically sensitive matters
that may be difficult for a new researcher. Other
committees may deal with matters irrelevant
to your concerns as a scientist. So, before you
accept a committee assignment, ask for a detailed
description of what will be expected of you in
terms of time commitment and the nature of the
decisions to be made. It may help to talk with
your colleagues about which committees are
important to your success and which are potential
time-wasters.
Your university may have a number of committees
that take care of issues such as promotion of
faculty, hiring new faculty, ethics, human subjects
research, laboratory safety, teaching, awards, and
long-term planning for the university. If you are
asked to serve, try to find out about the meeting
schedules and workloads of these committees.
Generally, committees that are responsible for
case-by-case review of individual applications or
projects are the most labor-intensive. However,
the workload of a policy committee that initially
sounded light may suddenly expand when it finds
itself dealing with a “hot” issue.
Many committees, however, do give you a good
return on your time investment. Serving on a
search committee for hiring new staff may give
you a voice in deciding who a new colleague will
be. You might also want to be on a committee
that puts together a seminar program or scientific
meeting. This will give you a chance to invite
leaders in your field to visit your institution, as
well as being a good way to bring in scientists
with whom you may want to collaborate. Work on
an admissions committee for graduate students
might be worthwhile because it will introduce you
to students who could work in your lab. A good
strategy is to try to get on a committee where
your expertise will be useful but you will not be
overburdened. Ask the head of your department
and senior faculty for advice on balancing committee work with your other obligations in the early
years of your career.
SCIENTISTS AND
THE OUTSIDE WORLD
If you are based at a university or research institute,
you may owe allegiance to several constituencies
—to the university or research institute that supports you, to your profession, and to the general
public that stands to benefit from your research.
To keep your outside activities appropriate, you
need to be aware of the university’s or institute’s
rules and expectations with regard to:
n
Service in professional associations.
n
Conflict of interest and conflict of commitment,
including limits on consulting activities.
n
Relationships with the news media and with
government and political agencies.
n
Participating in industrial labor actions (strikes).
Consulting
As your career develops, you may find opportunities to consult with commercial entities such as
biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies in
your own country and abroad. Both you and your
home institution stand to benefit from relationships that extend your reputation, add to your
knowledge and skills, and may result in practical
applications of your discoveries. In addition, you
may welcome the added income. But remember—
the institution that employs you may have primary
claim to your labor and your allegiance.
Many universities with faculty involved in this kind
of work have developed explicit guidelines limiting
the extent of a staff member’s work with other
parties. It is critical that you know your institution’s
policies regarding your work outside the scope of
university or research institute employment and
your relationships with outside parties. If you are
at an institution where such guidelines are not
in place, it is still prudent to check in with those
above you before you take on a significant outside
commitment.
Public Service
As your career progresses, you may be called
upon to serve on boards of directors or commissions, or testify before government bodies on the
meaning of your work or its ethical or public policy
implications.
Treat these invitations as a serious responsibility.
Again, letting those above you know that you have
been invited to participate is important. If you are
worried that your superiors will take these opportunities for themselves or resent you for having
been offered such opportunities, talk to a trusted
advisor about how to proceed. It may help to have
a letter of invitation that clearly specifies that your
expertise is the reason for the invitation.
Remember, anything you say in public will reflect
on your institution. It is easy to be misunderstood
or quoted out of context. Practicing what you
want to say before the event will help you deliver
your message clearly.
You may also have opportunities to participate
in educating the public about science and how it
affects them, at schools or at community events.
These opportunities can be both enjoyable and
rewarding.
The people you should get to know locally
should also include politicians and public
servants in the appropriate government
departments. You will need their support if
you require funding from UN organizations
like the World Health Organization and aid
agencies like USAID.
Moses Bockarie, Papua New Guinea
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”
27
UNDERSTANDING YOUR
INSTITUTION AND HOW
TO PROGRESS WITHIN IT
You have no doubt spent many years in academic
institutions and are familiar with their overall structure. But now, as fully trained scientist, you are
entering into a new set of relationships with your
professional colleagues. Perhaps for the first time,
you may have to deal with many of your institution’s administrative offices. If you have done part
of your training abroad, you will need to reacquaint
yourself with the structure of institutions in your
own country.
If your role includes being the head of a laboratory
or major project, you will need to:
n
Get to know people who will support your research
efforts, including the head of your department or
institution and any more established researchers
nearby who can serve as advisors throughout the
next phase of your career.
n
Understand how your organization is run and who
reports to whom; in particular who will be making
decisions about how you advance in your career.
n
Watch carefully to understand hidden power
structures that may be important to your success.
Sometimes there are people who are not technically
“in charge” but are key to your getting resources
(or in some cases have the ability to thwart your
efforts). These individuals could be anyone from
senior researchers to clerks. Early on, it is important
to keep your eyes open and not to overlook or
underestimate those around you.
n
Know about the organization’s research infrastructure, including who administers the funds to run
your laboratory, what support services are available
to you, and any policies about laboratory safety
and ethical issues that apply to your work. It may
be that if you are at a quite new institution or the
first researcher doing your kind of work, you will
have to help your organization get up to speed on
things like safety standards, proper accounting and
handling of paperwork for granting agencies, and
international standards for work involving human
subjects or collecting samples from the field.
28
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
n
Find out what the expectations are for independent
researchers with regard to how much they should
publish, whether they should seek outside funding
and if so how much of it, and what other activities
they need to perform.
This chapter provides you with a starting point for
obtaining this type of knowledge. It also discusses
some of the professional responsibilities you may
have to fulfill outside the laboratory, including
teaching and service and, in the case of physicianscientists, patient care. Finally, it will give you
some insights into how decisions about promotions are made and how you can maximize your
chances of being promoted.
Organization of
a “Typical” University
Although the major goal of most universities is
the advancement and dissemination of knowledge,
universities also need funding to support their
activities. A university must seek revenue from
a variety of sources, including, in some cases,
researchers. If you are going to work in a university
setting, it can be useful to learn the paths through
which decisions are made, as well as the channels
through which money flows. Universities across
the world vary in organizational and reporting
structures, but many will have the following
people in charge:
n
A board of directors or governors, which may be
composed of academic, business, and community
leaders who hold appointed or elected positions
with specific terms. A board meets regularly to
review all major policy, financial, and management
decisions, and may have a say in decisions about
faculty appointments and promotions. A typical
research institution may be composed of a director, one or more deputy directors, section or unit
heads and support services that include technical
and administration sections/units. Usually a top
management team that includes the director,
deputy directors, and heads of the technical units
and the administration will make decisions on
finances, appointments, promotion of personnel,
and institutional advancement.
C o n s u l t t h e Fa c u l t y Ha n d b o o k
If you take a job in a large, complex university, you will primarily report to your department or division
head, or in some places to a group leader—that is, a more senior scientist who organizes the activities of a group of researchers working on related aspects of a problem. If you have an appointment in
more than one department, or in a department and in one of the university’s separate research centers
or institutes, you may have to report to more than one individual. If you will report to more than one
person, you should try as much as possible to get these lines of command and responsibility in writing
as described in the previous section.
n
n
A president or chancellor who has general oversight of the university’s academic programs and
financial health. He or she is also the university’s
public spokesperson, dealing with “big picture”
issues such as relationships with the government
and with other funding bodies, as well as relationships with alumni, and fundraising.
information technology, regulations for research
involving human subjects, patenting and licensing
issues, student affairs, and so on.
n
Many universities are organized into smaller
schools, divisions, departments of study, and
departments of research, or faculties—for example, a large university may contain a School of
Engineering, or a Faculty of Medicine, or a Division
of Public Health and Sanitation, each headed by
different individuals. These individuals may have
significant input on your appointment and career
development. Within these units, there may be
smaller ones, or departments, which are also often
headed by powerful individuals.
A number of individuals with high-level titles—
vice presidents, pro vice chancellors, rectors, vice
rectors, provosts, deans, chairs of departments,
directors of graduate schools, and similar positions
may look after different areas of academic life,
such as budgets, appointment of new faculty,
maintenance of facilities, research funding,
T h e s t r u c t u r e o f o n e lar g e u n i v e r s i t y
(drawn from a South
American institution)
Board and Office Manager
Board
Executive Secretary
executive team:
President
Committee Secretary
Legal Secretary
Exec Manager Corporate Affairs
Vice President Research
Exec Man
Cap Dev
Exec Man
Res Admin
& Mgmt
Exec Man
Strategic Res
Initiatives
Strategic Research Committee
Exec Dir Finance
Exec Man
Knowledge
Mgmt
Exec Dir Tech & Innov
Exec Dir Operations
Exec Man
HR
18 Intramural Unit Directors
Man
IT
Man
Operations
22 Division Managers
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29
Criteria for Promotion
Structure of the South African
Medical Research Council
President’s Office
n Corporate and Public Affairs Directorate
n Legal Services
Research Directorate
n Research Units, Groups, Centres,
and Lead Programmes
n Research Capacity Development
n Research Admin and Management
n Strategic Research Initiatives
Technology & Innovation Directorate
Finance Directorate
Operations Directorate
Planning for Promotion
You are more likely to advance in your career if
you understand from the start how decisions
regarding promotion are made at the institution
you are joining. Ask the head of your department
or division for advice; you can then start planning
your strategy accordingly. It may be that promotion depends on factors outside of the department
structure. For instance, in Argentina a researcher
in a public university depends on evaluation from
Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas
y Técnicas (CONICET), the national research
agency, for promotion.
30
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
Listed below are some of the important factors
that university administrators take into consideration when promoting a scientist. Determine
the weight that each of these factors, and other
aspects of your job, carries. You can find this out
through discussions with your department head or
other immediate superior.
Research. Your research must be of a quality
and quantity that contributes substantially to your
scientific discipline. Publication in peer-reviewed
journals in your specialty and statements from
individuals in your field who can testify to the
quality of your research may be required. Ongoing
research grant support may also be expected.
Additional evidence of competence includes prizes
and other recognitions of your work, as well as
invitations to present your work at conferences.
Teaching. You may have to provide evidence that
you are a competent teacher and that you fulfill
your responsibilities to your students in a conscientious manner. Teaching is notoriously difficult to
evaluate, but your department may have mechanisms to do so. You should ask early in your teaching how your efforts are evaluated so that you can
be sure to perform well in the expected areas.
Service. You may have to demonstrate that you are
willing to work for the betterment of the university,
your profession, and the public at large. Service
on departmental and other campus committees,
on research ethics boards, on editorial boards of
journals, and on grant review panels demonstrates
your willingness to assume your share of responsibility. Invitations to serve on editorial boards and
other outside committees also demonstrate scientific recognition beyond your institution. Work for
professional associations and work as a consultant
to government and industry also may be viewed
positively when considering your service to the
institution.
S p e c i al I s s u e s f o r P h y s i c i a n - S c i e n t i s t s :
Straddling the Worlds of Research and Patient Care
You can increase your visibility and the stability of your job by doing the following:
n Create allies who will stand up and protect you. Cultivate a few people in your field who think you
are terrific.
n Make yourself essential by providing an important clinical skill or filling a crucial clinical need.
Other clinicians who know your worth can become your advocates and help protect your interests.
Advocates need not be in your own department, but they should rely on you and your expertise.
Get the word out that you are doing something. Actively communicate progress on your research
with people who matter in your department or division.
n
n Integrate research and clinical activities and use departmental academic meetings to promote the
clinical relevance of your research program.
The Review Process
Time Frame for Moving Ahead
The review process for promotion varies greatly
from country to country and from institution to
institution. You should familiarize yourself with the
process by speaking with colleagues who have
gone through it. Seek the advice of several people.
Meet on a regular basis with your department
head or the people who will have input into your
promotion to review your progress and make sure
that you are doing what is expected of you.
Your institution may have established the exact
time frame for evaluating your work and for your
eventual promotion. Find out how long it typically
takes for someone in your position to progress
from one level to the next. Once you know the
time frame, set specific, achievable objectives for
yourself right at the outset of your career, with
timelines that tell you what you need to accomplish each year. The whole process will seem
more manageable, and you will be able to make
realistic career decisions based on your progress.
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31
RESOURCES
Barker, Kathy. At the Bench: A Laboratory Navigator. Cold
Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press,
1998.
Schoenfeld, A. Clay, and Robert Magnan. Mentor in a
Manual: Climbing the Academic Ladder to Tenure.
Madison, WI: Atwood Publishing, 1994.
Barker, Kathy. At the Helm: A Laboratory Navigator. Cold
Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press,
2002.
Varnadoe, Lionel A. Medical Laboratory Management
and Supervision: Operations, Review, and Study Guide.
Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Company, 1996.
Boice, Robert. Advice for New Faculty Members:
Nihil Nimus. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2000.
Online
Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) offers
a range of tutorials related to ethics, research review
processes, informed consent, good practice, and other
topics in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and
Chinese at its Web site www.citiprogram.org. There
is both free material and material only available by
institutional subscription at this site.
Deneef, A. Leigh, and Craufurd D. Goodwin, eds.
The Academic’s Handbook. 2nd ed. Durham, NC: Duke
University Press, 1995.
Goldsmith, John A., John Komlos, and Penny Schine Gold.
The Chicago Guide to Your Academic Career: A Portable
Mentor for Scholars from Graduate School Through Tenure.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.
Harmening, Denise M. Laboratory Management: Principles
and Processes. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003.
Kennedy, Donald. Academic Duty. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 1997.
Menges, Robert J., and associates. Faculty in New Jobs:
A Guide to Settling In, Becoming Established, and Building
Institutional Support. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1999.
National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of
Engineering, and Institute of Medicine. Committee on
Science, Engineering, and Public Policy. On Being a
Scientist: Responsible Conduct in Research. 2nd ed.
Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1995.
Reis, Richard M. Tomorrow’s Professor: Preparing for
Academic Careers in Science and Engineering.
Piscataway, NJ: IEEE Press, 1997.
32
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
Introduction to the Responsible Conduct of Research, a
guidebook on research ethics from the Office of Research
Integrity of the U.S. Public Health Service, is available
online at http://ori.dhhs.gov/documents/rcrintro.pdf
Quality practices in basic biomedical research, a
guidebook on Good Practices from the World Health
Organization, is available online at http://www.who.int/tdr/
svc/publications/training-guideline-publications/handbookquality-practices-biomedical-research.
The Good Indicators Guide: Understanding how to use
and choose indicators, a guidebook from the Association
of Public Health Observatories on how to monitor and
improve performance, systems or outcomes, is available
online at http://www.apho.org.uk/resource/item.
aspx?RID=44584.
chapter 3
GETTING STARTED: Equipping
Your Lab and Hiring People
“The
c o n v e n t i o n al d e f i n i t i o n o f m a n a g e m e n t i s g e t t i n g w o r k d o n e
t h r o u g h p e o p l e , b u t r e al m a n a g e m e n t i s d e v e l o p i n g p e o p l e t h r o u g h w o r k .
A g h a Ha s a n A b e d i
Designing and
Equipping Your New Lab
You may have discussed your space and equipment
needs during your hiring process, or you may be
moving into a laboratory that has already been in
use and has some equipment. Either way, before
you move in and start working, create a detailed
plan for how you intend to work within the space
allotted to you. This will help you hit the ground
running once you start your position. You should:
n
Envision the relationships between the various
workstations, preparation areas, and any office
space you may have been given. How can you
best set up your space for the work you are going
to do?
n
If applicable and possible, arrange for and help
supervise any needed renovations or
re-arrangements.
n
If you can, order equipment and supervise its
installation.
n
Acquire any licenses required by regulatory
agencies.
n
You may need to attend training courses before you
can order radioactive or hazardous materials or use
animals in your lab. Even the use of recombinant
DNA needs to be approved in some countries.
n
Put in place data management systems both for
control of laboratory ordering and expenditures
and for the documentation of your research.
n
Plan ahead. Expect major delays in delivery of bulky
equipment, troubles with customs, fluctuations
in currency values, etc., so that these predictably
unpredictable factors will not derail you.
PUTTING THE PEOPLE
YOU NEED IN PLACE
Staffing your lab with the right people is one of
the most important things you can do to ensure
the success of your research. The types of
people you may bring on board include students,
scientists who are not ready to lead their own lab
and will work in yours, and technicians or other
paid employees who offer technical support.
GETTING ST A R TED : Eq u i p p i n g Y o u r L a b a n d H i r i n g P e o p l e
33
”
This section reviews issues to consider when
determining your staffing needs and suggests
strategies to help you manage the process of
recruiting, interviewing, and evaluating applicants.
The chapter also offers guidance on what to do if
you have to ask someone to leave your lab.
For a discussion of the skills needed to manage
the people in your lab day to day and get them to
work productively, see chapter 4, “Managing Your
Many Roles.”
Quality Used Equipment
Seeding Labs (http://www.seedinglabs.
org/), a Boston-based non-profit group that
facilitates transfer of used laboratory equipment from North American universities to
laboratories in countries that are building
toward greater research capacity, may be
a good source for equipment that would
otherwise be unaffordable.
Determine Your Staffing Needs
Your decisions about whether and when to take on
staff will depend on several factors, such as how
much money you have to run the lab, the stability
of your funding sources, the progress of your
research, and even your personal preferences
about performing various laboratory tasks. In some
places, you will not actually hire new people, but
will take on staff people who have already been
hired by your institution and belong to a common
labor pool. In other places, you yourself will be the
new hire, and everyone else in the laboratory will
already be in place.
Established scientists caution against rushing out
and hiring people just to fill an empty lab. Before
you bring on staff, think carefully about the consequences. Will you be able to hire the caliber of
people you want? Can you make the time to train
them? Remember, you need to preserve sufficient
time and space to do your own work.
If you have a choice, the first person you might
hire is a laboratory technician or equivalent. A
person filling this versatile lab position can help
you with time-consuming initial tasks such as
setting up equipment and handling routine tasks
that keep your laboratory working. Although an
inexperienced person may be cheaper, you might
benefit more by hiring an experienced technical
person who can help train other staff as they
come on board. Some experienced workers
can also contribute in substantial ways to your
research project. If there are trained technicians
working at your institution and funding available
for such positions, a technician who is familiar
with the administrative processes of your institution can also be extremely valuable.
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e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
Purchasing research supplies is often a nightmare in most African countries. Often, no local
vendor is familiar with the kinds of equipment
and supplies that you need. In some cases,
you have to find out yourself where and how
to get required supplies and then teach a local
vendor how to proceed. Often, even when one
finds where to order supplies abroad, payment
may become an almost insurmountable hurdle.
For example, currency exchange issues may
arise: there are no project credit cards, suppliers often require payment up front while your
financial office may require that the goods be
delivered before initiating payment.
Abdoulaye Djimdé, Mali
”
Consider bringing a student on board once your
lab is running and you have the time to invest in
training him or her. You could also hire an already
trained scientist, for example a postdoctoral
fellow, who would like to work in your lab as
a stepping stone to becoming qualified for an
independent position. A good strategy is to do this
when your main project is well underway and you
have enough other projects to turn one of them
over to this person and allow him or her to have a
great deal of responsibility and independence.
Additional considerations for working with lab
members can be found in chapter 10, “Expanding
Your Influence: Training the Next Generation of
Scientists.”
Question
q&a
What’s in a Name?
answer
The title “technician” means different things
in different places. In some regions, a
laboratory technician may be a manager or
unit director. Throughout this book, however,
a “technician” refers to a professional
scientist who has a steady job focused on
advancing the work in your laboratory.
Write the Job Description
If you will hire staff from outside your institution,
the first step is to develop a job description for the
open position. First, identify and prioritize the initial
and ongoing lab tasks for which you need support.
Then determine the qualifications needed to best
complete these tasks and develop a general plan
for allocating the person’s time. Bear in mind
that the position will have to fit within your ability
to pay and that the position’s level may also be
something that is already set in stone. The process may be more complicated if unions represent
identified groups of employees at your institution.
For example, you may only be able to consider
hiring union workers for certain positions.
your Web site, if you have one, inviting people to
contact you if they are interested in working with
you. If you teach, you may find some students
who are interested in learning more about your
work and carrying out a research project in your
laboratory.
Formal Advertisements. Ask those working
around you how and where the kinds of jobs you
would like to fill are advertised. If you are hiring a
scientist to train in your lab, it may make sense to
place an ad in a science journal published in your
own country. But placing formal advertisements
in print publications can be expensive and may
not yield good candidates, depending on who
reads the journal or newspaper. It is a good idea
to discuss advertising with senior colleagues who
have had experience recruiting people into their
labs.
Advertising on your institution’s Web site is usually a free service, and in some places has a high
rate of success. Other resources for advertising
for scientists with advanced degrees are Web
sites and list serves maintained by professional
associations. For any advertisements you place,
make sure you follow your institution’s policies.
What Do You Have to Offer?
As someone who has just started his or her lab,
you may find it a challenge to recruit the people
you want, especially trained scientists and experienced lab technicians. Here are some things you
can do to increase your chances:
n
Promote your vision. When you talk to others,
make sure you mention that you are hiring and
take time to convey your vision of what your lab
will be “about” (see next chapter). Your excitement about your work and your lab will excite and
interest potential staff.
n
Communicate your lab culture. Think about
how to create a lab environment that allows you
and your staff to work efficiently and harmoniously.
If good communication, collaboration, and cooperation are valued concepts in your lab, they can
be selling points that will make people want to
work with you.
Get the Word Out
Once you have a job description, the next step is to
make sure that the people you would like to recruit
will see it. There are several ways to do this.
Informal Methods. Try to recruit by word of
mouth. Ideally, you want people to seek you out.
If you work in a country with a fairly large scientific
community, meetings and seminars where you
present your work are good venues to reach
students and scientists, as well as lab technicians
who are not employed by your institution.
Another strategy is to include a statement on
GETTING ST A R TED : Eq u i p p i n g Y o u r L a b a n d H i r i n g P e o p l e
35
n
Convey your commitment to training.
Let potential staff know if they will be working
directly with you and that you have an interest in
helping them in their careers.
n
Offer flexibility where you can. Flexibility,
especially about assignments or research
directions, is attractive to most job applicants.
n
Provide a realistic level of reassurance
regarding the stability of your funding.
Potential staff members are likely to be aware that
the money to pay their salaries may be coming
from your research grants, or other sources that
may increase or decline over time.
In Sierra Leone and more so in Papua New
Guinea, members of your extended family
believe they are entitled to large parts of
your time and attention. This is an enormous
challenge for every working person in Sierra
Leone. You are likely to face requests for
employment. My advice is that you avoid
seeing extended family members at your workplace and ensure hiring is a very transparent
process that is handled only by the appropriate
staff in the administration section.
Moses Bockarie, Papua New Guinea
”
What They Are Looking For
Lab Technicians. Technicians may be attracted
to a beginning laboratory because they are eager
for the opportunity to work closely with the head
of the lab and are interested in learning new
techniques and being included on papers. Good
salaries and status (related to publishing papers)
may be of prime importance to more experienced
lab technicians. Inexperienced technicians may
place more value on the opportunity to gain experience, especially experience that will help them
decide whether to continue with their studies.
Students. Students may want to work in your lab
because they want to pursue a career in science,
or perhaps they are curious about research and
want to find out whether they should consider
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e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
a career in this area. On the other hand, they
may be looking for academic credit, funding,
or recommendations for further training. Try to
select students who are motivated to contribute
to the productivity of your lab. Students are
often attracted to new labs because, like lab
technicians, they are eager for the opportunity
to work directly with the person who is directing
the research. Educating these students in how to
work in the lab can be time-consuming, especially
for the first few months. Therefore, you may
want to sign up your first student when your lab
is running well and you have time to work with
each student properly. At a university, thoughtfully
working with students early in your career will
help you develop a positive reputation and will
increase your ability to attract other students. On
the other hand, if your first students have negative
experiences in your lab, they will quickly share this
with their peers, and your ability to recruit good
students will suffer greatly.
Scientists Training in your Lab. It may take
two to three years for you to recruit a scientist,
for example a postdoctoral fellow, who wants
to train in your lab before establishing his or her
own lab. Most scientists in training are attracted
to more established labs because they are usually
better launching pads for their careers—the boss
is more famous and the publications may come
faster. Nevertheless, some might be attracted by
your research area, your concern for furthering
their careers, or your institution’s reputation and
geographical location. If you have a good reputation from your own work, you may be able to
recruit highly qualified individuals right away.
I would encourage policies to hire real
postdocs, i.e. people who really want to do
a postdoc in your lab and not people who for
family reasons or else could not go abroad
and seek your lab as a second option.
Alberto Kornblihtt, Argentina
”
Screening Applicants
When you review résumés, check skills against
qualifications and look for transferable skills.
Always review résumés carefully—some applicants
may inflate their experience. Gaps in employment
or job-hopping may be signs of problems, or may
simply reflect the job situation in your region. If
the degree of job-changing seems unusual, be
sure to ask careful questions and check references, if you are able to.
For an applicant to a degreed scientific position,
consider publication quality—not just quantity—
and the applicant’s contribution. Although it may
not be realistic for someone who has just started
running his or her lab, try to find a scientist with
a record of accomplishment—usually at least two
first-author papers—that indicates he or she will
be able to see a project through and perhaps will be
competitive for obtaining his or her own funding.
If a technician has contributed to publications,
you should evaluate the candidate to determine
whether he or she has the ability to contribute
intellectually as well as technically to the lab.
Question
q&a
What’s in a Name?
The résumés of less-experienced lab technicians
may not show a record of contributions to published papers or other indicators of productivity.
Carefully check references to find out about their
capabilities.
For a student, speak informally with other people
who have worked with the student, including those
who may know how the student has performed in
a laboratory course. Talk to the student at length
to see how articulate, bright, and energized he or
she is. Remember, a smart but shy person may
be tongue-tied in a conversation with you—you
are an important person, after all! Try to talk long
enough to draw them out and put them at ease
so that you can really get a sense of their capacity.
When selecting students, remember that high
grades are no guarantee of success in your lab.
Check References Directly
For a variety of reasons, people rarely write negative letters of recommendation. Therefore, if possible, you should directly contact the applicants’
references, preferably by telephone, or by email.
Checking references is an important part of the
selection process. It will help to verify impressions
gained during the interview and expose potential
problems that may not have been evident in either
the interview or CV.
What to Ask a Reference. When discussing
an applicant with someone who has provided a
reference:
n
Describe the job and the work atmosphere you
want to create.
n
Ask short, open-ended questions, and avoid asking
questions to which the desired response is obvious.
n
You might want to ask: Why is this person leaving?
Is he or she reliable? What are this person’s
strengths and weaknesses? What are you most
disappointed in with respect to this person?
Also, “Would you rehire this person?” is a very
important question to ask.
n
Probe for further information, and ask for examples.
Do not settle for yes or no answers.
answer
Throughout this book, a “postdoc” refers to
a researcher with a relatively recent doctoral
degree and intentions to move on from your
laboratory to a more independent position
after working with and learning from you. A
“student” refers to a trainee who is enrolled
for an undergraduate or graduate degree
and is working with increasing autonomy in
your lab. A “trainee” refers to a student or
postdoc—someone who is both working for
you and being educated by you so that he or
she may advance into another position.
GETTING ST A R TED : Eq u i p p i n g Y o u r L a b a n d H i r i n g P e o p l e
37
types of interview questions
Open-ended questions cannot be answered yes or no; for example, “Tell me about yourself.”
The applicant determines the direction of the answer.
Directive questions solicit information about a specific point; for example, “What skills do you have
for this position?” The interviewer determines the focus of the answer.
Reflective questions solicit information about a past experience that might serve to predict the
applicant’s future performance; for example, “Describe a time when you demonstrated initiative.”
n
Try to determine whether your lab values are
similar to those of the reference, perhaps by asking
about the reference’s lab and philosophy. This information should help you decide how much weight
to give to the reference.
If Possible, Contact All References. You are
trying to make a decision about someone with
whom you may be spending many of your waking
hours. Make sure you get the information you
need. To correct for bias in the responses of any
one reference, if you can afford it, make sure
you call all of an applicant’s references, even
those overseas. If possible, it is best to obtain
information in person or by phone, rather than by
email, though sometimes email may be the only
option available to you (for example, if the reference is difficult to reach or lives in a place that is
extremely expensive for you to call). You may be
tempted to do less when hiring for a smaller job,
but think about the damage hiring a poorly-trained,
dishonest, or threatening person could do to your
work, especially in jobs where firing is difficult.
Sometimes, applicants will not give the name
of a current supervisor as a reference. If that
is the case, you must respect their request for
confidentiality—the most common reason is that
they do not want to risk losing their current job.
However, you should ask why the applicant does
not want you to call. You can also ask for additional
references who can provide you with information
about the person’s work habits, accomplishments,
and history.
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e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
Further Screen Applicants
by Telephone
If you live in a place where phones are reliable,
easy, and everywhere, you may want to screen
promising applicants by telephone before inviting
any of them for a formal interview. As with
interviewing references, focus on asking openended questions. The appendix (page 44) shows
a sample outline that can help you in your phone
interviews with applicants. (Consider developing a
similar form for talking to applicants’ references.)
Interviewing Applicants
Invite Applicants to Visit Your Lab
After you have completed the initial screening,
narrow your list of potential applicants to a reasonable number of good prospects. If possible, invite
each person to visit your lab for a formal interview.
Remember, talking to someone by phone is no
substitute for looking them in the eye. If possible,
you might also arrange for the applicant to spend
some time with other lab members so that the
others in your lab can get a sense of this person.
If you are a department head yourself and you are
to hire trained scientists who will work relatively
independently underneath you, you might require
that each applicant deliver a seminar to members
of your lab or department.
Conducting a
Structured Interview
The goal of the structured interview is to use a
standardized set of predetermined questions to
gather key information in an efficient, equitable
manner from all qualified applicants. You want to
give each applicant a fair opportunity to compete
for the position. Your questions should be:
n
Outlined ahead of time so that you ask basically
the same questions of each applicant.
n
I see you have worked with [insert specific
technology or technique]. Tell me about its
features and benefits.
Commitment and Initiative
n
Why do you want to work in my lab?
n
Where do you see yourself in five years?
n
What kinds of projects do you want to do? Why?
n
Tell me how you stay current in your field.
n
Describe a time when you were in charge of a
project and what you feel you accomplished.
Tell me about a project or situation that required
you to take initiative.
n
Job related.
n
Short and open-ended, like those used when
checking references.
n
n
Focused and designed to elicit information—
avoid asking philosophical questions.
Working and Learning Styles
Tailor your follow-up questions to reflect each
applicant’s responses and to encourage each
applicant to provide examples from his or her
own experiences.
Develop the Interview Questions
As you develop your questions, think about how
to determine whether the applicant has the
knowledge, technical skills, and personal qualities
that you need. Review the job description you
created earlier, the applicant’s résumé, and your
notes from your conversations with the references
to identify any items or information gaps that need
clarification in the interview.
Sample interview questions. At the Helm: A
Laboratory Navigator by Kathy Barker (see
Resources, page 44) contains a list of general
questions as well as questions geared for specific
laboratory positions and for determining specific
personal characteristics. In addition, you may want
to tailor the following questions to the position for
which you are interviewing.
n
What motivates you at work?
n
Would you rather work on several projects at a
time or on one project?
n
Do you learn better from books, hands-on
experience, or other people?
n
Tell me about a project that required you to work
as part of a team. What was the outcome of the
team’s efforts?
n
How would you feel about leaving a project for a
few hours to help someone else?
n
If you encountered a problem in the lab, would you
ask someone for help or would you try to deal with
it yourself?
n
You may be asked to work after hours or on a
weekend. Would this be a problem?
Time Management
n
How do you prioritize your work?
n
What happens when you have two priorities
competing for your time?
Decision Making and Problem Solving
n
What is your biggest challenge in your current job?
How are you dealing with it?
n
Tell me about a time when you made a decision
that resulted in unintended or unexpected
consequences, either good or bad.
n
Give me an example of a situation where you
found it necessary to gather other opinions before
you made a decision.
Experience and Skills
n
Tell me about your most significant accomplishments.
n
Tell me the part you played in conducting a specific
project or implementing a new approach or
technology in your lab.
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39
Interpersonal Skills
n
How important is it to you to be liked by your
colleagues, and why?
n
If you heard through the grapevine that someone
did not care for you, what would you do, if anything?
n
Tell me about a situation in which your work was
criticized. How did you rectify the situation?
n
Describe a scientist whom you like and respect.
What do you like about that person?
Cultural Differences. You may find yourself
considering applicants from different cultures
whose beliefs, such as those about self-promotion,
collaboration, and deference, may differ from your
own. Take this into account when conducting your
interview, especially if the applicant seems to be
under-selling his or her achievements.
n
Listen carefully. Let the applicant do most of the
talking.
n
Develop a high tolerance for silence. Give the
applicant a chance to think and develop thoughtful
answers to your questions.
n
Give the applicant many chances to ask questions.
This will give you some insight into what is
important to him or her.
n
Never make promises or give commitments, even
ones that may seem innocent to you.
n
Ask the applicant about his or her timetable for
leaving the current job, even if you asked it during
the telephone interview.
Before ending the interview, do the following:
n
Give the applicant a chance to add anything else
he or she thinks may be important for you to know
in making your decision.
n
Make the applicant aware of the next steps, such as
additional interviews and the time frame for hiring.
n
Thank the applicant for his or her time.
Tips for Conducting an Interview
n
Before you begin, try to make the applicant feel
comfortable. Make appropriate small talk, offer a
beverage, and compliment the applicant on making
it thus far in the selection process. Remember that
the applicant is also deciding whether he or she
wants to work for you.
n
Develop professional rapport and be friendly, but
avoid a social atmosphere.
n
Explain how the interview will be structured.
n
Briefly describe the selection process.
n
Outline the responsibilities for the open position.
n
Convey your expectations about the job. Include
values that may seem obvious to you, such as your
commitment to lab safety and scientific rigor.
n
Know your own local laws and customs pertaining
to what questions can and cannot be asked at job
interviews, and keep in mind which (if any) topics
must be avoided.
n
Take brief notes. Record actual answers to
questions, not evaluative or conclusive comments.
Later, when thinking through whether to offer the
applicant a job, you may find that these answers
give you more insights into the applicant’s character
and thinking than you were aware of when you
were sitting and talking with the person.
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e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
Evaluating Applicants
Before you begin evaluating an applicant, make
sure you have all of the necessary information.
Conduct any reference interviews you were
unable to complete before the interview. Gather
opinions from others who have met with the
applicant. As needed, seek guidance from your
department and other relevant departments at
your university.
Maintaining Objectivity
As in any situation that involves interpreting interpersonal behavior, objectivity in evaluation may be
difficult. Nevertheless, try to avoid the following:
n
Relying too heavily on first impressions.
n
Making a decision too early in the interview, before
asking all questions.
n
Downgrading an applicant because of a negative
characteristic that is not relevant to the job itself,
such as a particular regional accent, or having come
to the interview wearing clothes that have clearly
been used by generations of the family’s job seekers.
Allowing a positive characteristic to overshadow
your perception of all other traits—an applicant’s
posh accent, polished presentation, or tangential
association with someone famous might make
them seem impressive on meeting, but have little
substance in the workplace.
Red Flags
n
Unwillingness to take responsibility for something
that has gone wrong.
n
Judging the applicant in comparison with yourself.
n
Complaining about an advisor and coworkers.
n
Comparing applicants with each other, rather than
according to the selection criteria (e.g., if you have
been interviewing poorly qualified applicants, you
may rate merely average applicants highly).
n
Demanding privileges not given to others.
n
Delaying answering questions, challenging your
questions, or avoiding answering them altogether.
Humor and sarcasm can be tools to avoid answering questions.
n
Unless you have been rude, responding to an
interview question with anger is never appropriate.
n
Incongruence between what you hear and what
you see (e.g., grudging replies and slouching are
not signs of an eager, assertive candidate even if
he or she is saying all the right things).
n
Trying to control the interview and otherwise
behaving inappropriately.
n
n
Allowing factors not directly related to the interview
to influence your estimation of the applicant (e.g.,
interviewing during times of the day when you
may be tired).
Warning signs during an interview that should
alert you to potential problems include:
What to Look For
In addition to determining whether the applicant
has the qualifications required to perform well in
your lab, you should also keep the following points
in mind:
n
Consider the “chemistry.” Pay attention to your
intuitive reaction to the person. Look for a person
who is interested in and able to get along with
others.
n
Ascertain whether the applicant is a good fit. Keep
in mind that you are building your team and need
people with the skills and personalities to get
things done. Look for people who have a track
record of productivity and have demonstrated an
ability to learn new skills.
n
Seek someone who has a passion for science and
a strong work ethic. Enthusiasm, a can-do attitude,
and the willingness to go the extra mile are critical
attributes.
n
Check the applicant’s career plans. Knowing what
the applicant wants to be doing in five or ten
years can give you insight into his or her scientific
maturity and creativity, as well as his or her
commitment to a specific research area.
n
Be certain the applicant is committed to good
research practices. Recordkeeping and reporting
results are even more important now than in the
past because of patent and other legal issues.
Insist on the highest level of scientific integrity
from anyone you are considering.
Making the Offer
Before you make an offer, check with the
appropriate people in your department or your
institution to learn which, if any, items related
to the job are negotiable and whether you are
responsible for negotiating them. In some institutions, the initial salary that you can offer will be
set for you. In others, you may be given some
leeway within a predetermined range appropriate
for the job description.
Once you have identified the person you wish to
hire, contact him or her to extend the offer and
discuss start date, salary, and other conditions of
employment. Be sure to check with the appropriate
office in your institution first to determine whether
you or they will make this contact and cover these
issues.
Inform All of the Applicants
First, inform the person you have selected. If he
or she turns down the offer, you can move on to
your second choice.
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41
Multinational Organizations are hiring our
people away!
Brain drain continues to be a major problem
in the developing world, where NGOs and the
private sector pay better salaries than government research institutes. Dealing with brain
drain can be quite frustrating; however, one
should continue to recruit appropriate personnel to fill in vacancies. Those recruited should
be given an opportunity to train in short- and
long-term courses that are relevant to their
work areas. Once settled in the research
programme, they should also be encouraged
to be a part of the ownership of the research
programme, and to make presentations on
some of the research aspects of the work
that is being done. Presentation of research
findings at national and international fora is
usually a big motivator, because it promotes
collaborative linkages between personnel in
your lab and other labs, and these linkages
may generate a lot of research ideas between
groups. Delegation with responsibility to junior
researchers also builds confidence and gives
them a sense of ownership of the research
programme. In countries where salaries
are low, personnel should be allowed to do
part-time jobs that are related to research,
e.g. teaching at the local university to supplement their salaries. All research ideas that
are brought forward by research personnel,
especially junior members, should be taken
into consideration and explored for substance,
no matter how silly they may sound.
Susan Mutambu, Zimbabwe
”
”
Yes, it is a problem, but not a major one for
now. The solution is creating an attractive
environment, clear career paths, stable social
environment, etc. High salary is not always the
most important incentive in keeping staff.
Abdoulaye Djimdé, Mali
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e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
Once you have filled the position, try to let the
other applicants know of the outcome of the interview. You do not need to give a specific reason for
your decision not to hire an applicant. However,
you may state that the selected candidate had
better qualifications or more relevant experience
or that it is your policy not to disclose this information. Check with the appropriate people at your
institution about their own personal policy or the
institution’s personnel policy in this area.
The Offer Letter
After you and the selected candidate have confirmed the job details, you or your institution might
send a formal offer letter that confirms the offer
terms, including start date and salary. Coordinate
with the appropriate administrative staff at your
institution to determine what information to include.
If hiring does not involve an administrative office,
make the offer and clearly establish the start date,
salary, and allowances and pensions where these
are applicable. It is a good idea to put the details
on paper in case disagreements arise later.
ASKING STAFF TO LEAVE
Despite your best efforts, you may at some point
need to ask someone to leave your lab. Before
considering dismissal, be sure that you have tried
various avenues to help the person be successful in
your lab. This may include assistance with scientific
techniques or counseling for behavioral issues. Also,
be certain that your dissatisfaction is based on
objective observations, not your personal biases.
Try to determine whether you think the person
would be better off in another lab or should consider another career. For students and scientists,
this usually means talking with that person and his
or her advisors, if any. It may be best to suggest
to someone that research is not for them if you
truly believe the profession is not suited to his or
her talents or personality. You can provide that
person with encouragement and suggest other
career options, especially ones of similar stature.
There are no hard and fast rules about how a
manager should address performance or behavior
problems in the lab. However, keep in mind the
following, especially if you are thinking about letting
someone go:
n
Be fair.
If You Decide to Terminate
n
No surprises.
An employee with serious work-related problems
is a disruptive force and, especially in a small
lab, can significantly retard research progress.
Although it is not easy to decide to terminate
someone, those investigators who have had to
release staff say that in retrospect their biggest
mistake was not doing it sooner.
Fairness dictates that lab members receive some
type of notice about unsatisfactory performance.
Make sure the person knows your concerns and is
given a reasonable opportunity to respond and turn
things around.
When it Begins to Look like
Firing May Be Necessary
In many places, an institution’s disciplinary and
dismissal procedures are based on the country’s
labor laws, and in some places workers are quite
aware of their labor rights. Termination procedures
must be correctly carried out according to the law,
and so should be directed by someone who has
experience with them—usually someone in a Human
Resources or other administrative office. When you
believe that someone should be let go, consult with
colleagues to determine whether there are legal
procedures to keep in mind, and if available, seek
help from whatever institutional office deals with
personnel issues early on in the process, at least to
advise you on how to move forward legally. Many
academic institutions publish their procedures on
their Web sites.
Questions to ask yourself before letting someone go. If circumstances permit, you should ask
yourself the following questions and document
each of the actions before proceeding:
n
Have you given the person at least some type of
notice or warning?
n
Have you made it clear to the person what he or
she is doing wrong?
n
Has the person received counseling or assistance
in learning new or difficult tasks? If so, how much?
n
Are you treating (or have you treated) the person
differently from other staff in your lab?
n
Are you following written procedures and institutional policies?
n
Does the documentation in the personnel file
support the reason for discharge?
Keep in mind that delivering a warning or giving an
employee a chance to “straighten up” may help
you turn a bad situation into a good one without
resorting to dismissing a worker.
How to Terminate. Ask the appropriate individuals
at your institution or department how to terminate
staff. Often, a termination will involve a meeting
between you and the individual you are terminating.
During the meeting, remember to:
Keep a Record
n
Be polite.
It is a good idea to outline and set expectations for
the performance and conduct of everyone in your
lab. Do not expect your employees to read your
mind about what you want them to accomplish and
how you want them to accomplish it.
n
Stay focused on the issue at hand. Get to the point
quickly. Explain the decision briefly and clearly. Do
not apologize or argue with the employee in an
effort to justify your decision.
n
Avoid laying blame.
n
Arrange to have scientific materials and equipment
and supplies returned to you, including lab notebooks, protocol books (unless it is a personal copy),
lists of laboratory resources and information on
any experiments still in progress, and keys.
n
Let the employee have an opportunity to have his or
her say, and pay close attention to what is being said.
Deliver a Warning
Warnings should be delivered by you, calmly and
in private. Listen to the employee’s point of view
and explanation. Develop a plan for addressing
the problem with benchmarks and timelines. You
may want to commit your action plan to writing. If
you provide advance notice, employees will not be
surprised when you take forceful action concerning
unsatisfactory performance or behavior.
GETTING ST A R TED : Eq u i p p i n g Y o u r L a b a n d H i r i n g P e o p l e
43
n
If there is an office that handles employee benefits,
refer the employee to them for a discussion of
eligibility for any benefits the institution may have
provided.
n
Take notes that document this meeting and convert
them into an informal or formal memo to file.
n
Try to part on cordial terms. Science can be a small
world, and your paths may cross again.
Termination Letters and References. As part of
final documentation, a termination letter may be
required by your institution or by law. In addition,
you may be asked for, or may wish to offer, a
reference. Check with the appropriate staff at your
institution about proper procedures.
Immediate Dismissal. Sometimes the reasons for
dismissal are more acute: dishonesty, endangering
others, or other unusual behaviors may make it
necessary to immediately remove someone from
the lab. You should get advice from your colleagues
on how such a firing is normally done. How will you
get any keys they may have or prevent them from
re-entering the premises? It may be that you should
have the person removed from the premises by
local or campus authorities, for example, and that
their personal effects will be sent to them later.
appendix
Telephone Interview Outline
Date:
Candidate:
Investigator’s Questions (Use openended questions, and ask for examples.)
To see if we might fit, give me an idea of
what you are looking for.
What are your goals for this position?
(short-term expectations, long-term plans)
Tell me about yourself as a scientist:
n What are your strengths?
n What are your weaknesses?
n What do you want to learn?
n What are you looking for in a supervisor?
What is your preferred interaction style?
(with me, with others, on joint projects)
Timing, current job
Visa status
Investigator’s Comments
Background, interests, goals
RESOURCES
Barker, Kathy. At the Helm: A Laboratory Navigator. Cold
Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2002.
Online
Austin, Robert D. “Managing Knowledge Workers.” Science’s
Science.Careers.org (April 26, 2002), http://sciencecareers.
sciencemag.org/career_development/previous_issues/
articles/1470/managing_knowledge_workers/.
HRhero.com. Extensive resources on firing: http://www.
hrhero.com/topics/firing.html.
Seeding Labs’ website is www.seedinglabs.org.
Siering, Marlene. “Hire the Best.” Denver Business Journal
(November 17, 1997), http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/
stories/1997/11/17/smallb2.html.
University of Michigan Employment and Executive Services.
“Conducting a Successful Employee Selection Process,” http://
www.hr.umich.edu/empserv/department/empsel/index.html.
University of Michigan Employment and Executive Services.
“Electronic Recruitment Resources,” http://www.hr.umich.
edu/empserv/department/empsel/electronic.html.
44
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
The projects we are working on
What I am looking for
What I expect (enthusiastic, interested,
communicative, a hard worker,
responsible)
What I will offer (be there, help,
communicate, support career with
communication about goals, funding for
[e.g., length of time])
The university, department, town
Timing, constraints
This interview form is adapted from one developed by
Tamara L. Doering, Washington University School of Medicine.
chapter 4
managing your many roles
“I
k n o w t h e p r i c e o f s u c c e s s : d e d i c a t i o n , h ar d w o r k , a n d a n u n r e m i t t i n g
devotion to the things you want to see happen.
”
frank lloyd wright
The day has finally come when you take up your
new position. At least in the space of your own
bench (and in some readers’ cases, maybe across a
whole institution), you are the boss! What got you
here is your creativity and scientific expertise. But
you will quickly realize that the day-to-day operation of the laboratory—the projects that get done,
how time is spent, which needs get priority—also
requires strong leadership and management skills.
This chapter describes the skills involved in leading
and managing a group of people, but many of the
principles here can be applied if you only manage
yourself and your day-to-day work, even if you are
still under the authority of a more senior scientist
who directs the project of which your work is a
part. It also offers some suggestions on how to
build these skills.
Whether or not you are in charge of your own group
of workers and thinkers, the basic ideas may help
you as you think about how to get the most out of
your resources. As you get ready to start your job,
you should work through how you will manage things
as your own research operation grows.
The chapter is organized in four sections. The first
provides a definition of leadership in the context
of directing a scientific laboratory. The second
describes a process for developing a vision for
your laboratory. Your main role as a leader will be
to organize and motivate the people in your lab
to enact this vision. The third section is about different leadership approaches and how you might
proceed as you develop your individual leadership personality and style. The fourth discusses
the role of the laboratory leader in building and
sustaining an effective team—that is, how to
communicate with the people with whom you
work, how to motivate them, how to make decisions and resolve conflicts, and how to set and
enforce expectations and rules of behavior.
This chapter draws from material developed by
Edward O’Neil, director of the Center for the
Health Professions at the University of California–
San Francisco, as well as from interviews with
scientists with years of experience running
laboratory research programs.
managing your many roles
45
Your Role as a
Laboratory Leader
What Is Leadership?
Before getting into the details of your responsibilities as the head of a lab or head of a project, it is
probably worthwhile to consider the definition of
leadership. Leadership is getting a group of people
to turn a vision of what needs to be accomplished
into a reality, a history of accomplishment. Leadership starts with a vision that a leader makes into
reality by accomplishing tasks. A leader’s reach
expands when he or she can sway others to help
advance his or her own vision. Thus, building
good relationships with others is a key element of
leadership.
In practical terms, a leader must perform a number of functions, from understanding the scale and
scope of the problems to be addressed to coming
up with a scientific strategy; from motivating
people to managing budgets and resources.
Relationships
A leader enables others to come together to do
the work at hand in a unified manner. Thus, a
leader must:
n
Build and manage teams, including people whose
time and efforts you do not directly control (e.g.,
from other labs or groups).
n
Steer others to see things your way and to do their
work in ways that can advance your projects as
they advance their own.
n
Create an environment where people are able to
give and receive feedback.
n
Motivate and support the people working on your
project in your laboratory or performing work
outside your responsibility but essential to your
success.
n
Delegate responsibility to others when possible.
n
Make fair decisions and manage conflicts.
n
Communicate and listen.
n
Be sensitive to the motivations of people around
you—understand what they want and need from
their personal lives and their own careers and how
those needs affect their behaviors.
n
Be an advisor and teacher to others, as well as
seeking good advice for your own advancement
(see chapter 10, “Expanding Your Influence:
Training the Next Generation of Scientists”).
Vision
A leader must create a vision and set direction for
the lab (see “Creating Your Vision as a Leader,”
page 50). This means developing a clear idea
of what you are doing, not just with your hands
on any given day, but in a larger sense. It means
thinking through and clearly stating what you want
to accomplish over the course of your scientific
career, and choosing the right people, projects,
and opportunities to accomplish those goals.
Developing a vision is not a small effort. In fact, it
is central to your success. All scientists have limited
time and limited resources. Only by developing
great research questions that fit your own individual
strengths and the unique resources available to you
at your institution or in your country can you thrive.
46
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
Tasks
A leader also manages the activities of lab
members, whether that means managing a large
group or the activities of only yourself and perhaps
a helper. This requires the leader to understand
the core activity that he or she is responsible
for directing. Beyond a basic knowledge of the
scientific tools and processes used in the lab, to
advance your work you must also be able to:
n
Design projects and determine time frames for
successfully carrying them out (see chapter 6,
“Project Management”).
n
Create budgets (see chapter 7, “Getting Funded”).
n
Seek funding and publish papers (see chapter 7,
“Getting Funded,” and chapter 9, “Increasing
Your Impact: Getting Published”).
n
In some cases, teach courses
(see chapter 8, “Teaching and Course Design”).
n
Juggle many different demands at once
(see chapter 5, “Managing Your Time”).
It is not necessary to be a technical expert at
everything. But a leader has to understand how
and why various scientific approaches to a problem
work and how to choose between possible strategies for solving the problems using the resources
available.
Leaders and Managers:
What’s the Difference?
Choose a behavior
you want to modify
Say a conflict arises between two people working
in your laboratory—their projects have converged
and now they are competing against each other
over who should take charge. You realize that you
should be keeping closer tabs on the experiments
being done by everyone in your lab, and on the
interactions among people. How could you train
yourself to stay better informed on the progress
of their work? What could you do that would help
you stay more generally aware of the tensions
between the people around you?
Choose a specific goal
for changing your behavior
Although the words leadership and management
are often used interchangeably, they do not mean
the same thing. A leader influences the opinions
and attitudes of others to accomplish a shared
goal. A manager, on the other hand, is primarily
an administrator who makes sure that people
and processes are in place to achieve the desired
goal. Managers need to be able to plan, budget,
organize, and solve problems, in order to keep
a complicated system of people and technology
running smoothly. As head of a scientific effort,
you will need to be both a leader and a manager.
You should choose a goal that is as specific as
possible, and state it in clear, measurable terms.
For example, a goal that states “I will become
better at communicating with people in the lab”
is not very useful, because it is neither clear how
you will go about reaching that goal nor easy to
assess whether you have succeeded. You will be
more likely to achieve a goal that states “I will
meet weekly with the person who is working
on project x to discuss in a direct and open way
progress on the project and any issues that might
be affecting the work.” This way you will be able
to tell if you have or have not followed through.
Developing
Leadership Skills
Determine a timeline
for completion
Some of the leadership skills mentioned above,
such as articulating your goals clearly enough to
develop a vision statement, may come easily to
you. Others, such as motivating people in your
lab or delegating responsibility, may prove more
difficult. “Leadership development” is the process
of improving your leadership skills. Just as you set
yourself a course for acquiring and improving your
scientific skills, you can set yourself one or several
goals for becoming a better leader, and make a
plan for achieving them. Here are some tips on
how to go about it.
You should set realistic deadlines for assessing
your progress. For example, “In one month, I will
know what everyone in the lab is working on and
will have set up regular scheduled meetings with
each person so that it will become routine to talk
about the progress of the work.”
managing your many roles
47
Assess your progress
From the beginning you should have clearly stated
the expected outcomes of your goal, so that
you will know whether you have achieved them.
The questions you want to be able to answer are:
n
How do I know I have been successful?
n
Who are the other people who will notice and
be affected?
n
What difference will they notice?
You can gauge whether your leadership skills are
truly improving. First, are you accomplishing more
and moving more effectively toward achieving
your goals? It may be useful to open channels
for feedback. This involves asking people in your
lab and your colleagues for feedback on how
you measure up against your desired model
(see “Giving and Receiving Feedback,” page 59).
In some places, “the boss is the boss,” and it may
seem paradoxical to suggest opening yourself up
to feedback from those who work under you. But
you can ask for helpful input about your own management style without undermining your authority.
For example, you can say explicitly, “I set up
these regular meetings with you because I want
to be sure that you and I are communicating well
about your day-to-day progress. Now that we’ve
done a few, what is your impression of how these
conversations are changing things in the lab?”
You might see evidence of success when you
learn that the lab is having a problem with an
experimental protocol before it becomes a crisis,
rather than after. It does not make you a weaker
leader to ask questions that let you check whether
you are communicating as clearly as you think you
are. As your communications improve, people
working with you might notice that overall, they
are better informed about how research in the lab
is proceeding, or they may notice that meeting
regularly with you keeps their own project on
course. If there are people supervising your work,
they may notice that your lab has become more
productive or that the people reporting to you are
more engaged in their work.
48
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
How to Improve Your
Leadership Skills
Improving leadership skills is often a process of
trial and error, but there are some more systematic ways of going about it.
Learn by observing
To help you define and achieve a specific goal,
identify someone who does what you would like
to do. For example, if one of your limitations is
that those who work with you frequently seem to
believe that you do not appreciate their work, you
may want to observe how another leader recognizes and rewards the people in his or her group,
and then try using the same kind of action in your
own lab. Though everyone likes to be rewarded,
you may be surprised to find that simply saying
out loud things you think should be obvious—
“I am proud of your consistently excellent work”
or “you set a good example for everyone when
you do your work so carefully”—can go a long
way toward solving the problem. Seeing a colleague make this kind of comment may remind
you to do it more often yourself.
You will need to practice and probably cannot
copy your colleague directly, because to be natural
any approach you try will have to suit your own
personality and situation. Similarly, you probably
have colleagues and friends who are good public
speakers, cool under pressure, effective at managing time, or skilled at running meetings. You can
observe these people and identify factors that
make them good at these things, and then try to
adopt these behaviors yourself. You may also ask
these colleagues for feedback on the skills you are
developing and seek advice on your own behavior
and progress. They will likely be flattered (see
chapter 10, “Expanding Your Influence: Training
the Next Generation of Scientists”).
It is always a good idea to stay in contact with the
teachers who have shaped your life and work. But
this is especially important if you are starting your
career at an institution that is just beginning to build
up its research training. The role models for you at
your institution may be few and far between.
In fact, even though you yourself have just finished
your training, you may be the senior scientist at
your institution and thus the one that others look
to for clues about how to manage their projects.
Those who trained you will be valuable collaborators and may also give you useful suggestions
on how to run your laboratory, especially if you
are building up a working group that will both do
research and train students who themselves will
need to learn to become successful professional
scientists.
If your training was done almost entirely abroad,
it is essential that you also follow the examples of
laboratory heads in your own country, rather than
coming to the institution and saying, for example,
“At the Pasteur we always did it this way, and so
that is how I will run my own group.” Local senior
scientists know how the system in the present
country and in the present institution works. Their
example will help you avoid making serious missteps as you develop your career. It is important
to pay attention to them, learn from them, and not
let your enthusiasm for other approaches come
to be seen as signs of disrespect or feelings of
superiority to them.
Read books and attend courses
Good leadership and good management are
priorities for organizations of all kinds. You can aid
your leadership development by reading books
and taking university courses on the subject.
You could also take a World Health Organization
workshop on management, or take advantage
of similar career development activities offered
at meetings sponsored by large professional
societies, non-governmental organizations, or
public-private partnerships. Many large scientific
societies offer workshops on management as
well as on scientific issues in the days just before
their annual meeting. Tuition is often charged, but
scholarships may be available—it never hurts to
ask. Many academic institutions provide leadership/managerial courses through their business
schools/economics faculties. Often such courses
are offered at convenient times for busy professionals, such as one night per week.
Get to know your
strengths and weaknesses
In most cases, you cannot change your personal
qualities, but becoming aware of them can help
you lead more effectively. You can learn to make
the most of your assets and work around or
improve upon your liabilities. Also, thinking about
your personality and preferences in a formal way
can make you more aware of how your personality
may shape the behavior of people around you, and
help you direct and support them more effectively.
One useful framework for understanding personalities is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test or
similar tools. This is not a test that hands out
labels like “this person is neurotic” or “that person
is paranoid.” It is a questionnaire that sorts out
how one person compares to others with respect
to four factors related to temperament.
The factors let you gauge quickly whether one is
oriented toward looking inward or toward looking
outward when surrounded by other individuals;
whether one is more of an abstract or concrete
thinker; whether one prefers logic or is more
inclined toward trusting feelings; and whether the
person is more comfortable with orderliness and
structure or likes things that are “free form.” In
each of these four areas, neither extreme is good
or bad—everyone uses both logic and feelings,
abstract thoughts and hard data—but knowing
your preferences and those of the people around
you will help you understand how people act in
given situations, and understanding the preferences of the people around you can give you
insight into what drives their habits of mind.
For example, someone who loves big ideas may
frequently argue with another person who loves
looking after page after page of data. One may
think the other is “too obsessed with detail,”
while the other may think, “it is all ‘what if’ to you
—what about the real situation on the ground?”
Once these people realize that the issue is not
one another’s vision but rather that they look at the
world in different and complementary ways, they
may be able to take advantage of one another’s
natural strengths rather than becoming bogged
down in frustration about each other’s differences.
managing your many roles
49
There is a great deal of commentary online about
what these factors mean in terms of how you
interact with other people or ideas. There are many
questionnaires available online that will provide a
Myers-Briggs score. Searching for the phrase “free
Myers-Briggs” should find a few. Much of the
development around these personality types has
been done in North America and Western Europe,
so some of what you read in these descriptions
(especially in the areas of introversion and
extroversion—one’s openness to other people or
preference for spending time alone), will be written
with cultural assumptions that may be different
from those in your own region.
A popular way to understand your on-the-job
strengths and weaknesses is to seek feedback
from those around you, including those above you
in rank, your peers, and people you admire. You
may be surprised to find that areas you consider
your special strengths are viewed by others as
your areas of weakness and vice versa. Feedback
from others can help you recognize and see past
your blind spots.
How to Create a Mission Statement
Writing a formal mission statement can provide
you with a cornerstone for building the vision for
your lab. This statement describes the kind of
research you want to do, the motivation for your
research, and the kind of atmosphere in which
you want to work. It should take into consideration
the history and current challenges of your lab and
what you want to accomplish in the short and long
term, with an eye to your future work.
If your position is one of higher responsibility, your
vision and mission will be oriented toward the
achievements of a department and institution as a
whole. The exercise of writing down a mission and
a vision may seem artificial, but it can be useful
to capture “the big picture” and to refer to it now
and then to see if you are spending your time and
effort in ways consistent with moving
you closer to your long-term intentions.
As you develop your mission statement, keep in
mind the following points:
n
Decide what values you want for your lab (e.g.,
scientific excellence, discipline, teamwork,
competition). You might think, “These are all good
things, so why not just aspire to greatness?” But
the values and strengths you see as leading to
great science may be different from those someone else would pick. Someone who enjoys being
focused might thrive by picking a single scientific
problem and focusing great efforts to solving it.
A different person might thrive on devoting great
efforts at many different problems connected by a
common thread. Some people want to have a lab
where everyone collaborates on projects; others
may prefer to have each lab member work on distinct aspects of a scientific question without much
interaction. Knowing yourself—your strengths and
weaknesses—will help you determine what you
want to accomplish and how to get it done.
n
Consider your social, financial, and family goals, in
addition to your scientific ones. They will not be
elements of your mission statement, but they
should help you understand what efforts and
resources you can put into your research. This, in
turn, will help determine the scope of what you
hope to achieve.
Creating Your
Vision as a Leader
Most people understand that the president of a
university or the head of a large institute must
have a vision for what he or she wants to accomplish. But what about someone running a lab, or
someone working on one project within a larger
laboratory? Even in a very small working group—
one researcher and a technician—if there is no
clear vision of what drives the work and what its
goal is, someone may head off in his or her own
direction, wasting time and potentially generating
ill will.
Without a clear shared goal, small disagreements
and normal human differences may become
magnified as individuals’ own preferences may
come to overshadow what is really important for
driving the work forward. Developing a vision for
everyone in the lab to share does not limit innovation. Instead, it provides a foundation for creativity
from which new directions may be taken. If you
have many people working under you, a shared
vision may help them better understand how you
set priorities.
50
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
n
The goal of our laboratory is to be among the most
successful and respected researchers in the area
of cancer genetics. The ultimate goal is to help
develop better therapies and cures for cancer. Our
access to patients with a unique type of cancer
gives us an unusual opportunity to do excellent
molecular and population work. We will publish
our work internationally and seek out excellent
collaborators. We will be recognized for being fair
and collegial colleagues in the broad cancer field
and as the world’s experts in the cancer that is our
specialty.
n
Our lab aims to understand the mechanisms by
which cells transport proteins. In particular, we will
focus on technical challenges that others have not
been able to overcome. A main focus of the lab is
to train the next generation of scientists. We will
create an environment that is conducive to learning
and testing new skills.
Keep in mind that mission statements are not
operating plans or strategic maps for the lab, but
do serve to shape those essential elements. In
addition, they are not static—they evolve and
change with time. One could read them cynically.
But why do that? You are setting out in words your
hopes for your career and maybe for your country’s role in advancing science. Think realistically,
but think boldly about what you can do, and think
proudly about doing it where you are.
If you have written a mission statement you are
pleased with, try saying it over and over to the
people in your lab. State it at lab meetings, when
people first join the lab, and when you sit down
to write a paper. Every decision you make from
now on, from hiring staff to choosing scientific
projects for the people in the lab to establishing
how communication flows, can be made with this
statement in mind. It will help remind you to ask
yourself whether an action being considered is in
keeping with what you want to achieve and how
you want to achieve it.
Your mission statement is what sets the course for
your lab, but how do you go about directing and
motivating people to accomplish this vision? The
way you carry out your role as a leader is called
your “leadership style.” It will depend largely upon
your own personality and the types of experiences
you have had up to now. For example, you may
find you feel more comfortable making decisions
on your own, without seeking the input of others
in the lab or colleagues. Or you may find it difficult
to give unsolicited feedback to your students and
postdocs. After a few months, you will most likely
develop a style that you feel comfortable with. But
management experts tell us that different styles
are required for different situations and different
individuals, and that you should practice using a
variety of such styles to help you navigate through
different problems and challenges.
American management gurus Ken Blanchard and
Paul Hershey have written about leadership styles
in terms of a continuing spectrum of directive and
supportive behavior. Directive behavior involves
clearly telling people what to do, how to do it, and
when to do it, and then closely monitoring behavior.
Supportive behavior involves listening to people,
providing assistance and encouragement, and then
facilitating their involvement in problem-solving
and decision-making. According to this model, the
degree to which you direct and support people
who work for you is influenced by their level of
competence and their commitment to completing
a given task.
Blanchard and Hershey Model of Leadership Styles
High
Here are two sample mission statements:
Developing Your
Leadership Style
Low
Craft a statement that you feel comfortable
communicating to your peers, superiors, and lab
members. It does not need to be flowery language;
it should be ambitious but not a grandiose overstatement of importance.
Supportive Behavior
n
Supporting
coaching
delegating
directing
Low
High
Directive Behavior
(Adapted from a concept developed by the Center for Leadership Studies, Inc.)
managing your many roles
51
In their model, the four styles of situational
leadership are:
n
Directing. This style puts a high focus on getting
tasks done and a lower focus on relationship. When
the person you are supervising is not yet qualified
or is not sufficiently motivated to carry out a task
independently, then you need to tell him or her
precisely what to do at each step. For example,
you may take this approach with a technician who
has just started working in your lab and needs to
learn an important technique that he or she will be
doing routinely.
n
Coaching. This style puts a high focus on both
task and relationship. You would continue to direct
the actions of the person you are supervising,
but would also take the time to explain decisions,
solicit suggestions, and support the individual’s
professional development. This leadership style is
the most demanding. It requires a lot of time and
emotional investment on the part of the leader.
For example, soon after a graduate student joins
the lab, you may have to show him or her different techniques and help the student decide which
experiments to do, but you would explain why and
how they fit in with the lab’s mission, so that over
time the student will be able to work creatively,
confidently, and independently.
n
n
Supporting. This style puts a low focus on task
and a higher one on relationship. In a lab, the supervisor is likely to adopt this leadership style with
most trained scientists and experienced graduate
students. For example, you would give a trained
scientist working in your lab the responsibility to
choose what experiments to do, but continue to
discuss what they are. You would also facilitate
progress by, for example, helping this person find
someone to collaborate with so that he or she can
get the next step of a project accomplished.
Delegating. This style puts a low focus on both
task and relationship. You would turn over responsibility for decision-making and problem-solving
to an individual who has become more independent. For example, you might allow a fully trained
scientist who is doing very well in your lab to
take responsibility for the day-to-day progress of
one of the lab’s projects, and to function within
the context of that project as a fully independent
researcher.
52
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
Delegating Tasks and Authority
Many heads of laboratories are reluctant to delegate because they fear losing control or power.
Delegation is important, because it will relieve you
of some of the lab’s day-to-day responsibilities.
Assigning responsibility does not lessen your
role in the lab. It merely gives you time to handle
more tasks that suit your position than you could
if you had not passed along some of the work that
can be done by another person. Also, delegation
serves to empower and motivate the people who
work for you, and helps prepare them for the
responsibilities that will someday fall to them.
In deciding whether there is something you could
delegate, ask yourself the following questions:
What am I doing now that I would like to see
someone else do? Is there a person in the lab
who is capable of handling some of what I do and
willing to take on a new responsibility? What could
I do if I had more free time? One of the tasks
you may want to consider delegating is ordering
supplies. Although you may want to continue to
involve yourself in approving purchases, someone
else can look up catalog numbers and fill in order
forms. If you make all of the reagents in the
lab, you may be able to delegate that work to a
trusted, careful worker. Other activities, such as
washing dishes or feeding research animals, could
be passed along to less-trained individuals if you
are doing these tasks yourself.
Once you have decided to delegate the
responsibility for a given task, you need to:
n
Be sure you delegate the necessary authority with
the responsibility. You may have to explicitly tell
others, “This person is acting in my stead and must
be given the priority and access to resources that
you would give me if I was carrying out this work
myself.”
n
Give clear directions and make sure they are
understood; keep two-way communication channels open.
n
Clearly define the responsibilities assigned to each
lab member, and make this information known to
everyone in the lab.
n
Once you have delegated, follow up to make sure
the job is being done, without interfering with it.
n
When you delegate authority to someone, be sure
to back that person up when his or her authority is
called into question.
n
Distribute responsibilities fairly among members of
the lab.
Keep in mind that the people to whom you
delegate may view problems that arise as personal
failures or as letting you down. They may therefore put off telling you about problems. Taking the
time beforehand to communicate what should
happen, and anticipating any potential problems,
may save you headaches later. You do not want to
add to your own burden by having to micromanage
your delegations, but sometimes putting some
time into seeing to it that the work starts off well
is all it takes to ensure a successful transition to
your delegates’ ability to work independently.
Building and Sustaining
an Effective Team
Today, more than at any other time in history,
science is a team sport—and the teams keep
getting bigger. Your job as a leader includes
maintaining good working conditions so that your
group can be productive. Recognizing and dealing
with low morale or bad feeling arising among your
workers (or between your workers and yourself)
requires most people to pay more attention to
human relationships than they did before taking
on a leadership role. For many kinds of work, you
need to integrate people who have different kinds
of technical expertise and backgrounds. Regardless of the size of your lab or your group, there
are some general guidelines for keeping the team
members motivated and working effectively, from
communicating and giving feedback to setting
specific rules of behavior. They are discussed in
the sections below.
Communicating Within the Lab
make a big difference to your group’s research
productivity if you make an effort to walk around
the lab frequently (on the scale of at least once a
day, if you can) and informally chat with people.
Keeping your office door open when you do not
need privacy or quiet sends the message that you
are approachable and available for scientific and
practical questions about the work in the lab. If
you would like to be approachable but your many
obligations prevent you from having an “open
door policy,” try establishing a regular schedule
of hours during which people from your lab group
can reliably get a moment of your time without
the formality of setting up an official meeting.
In addition to these informal interactions, formal
meetings are an organized way to ensure that
everyone is kept informed of the group’s activities
and results and for you to reiterate your expectations and values. If you have time, it can be
valuable to hold regular goal-setting and evaluation
sessions—an annual lab retreat for discussing
big picture issues, regular lab meetings involving
the full staff, and scheduled one-on-one advisory
meetings and performance evaluations for your
trainees and employees. Group activities such as
lab dinners or outings, held periodically, can also be
important for building morale and encouraging lab
members to think of themselves as part of a team.
I would add that it is important that the boss,
except when out of the lab for meetings or
other academic commitments, spend most of
his time in the lab, arriving early in the morning
and staying late. Not to give the impression
that being the boss one has the privilege to
work less, no matter the nature of your work
(desk or bench).
Alberto Kornblihtt, Argentina
You should communicate with laboratory members
on a daily basis if possible. If you are still doing
experiments at the bench yourself, you will be
accessible to your lab members. But if you spend
most of your time in your office writing papers
and grants or handling other responsibilities, it will
managing your many roles
”
53
good practice for laboratory notebooks
Scientists everywhere are expected to keep daily
records of their work. These records allow work
to be reproduced by others and serve as a record
of your progress and the evolution of your ideas.
A well-kept lab notebook documents failures just
as thoroughly as it documents successes, not only
because it is meant to be a fair record but also
because sometimes what seems to be a failure
turns out to be an important insight and the beginning of a new success. Even routine procedures
should be documented each time they are carried
out. This not only reinforces the habit of keeping
notes but also preserves a record of how shortcuts, “tweaking”, or individual’s way of carrying
out the work changes with experience.
Why are notebooks so important?
n
n
Spotting problems quickly. Having a look at
everyone’s notebook a few times a month, and
reviewing your own periodically, will help you
ensure that the work in the lab is being done up
to your standards, and will let you find out quickly
when things are not working or when a worker is
struggling to achieve an expected result.
Avoiding technical drift. When working in the
lab, one often comes up with “tweaks” and
“work-arounds” that make work go faster. When
these changes evolve, they should be noted,
especially if they improve the work process and
should replace the original method. Keeping an
eye on the lab’s notebooks will also help you spot
when an attempt at efficiency or convenience
causes an established procedure to become less
accurate or reliable.
n
Avoiding fraud. You will be responsible for the
integrity of all of the work that comes out of your
laboratory. Checking notebooks and setting a good
example by keeping exemplary records yourself
will help prevent fraud.
n
Defending patents. In many countries, whoever
patents an invention first has rights to it. But in
some places, including the U.S., if you can prove
you thought of an idea first, you own it, even if
some-one else tries to patent it before you. Careful
record-keeping can help prove your claims of priority.
New electronic tools for laboratory record–keeping
are increasingly coming into use. So far, they have
not been exposed to much legal scrutiny or been
part of many controversies. For this reason, many
labs continue to use paper records even if they
are also using electronic systems.
Ensure that daily records are
kept of all of the work in your lab
The precise way in which to document scientific
research varies from field to field and from place
to place, but some general rules apply:
n
Use a permanently bound book, with consecutive
dated entries. Never remove pages. Sometimes,
especially when you have written down a bold
new insight or done a profoundly important experiment for the first time, entries should be signed
by you. Periodically, they should be witnessed by
a scientifically competent reader in case you later
need to prove that your work came before another
scientist’s.
n
Use only pens, preferably with waterproof, solventproof, and fade-resistant ink that does not smear,
to write in the notebook.
n
Make sure that your handwriting is clear and that
others can read it.
n
Each entry, even for a routine task, should stand
on its own, to permit others to replicate the work.
Entries in the notebook should be written in order
of the time the work was done, not grouped
together with related work done on various dates.
n
n
n
Loose items like photographs, drawings, or
machine printouts should be permanently attached
to the notebook pages using glue or staples.
Lab notebooks should not leave the laboratory area
(including the researcher’s office, if it is close to
the lab). They should not go to anyone’s home. If
safety and security of the notebook is a concern,
a locked, fireproof box in the lab is a good place to
store notebooks overnight.
Laboratory notebooks usually stay with the lab in
which the work was done. For this reason, it can
be useful for researchers to keep a personal
notebook full of procedures, methods, recipes, and
other useful information using a second, sturdy
book which they have purchased themselves. This
personal book, which will leave the lab, should
never function as a separate lab notebook.
Keeping a well-organized record
n
Organize material with sections and headings.
n
Identify and describe reagents and specimens
used.
n
Identify sources of those materials (e.g., reagent
manufacturer, lot number, purity, expiration date).
n
Enter analytical instrument serial numbers and
calibration dates.
n
Use proper names for items and real verbs to
describe how you used them.
n
Write all entries in the first person, and be specific
about who did the work.
n
Explain nonstandard abbreviations.
n
Use ink and never obliterate original writing; never
remove pages or portions of a page. If you write
out an experiment and do not carry it out, make a
note that it was not done, including a brief explanation.
n
Write down some analysis of your results and
outline new experiments, including their objectives
and rationale, suggested by your observations.
Research group meetings
Many research groups hold weekly or monthly
meetings. People in the lab take turns presenting
what they have done since they gave their last
presentation. They give an introduction to the purpose of their individual project or activity, provide
some background to get others “up to speed,”
share their results and their interpretation, and
then discuss what they plan to do next. Comments
and suggestions from the research team usually
follow.
In some labs, a group meeting is a semiformal
presentation; in other labs these meetings may
be more informal. For example, each person
discussing what he or she did that week. Informal
meetings tend to be much more interactive, but
it can still be useful to schedule occasional formal
presentations so that the individuals training in
your lab can perfect their ability to speak about
their research and learn to look and act like a
professional scientist. Another idea is to have
joint research meetings with other labs. It is good
experience for your lab members to give presentations to scientists outside your lab. It can help to
clarify presentations and may bring out new ideas
from those who are not so closely involved with
the projects. It extends your network and that of
your students, which is especially useful when they
are looking for jobs or letters of reference.
One-on-one meetings
Regardless of the frequency of research group
meetings, it is useful to meet often with each
of the people working or training under your
supervision so that you can keep current with
their progress and any problems they may be
encountering in getting their experiments to work.
Invite them to come into your office with their lab
notebooks and show you what they have been
working on. Many heads of labs meet with lab
members for an hour each week. They may meet
with them more frequently immediately after lab
members have finished a series of experiments or
when they notice that a lab member is struggling.
56
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
Depending on your circumstances, you may not
have the time to meet with your lab members
that often, but it is important that you make an
effort to communicate with them as often as
possible. If you run a very large group working on
several projects, teach individuals who are leading
these projects to meet regularly with students
or technicians working under them; you will help
them learn how to supervise and at the same time
make your workload more manageable.
It is valuable to carry out formal reviews of a person’s progress during these one-on-one meetings
once or twice a year. These reviews, sometimes
called “performance reviews,” spell out in writing
the progress the individual has made since the
last review and set future goals. See the Appendix
at the end of this chapter (page 72) for a sample
six-month performance review. The review can
give you an opportunity to acknowledge and comment on the person’s hard work, make note of
new skills acquired, and restate your expectations
for the trainee or employee’s work in the lab.
Small group meetings
Some large labs also have meetings of subgroups
working on specific projects or working with
specific techniques. This gives everyone who
is working hands-on with the project a chance
to consider and choose different experimental
strategies to generate the best results, and
together consider logistics and technical matters.
Small group meetings give everyone an informal
opportunity to share tips and tricks, and can help
keep morale up when members of the group run
up against technical challenges. The benefit of
small groups like this for getting new technologies
and techniques working is so large that it may
be worthwhile to put together “user groups” of
personnel working on the same approaches in
other nearby labs.
Strategy sessions
Should you decide that your research needs to
take a new direction, you may want to call an
official strategy session. A strategy session
helps the group identify the next most important
questions and what experiments will answer
these questions. Such a meeting also helps the
group develop a shared understanding of the
lab’s direction and clarifies what needs to be
done and who within the group is interested in
what aspects of the new research area. These
meetings also help you determine how potential
conflicts and competing interests can be avoided.
D e v e l o p i n g a Da t a Ma n a g e m e n t S y s t e m
t o t ra c k y o u r la b o ra t o r y ’ s w o r k
Having an orderly system for maintaining lab procedures and information can be very useful, especially
as the personnel in your working group change over time. Think about what kinds of things, from ideas
to pictures of laboratory results, you would like to be able to find quickly. Then develop a system for
labeling these things so that you can find them again. Once you have developed a systematic way of
labeling everything you’d like to be able to find, you can use the search capacity of a personal computer
to make your life much easier.
A good system might name things in a way that indicated the date the item or information was
generated, who generated it, what kind of resource is stored, and where more information can be
found, as well as other information that may suit a given laboratory.
One might index a new plasmid named pJD03, made and purified by Jane Doe on May 22, and described
and recorded in the third volume of her notebook on page 79 as
n
20092009-05-22 /jd /plasmid prep/ pJD03/III:79
Even with this simple system, if 20 years from now you would like to remember something about a
plasmid you vaguely remember a student making sometime after the Olympics in China but before the
World Cup in Johannesburg, you will have a quick, simple way to find it.
n Integrate research and clinical activities and use departmental academic meetings to promote the
clinical relevance of your research program.
What to Store
Lab protocols
Primary data in a form that will survive into the future
n CDs/DVDs
n Handwritten data in pen in laboratory notebooks or other high quality paper
n Laser-printed computer documents on high quality paper
Lists of specimens and reagents
Information about instruments
managing your many roles
57
Journal club meetings
These meetings are an integral part of training
new scientists, and can vary in frequency from
weekly to monthly, or as desired. The discussion
of a scientific report serves to illustrate how to
(and how not to) construct and test a hypothesis,
what constitutes effective analysis, and how to
report scientific findings. A journal club meeting
also reinforces the idea that reading current
papers is essential to keeping up with the field. In
addition, these meetings provide an opportunity
for you to communicate your values about science
when discussing other people’s work.
Finding Good Papers for Journal Clubs
Our journal club, which focuses on infectious
diseases, has identified 10 leading journals
from which presenters are encouraged to select
articles for presentation. Presenters do have
the freedom to occasionally select interesting
or relevant articles from non-preferential
journals.
Brian Eley, South Africa
”
H o w t o r u n a J o u r n al C L u b
In many research institutes, members of different labs will get together to discuss published articles
in a particular field or subject. The subject can be very specialized, such as “chromatin,” or broad
in scope, such as “molecular biology.” Reading and discussing articles with others who share your
interests and background will really help you and the people in your lab stay abreast of current
developments. It will also help more junior scientists stay motivated about their own work and learn
about the elements of a sound scientific paper and study.
There are many ways to hold a journal club, but in general, these meetings work best when:
n The group meets regularly in the same location at the same time.
n Responsibility for leading the discussion of articles is rotated among all of the regular participants.
n Articles selected for reading and discussion are of interest to the majority of the group.
n Everyone participates actively in the discussion of the articles.
In some groups, everyone in the group reads the paper ahead of the meetings. In other journal clubs
only the person leading the discussion reads the paper ahead of time and the others learn about it
through his or her presentation. Most journal clubs last about an hour, with a portion of the time
allotted to a presentation, followed by a question-and-answer or discussion period. Some journal clubs
take place over lunch; others at other times of the day. Regardless, these meetings are more popular
if some food and drinks are provided.
Typically, the person leading the discussion of a particular article will review the background of the
study, the rationale for doing it, the data presented, and will evaluate both the results and their
interpretation. In the process, the discussion leader should address the following questions:
n Is the paper clearly written?
n What is the quality of the work described?
n What is the quality of the materials, methods, and instrumentation used?
n Is the analysis and interpretation of the data valid?
n What are the strengths and weaknesses of the chosen experimental design?
n Are there any errors that the authors may have missed?
n What is the impact of these errors on the authors’ data, interpretations, and/or conclusions?
n What is the overall significance of this work to a particular field of study?
n Do the conclusions follow from the data?
n Are there other, perhaps better interpretations of the data than those presented in the paper?
58
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
Finding Good Papers for Journal Clubs
Search on Medline for your field/subject of interest.
n
Look through relevant journals that the research institute/university department subscribes to.
n
Look at papers that your collaborators have published.
n
Discuss papers of interest that have just been presented at a recent conference, especially if full papers are available.
n
Susan Mutambu, Zimbabwe
Informal group activities
”
Organizing social occasions to celebrate a major
accomplishment—publication of a paper, a team
member getting a new job, the group getting a
new grant, and so on—is important for promoting
your shared vision of the lab and building morale.
In some groups, a souvenir like a copy of the
newly successful grant or celebratory champagne
bottle signed by the whole team, a group photo,
or some other lasting sign of the day is kept and
proudly displayed for continued inspiration. Also,
most heads of laboratories agree that it is important that lab members occasionally socialize in a
relaxed, non-work environment. Such get-togethers can help promote a team feeling and enhance
communication among lab members. As you are
establishing your lab, you might have to arrange
these outings. After a while, they will occur more
spontaneously. Do not feel that you always have
to participate, and do not feel offended if you are
not invited to all after-hours occasions, especially
if your role in your organization puts you at a much
higher level of seniority and responsibility than
those on your team.
Giving and Receiving Feedback
Giving and receiving feedback is a critical leadership skill. Receiving feedback from individuals in
your lab will help you improve as a leader, and will
help you steer people toward your vision. In turn,
giving them feedback will help them develop as
scientists and will ensure that your expectations
are met. Even if you have a very formal manner
with your lab, feedback should be given informally
on a daily basis, as well as during formal meetings.
You do not have to be everyone’s friend in the lab
to do this—providing small comments will do.
Remember that although one often notices criticism and correction more, positive feedback, for
example “Thanks for making sure this got done
on time,” or “Keep trying, this is a tough technical
problem that we need to get through, and you are
using a good, systematic approach to do that,” is
also important.
When you give feedback to people in the lab, try to:
n
Time it well. Feedback delivered during stressful
times (e.g., when a grant deadline is looming) is
rarely helpful, especially when either party is
angry or elated, or when someone walked into a
discussion not expecting to hear critique, good or
bad, about the work.
guidelines for effective meetings
n
Solicit agenda items and distribute an agenda before the meeting.
n Have clear assigned roles for the meeting—that is, who will speak, who will take notes, who will
lead the discussion.
For each action item on the agenda, go over discussion points, make a decision, and determine
post-meeting actions.
n
n
Discuss what should be on the next meeting’s agenda.
n
Follow up the meeting with a meeting summary and a to-do-by-what-date list.
managing your many roles
59
need to say explicitly “In the long run, this is the
kind of problem people get fired for. But we are
not at that stage yet and we will not be as long as
we can work together and solve the problem. You
and I both know that you are a good worker and
that you struggle with family responsibilities. What
can you do today that will help you get here on
time for the next five days in a row?” Working
toward small goals can sometimes help good
workers meet your standards.
Components of an
Especially Useful Agenda
n Meeting title, group title,
where it will be held, date, time
n
n
n
n
n
Meeting purpose
n
Desired outcome
n
Expected preperation
n
Attendees and known absences
n
Minutes from the last meeting
n
New business
n
Other business
n
Date and content of next meeting
Be specific and objective. Focus your comments
on first-hand data, actions, and behavior and not on
the person or speculation about his or her intentions. For example, instead of saying “You are not
focused enough on your work,” or “You do not
seem to care about your experiments,” think of a
specific instance that you thought was a problem.
“We decided at our meeting that you would do
these three experiments, but you only did one.”
Reinforce expectations. Provide feedback in
terms of previously outlined goals and decisions
(“We decided at the last meeting...”).
Avoid subjective statements. An example of
such a statement is “I do not like the fact that you
show up in the lab whenever you feel like it.” Try
instead to stick to objective arguments. “If you
arrive at unpredictable times, it is difficult for other
people in the lab to know when they can talk to
you. Many people depend on your expertise and
need to know when you are available.”
Be very clear about what you want your
discussion to achieve. Sometimes when people
receive negative feedback, they feel defeated.
But that outcome may not help you achieve your
intended goal. If you have an excellent worker who
is failing to meet your expectations for working
regular hours in the lab, for example, you may
60
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
n
Present it in a constructive way. Feedback
should be seen as a method for improvement
rather than as a punitive step. To this end, ensure
that the student or other trainee in the lab has a
plan for dealing with any problems you have
identified, and arrange a way to monitor progress.
Why does a person come to the lab late in the day
and have an erratic work schedule? Does she have
a problem with getting transportation to and from
the lab? Has he taken an additional job? Suggest
ways to overcome these problems and agree on a
deadline for re-evaluating the problem. You cannot
organize a person’s life for them, but you can point
out solutions, saying, for example, “Maybe staying
closer to the lab during the week or catching a ride
with someone in another part of the institution
would help?”
n
Make sure it registers. Feedback is often
subject to distortion or misinterpretation. You may
want to ask the student or postdoc to rephrase
what you have said and talk about his or her
assessment of the issues you raised.
n
Avoid too much. Select the highest priority
issues to start with, and remember that time and
space are needed for integrating feedback. Even
positive, well-motivated people sometimes have
to think a few days to assimilate your message.
Receiving Feedback. In some cultures it is not
acceptable for someone working or training in
your laboratory to give you feedback on any
aspects of your own performance. In such
systems, you are The Boss, and that is the end
of the story. So how can you get feedback if you
want it?
If possible, invite people in your lab to provide
feedback on specific issues by asking questions
during lab meetings or scheduled one-on-one
meetings. This feedback will make you a better
manager. Make it a point to meet with your
own supervisor, if you have one, on a regular
basis, and have lunch with senior colleagues to get
a sense of how they think your work is progressing and whether you are on track for achieving
your scientific and career goals. If you are a very
senior scientist at your institution despite having
only recently finished your own training and have
little hope of getting honest feedback from your
colleagues, it may be that old friends or trusted
relatives can help you work through your growing
pains. Past advisors may also be able to help with
some issues. If you have entirely trained abroad,
however, you also need to find someone in your
current social and scientific culture who can help
you maintain your perspective and sense of humor.
Regardless of where you get your advice, remember that to get honest comments and suggestions,
you must be receptive. If you respond angrily or
defensively, those in your lab and other colleagues
will be reluctant to give you their true opinions. As
you are listening to a comment, try to understand
what the other person is saying. If something is
not clear, ask for clarification. If the feedback is
negative, take time to think about what you heard,
even if you do not agree. What behaviors might
have caused these perceptions? What changes, if
any, do you need to make?
Making Decisions
As the head of a new laboratory you will be making
tens if not hundreds of decisions a day, from
determining which emails to open and how to
answer each one, to deciding what experiments to
do, to choosing to hire a new researcher to work
in your lab. In each case, the first step in making a
decision involves understanding the demands of
the situation by answering the following questions:
n
How important is the decision I have to make?
For example, the decision involved in hiring a
new technician is a serious one. You will have to
interview the candidate and carefully research his
or her background before you make a decision.
Whether or not you give a talk at the departmental
seminar next August may be a decision that will
not carry very serious consequences.
n
When do I need to make the decision?
n
Do I have enough information to make the decision?
n
How critical are the consequences of this decision?
n
Who needs to know or cares about the decision I
am about to make?
n
Will I need assistance or approval from others?
n
If I made the same kind of decision before, can I
use the same approach?
Answers to these questions will help you choose
the most appropriate decision style, that is, the
degree to which you go at it alone or include others.
Making a decision
in complete isolation
This decision style works best when you are
under severe time constraints, when there is no
need for buy-in from other people, when you alone
have the best insight, or when you are dealing
with highly confidential information. For example,
if another scientist approaches you to collaborate
on some experiments for a paper he is in a rush
to publish, you may quickly decide whether it is
worthwhile for you to get involved. You can make
this decision without consulting anyone else if
the work can be done by yourself or a technician.
Another example would be to decide whether to
referee a paper or write a letter of reference for
someone working in your laboratory.
Making a decision after
consulting with other individuals
You would use this decision style when you need
input from others and have sufficient time to gather
information. In general, this approach improves
the quality of the decision, but you run the risk of
involving people who are not really participating in
the decision-making process, which may lead to
resentment or misunderstanding. For example, if
approached by another researcher to collaborate
on a project, you may ask your colleagues whether
managing your many roles
61
they know this person and what his or her reputation is. The head of a laboratory considering taking
on a new research direction may consult with the
head of the research institute or other colleagues.
But the decision ultimately rests on the shoulders
of the laboratory head. Do not let those you consult
believe that they have control of your decision.
Making a decision with the group
This decision style is helpful when you have few
time constraints, need the buy-in or technical
experience of the group, or need a creative
response. It is more time-consuming than the two
discussed above, but in some cases it improves
the quality of the decision. For example, when
deciding whether or not to invite an individual to
join your lab, you may decide jointly with existing
lab members. Another example is if you have
to decide whether or not to buy a new piece of
equipment you have little experience with. There
may be other scientists working in your lab who
are more knowledgeable and can make a better
decision on which particular model to buy. It does
not diminish your authority to say to a trusted
subordinate, “Since you are the one who will be
the most involved in running this machine, get the
one that suits you best.”
Passing the decision on to others
This happens in cases when the decision is more
important to other people in the lab, or when you
have little competence in the area or other more
pressing priorities. The most important thing to
consider in this case is that you will have to live
with the decision, whether you like it or not. The
last thing you want to do is overturn a decision
once it has been made. For example, you might let
a senior scientist training in your laboratory decide
on his or her own whether to collaborate with
another scientist or where to submit a paper, if
you believe that the trainee has good judgment
and enough experience to make a mature,
informed decision.
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e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
Setting and
Communicating Rules
of Behavior for Members
of Your Laboratory
A key element of your role as a lab leader is to
effectively convey expectations that reflect your
vision for the lab. Some expectations may apply to
a particular group of lab members (e.g., postdocs);
others may be unique to each individual. You might
be formal about stating your expectations, or you
may want to work with your lab members to set
these expectations. This can increase the likelihood of buy-in and help increase motivation. The
best way to communicate expectations is to convey
them continually—at the first interview, on the first
day on the job, at lunchtime if you eat with your
group, during lab meetings, and, most importantly,
by setting a good example yourself day by day.
It is also a good idea to communicate in writing
your expectations about everything from expected
work hours to dress code to how one gains access
to training opportunities and advancement. Having
these standards written down is especially good
for new lab members and will be useful when you
are conducting periodic performance reviews. As
a general rule, you should live by the expectations
you set for your lab members. Show your workers
that you enjoy what you are doing. Especially in
the early years, be present in the lab, working side
by side with them if your position still includes
bench work, or showing interest in their work if
your role is more administrative. They will be able
to see how you work and what is important to you.
Below are some general areas you will want to
consider when setting expectations for people in
your lab.
Work hours
Some heads of laboratories feel they should stipulate a specific number of hours per week that they
expect people in their lab, especially trainees, to
work. But that strategy does not necessarily work
well and can generate resentment if the hours
q&a
Question
How do I avoid potential misunderstandings among lab members regarding work hours
and time off?
answer
The best way to handle this is to convey your expectations about work hours and time off to applicants
during the employment interview or their first day on the job. For example, the amount of vacation leave
varies from country to country, and the degree to which civil and religious events affect work also varies.
You should let applicants know about your institution’s and your lab’s policies.
demanded are far beyond normal expectations.
Focusing on productivity will prove more successful than focusing on the number of hours or on the
specific hours an individual works. Nevertheless,
you will probably want the members of your laboratory to be present during certain hours, to make
sure they can interact with you and the other lab
members. Generally, your own work hours set the
pace for your group. In some places, laboratories
may be capable of running around the clock. While
in others, work is confined to the normal business
day. If you want people to have access to the lab
at unusual hours, you will need to think through
issues of key control and your workers’ security
as well as that of your laboratory and the supplies
and equipment in it.
Authorship of papers
The inclusion and order of authors on a paper
are often sources of discord in the lab. In deciding who should be an author on a paper, the
Principal Investigator (PI) must consider who has
contributed to particular aspects of the work. All
lab members who are involved in a project should
express their expectations concerning authorship
and credits on the resulting paper, and provide
their rationale for being considered as an author.
This topic is discussed at greater length in chapter 9.
Here are some guidelines to consider:
n
The first author is normally the individual who is
primarily responsible for the project.
n
Occasionally, two individuals may share that
responsibility. Most journals permit a statement
that indicates that the first two or three authors
listed have each contributed equally to the publication. This can be helpful, but remember that the
author lists when cited in publications or on one’s
CV will not have this statement attached.
n
It is unwise to make upfront promises about
authorship. You may choose to make it a policy in
your lab to wait until you know how much each
person has actually contributed to any given paper
before authorship is assigned.
Prolonged absences
Communicate your expectation that lab members
should give you several weeks notice about an
upcoming vacation or their intention to spend
a holiday or harvest period away from the area.
Inform them of any vacation and personal leave
limits set by your institution. Your institution may
also have guidelines about sick leave, study leave,
maternity and paternity leave, funeral leave, and
other adjustments for family needs. It is best to
follow these guidelines rigorously to avoid
perceptions of favoritism.
managing your many roles
63
when the “big boss” expects to be an author
Depending on the protocol of your country or your particular institution, you may have little choice deciding whether your boss should be on the paper. At some research institutes, the head is on every paper,
period. This may be the reality at some institutions, but around the world it is regarded as scientifically
dishonest and quite unethical. There may be no other topic in this book where the gap between the
right thing to do and the pragmatic thing to do is so large.
Of course, if the “big boss” provided ideas or suggestions that were crucial to the development or
completion of the study, he or she should be listed as an author. However, in many cases your boss will
have had little input into your work. And listing this person as an author may communicate to readers
that you are not an independent scientist. So how do you decide whether or not to list him or her as an
author? Here are some things to consider:
If this person is a recognized authority in the field of work of your study, listing him or her as an author
may actually help you get the paper published. Would an accompanying letter to the journal editor from
the authority, rather than the authority’s name on your paper, help as much? It is hard to know. Finding
ways to truly involve the authority as a collaborator in your work may give you a strategy for maintaining
your integrity.
If listing your boss as an author will win you his or her favor and will help you advance in your career,
it may be to your advantage to do so. If leaving the boss off your papers will ruin your position at your
institution, what can you do? This is a difficult problem, though, and in some places a politically dangerous issue to confront directly. But setting aside your integrity is never the right thing to do.
n
In deciding whether to include someone as an
author, ask: “Could this project have been done
without this person’s conceptual or technical
contribution?”
If you are running a lab and overseeing all of the
work conducted in the lab, you may always be an
appropriate author on any paper the lab publishes.
However, if you have a more senior position and
are in charge of several labs, you should consider
carefully about when it is appropriate to be an
author. The importance of your name being on the
paper will vary from place to place and situation to
situation.
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e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
Scientific ethics
The best way to communicate responsible
research conduct to your lab members is to live
by those values yourself. As a leader, you should
talk about important ethical issues (e.g., scientific
rigor and reproducible and discrepant results)
in a lab meeting or in a more informal setting.
Some institutions offer lectures or seminars in
scientific ethics, and you should encourage your
staff to attend. This material is also sometimes
delivered at large scientific meetings or in workshops offered by the World Health Organization
and other agencies.
T h e I n t e r n a t i o n al C o m m i t t e e o f M e d i c al J o u r n al
Editors criteria for authorship of scientific work
Authorship credit should be based on 1) substantial contributions to conception and design, or
acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) drafting the article or revising it
critically for important intellectual content; and 3) final approval of the version to be published.
Authors should meet conditions 1, 2, and 3.
When a large, multi-center group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals
who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for
authorship/contributorship defined above and editors will ask these individuals to complete journalspecific author and conflict of interest disclosure forms. When submitting a group author manuscript,
the corresponding author should clearly indicate the preferred citation and should clearly identify all
individual authors as well as the group name. Journals will generally list other members of the group in
the acknowledgements. The National Library of Medicine indexes the group name and the names of
individuals the group has identified as being directly responsible for the manuscript.
Project ownership
The head of the laboratory, with input from
individual members, usually decides what projects
people in the lab work on. Some labs have strategy
discussions every three to four months, during
which everyone talks about what projects they
would like to continue or initiate. Work in the lab
is most effective and productive when members
have clearly defined projects that are sufficiently
distinct for each person to carry out some independent work, but at the same time the projects are
interrelated so that no one is working in a vacuum.
This way, everyone in the lab can consult with and
motivate his or her lab mates.
Keeping Lab Members
Motivated
One of your key roles is to motivate people to
work hard toward achieving your shared vision
and your shared interests. While different people
respond to different types of internal and external
motivation, most people are motivated when their
contributions to the laboratory are recognized and
appreciated. According to Edward O’Neil, to feel
motivated, most people require:
n
Choice. People want to make some decisions.
As the leader of your group, large or small, make
sure you give people appropriate responsibilities,
involve them in discussions about general scientific strategy, and listen to their ideas.
n
Competence. People need the skills to do the
work that is expected of them. Check competencies by asking someone to do an experiment with
you, or ask appropriate questions that will help you
judge the individual’s development.
n
Purpose. People need to understand the importance of their role in the lab and in the scientific
enterprise. It is important for you to set goals that
define success for those working under you and
make sure they match with what the person is
doing. This matters for everyone. The scientific
needs of your trainees are obvious, but remember,
an excellent technician may be driven by goals in
and outside science, and that even dishwashers
and other less-skilled helpers are working with you
for reasons that are important to them. It is important to listen to what each person wants to do and
understand what his or her goals are. If a postdoc
has decided to pursue a career in government or
in industry, trying to motivate him or her to follow
in your footsteps into academia will not work. As a
lab leader, you need to address your lab members’
individual goals while you work together to realize
your shared vision.
managing your many roles
65
P o l i c y o n l e t t i n g p r o j e c t s l e a v e t h e la b
You should develop a clear policy concerning whether you will allow scientists who train in your lab, and
then leave to establish their own research programs, to take their projects with them. Communicate
this policy to all scientists who join your lab. Some heads of laboratories let scientists who trained in
their labs take whatever they had worked on during their stay, with no strings attached. Others will let
them take only portions of a project. When you develop your policy, think about how you would want to
handle a situation in which the research results are different from what you anticipated, or a situation in
which the results lead to interesting new avenues of research. If you have a small research group and a
focused area of research, you may not be able to allow departing researchers to take their projects with
them. In that case, you might need to develop some alternatives to benefit them.
n
Recognition. You need to provide continuous
feedback to those who work with you. Criticism,
comments, and suggestions should be provided
in the context of the given expectations. Special
accomplishments, such as publishing a paper or
getting a difficult technique to work, require special
recognition, such as a lab outing.
n
n
Feeling Comfortable. To be able to focus on
their work, people must feel comfortable in their
environment. One example is that some lab members like to play music in the lab, while others are
distracted by it. The working environment needs
to be safe and, if possible, comfortable, so that
your lab members look forward to coming to work
every day and enjoy conducting research in your
lab with their colleagues.
n
Progress. Satisfaction from achieving goals should
not be in the distant future. It is a good idea to
schedule individual meetings as often as once a
week to set deadlines, solve problems, and plan
future experiments. A paper is a big goal but may
be several years into the future. But getting an
enzyme to work correctly or processing a given
number of samples can be goals that are attainable
much sooner, and are encouraging.
Unless also wrestling with personal problems,
poor health, or family problems, when these
factors are in place, people should feel motivated
to work. A lack of motivation may manifest itself as
a decrease in productivity. For example, someone
who was productive will stop producing results
consistently week after week. You will first need
to determine the cause for this decrease. Is it an
interpersonal problem in the lab, an experimental
obstacle, or a personal crisis? Discuss the problem
with the lab member and see whether you can
jointly develop a strategy to address the issue or
minimize the impact of the lab member’s actions
or distress on others.
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e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
Enthusiasm. You undoubtedly love science for
the thrill of discovery, of finding the answer to an
important scientific question that has never been
answered before, or helping find solutions to an
intractable health problem. Share your enthusiasm
and passion and soon others in the lab will follow
your lead.
Managing Conflict
in the Lab
Conflict is any situation where one person’s
concerns or desires differ from those of another
person. In the lab, conflicts often arise over “turf
wars,” when two individuals are interested in
the same project. By staying on top of what each
member of your lab is doing, you can often spot
potential problems and deal with them before they
become too serious.
Many people tend to avoid conflict. But we should
think of conflict as a creative part of our lives.
Conflict has the potential to produce both positive
and negative effects. Depending on how it is managed, conflict can be constructive or destructive,
stimulating or unnerving. It can produce higher
quality results or stifle a project; it can lead to original thinking or cause destructive power struggles.
STYLES OF HANDLING CONFLICT
Dr. Kenneth W. Thomas and Dr. Ralph H. Kilmann
provide a useful model for evaluating an individual’s
behavior in conflict situations. The Thomas-Kilmann
Conflict MODE Instrument describes a person’s
behavior in a conflict situation along two basic
dimensions: assertiveness, that is, the extent to
which an individual attempts to satisfy his or her
own concerns, and cooperativeness, that is, the
extent to which an individual attempts to satisfy
the concerns of the other person.
These two basic dimensions of behavior can be
used to define five specific modes of dealing with
conflict that everyone is capable of using.
Competing. This conflict-handling mode is
assertive and uncooperative. A person who
handles conflict in this manner pursues his or her
own concerns at the other person’s expense.
They use whatever powers seem appropriate to
win their position, including their ability to argue or
their rank. This conflict mode works when you are
dealing with a vital issue, an unpopular decision,
or a decision that needs quick action. Although
it sometimes seems justified, the mistake many
scientists make is to stay in an individualistic,
competitive mode all the time. For example, if the
head of another lab asks you for a reagent that you
have not yet cited in a publication and that one of
the people in your lab is using for a project, you
may decline to share the reagent until your lab
has published a paper referring to it. The decision
will probably make you unpopular with the other
scientist, but you are safeguarding the interests of
your lab.
Accommodating. This mode is unassertive and
cooperative. In other words, it is the opposite of
competing. Accommodators often neglect their
own concerns in order to satisfy the concerns of
others. The accommodating mode may be appropriate when you want to build political capital or
create good will, and for issues of low importance.
However, keep in mind that the accommodating
mode can be a problem if you keep a tally and
expect that the other person will be accommodating
next time. For example, you and your collaborator
are sharing a piece of equipment that just broke
down. He is insistent that you pay for the repairs
since your lab uses it more. You do not agree, but
you give in on this one because you know that his
lab uses all the other shared equipment more—so
it will be his turn next time a piece of equipment
needs repair.
Avoiding. Avoidant behavior is both unassertive
and uncooperative. Those who avoid conflict do
not immediately pursue their own concerns or
those of others. The conflict is never addressed by
avoiders. Many times people will avoid conflicts
out of fear of engaging in a conflict or because
they do not have confidence in their conflict
management skills. However, avoiding can be a
good strategy in cases where the person with
whom you are in conflict has much more power
than you do or when issues are not that important. It is also a good strategy when you need to
buy time. An example of how to do this is to say
“These are serious changes. I will need some
time to think about them.”
managing your many roles
67
Collaborating.This conflict-handling mode is
both assertive and cooperative. It is the opposite
of avoiding. Collaborators attempt to work with
the other person to find some solution that fully
satisfies the concerns of both persons. They dig
into an issue to identify the underlying concerns
of the two conflicting individuals and try to find an
alternative that meets both sets of concerns. With
such a positive outcome, some people will profess
that the collaboration mode is always the best
conflict mode to use. But collaboration takes a
great deal of time and energy, so it should be used
only when the conflict warrants that investment
of time and energy. For example, if two students
in your laboratory are arguing over who should do
a particular experiment, you might want to spend
the necessary time to carefully carve out different
projects in a way that will satisfy both students.
On the other hand, if your students are in conflict
about which day to hold a lab meeting, it is probably not worth the time and energy necessary to
collaboratively resolve the conflict.
Compromising. On the negotiating continuum,
this mode lies somewhere between assertiveness and cooperativeness. The goal of the
compromiser is to find an expedient, mutually
acceptable solution that partially satisfies both
parties. The compromiser gives up more than the
competitor, but less than the accommodator. He
or she addresses an issue more directly than the
avoider, but does not explore it in as much depth
or detail as the collaborator. This mode of conflict
resolution is useful for decisions of moderate
importance, when you have equal power status,
or when you are faced with an issue that needs to
be resolved quickly. In general, academics tend to
underutilize this mode of handling conflict.
For example, say you are invited by a collaborator
to give a talk at his university in a different country,
but you do not want to add more days of travel to
your busy schedule. You may agree to do it, but
time it so that it coincides with a meeting or other
event in that country. Another example is if the
head of your department or university goes back
on her agreement to give you a semester free of
68
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
teaching responsibilities. She tells you that she
is desperate and needs you to teach a course
for 200 students, including labs, during your first
semester. You point out that it is stipulated in
your contract that your first semester would be
free of teaching responsibilities; however, you are
willing to teach a smaller, graduate-level course.
You of course would rather not teach anything and
are not contractually bound to teach in your first
semester, but you also know that it is in your best
interest to accommodate your chair’s wishes as
much as possible.
Each of these conflict-handling modes has value;
none is intended to be good, bad, or preferable
in all situations. A worthwhile goal for you as the
head of a laboratory or project is to increase your
repertoire of responses to conflict, with the flexibility to use various modes in different situations
and in appropriate ways.
The people who work for you in your lab will also
tend to adopt one style of handling a conflict
over another. You will have a mix of competitors,
accommodators, and avoiders. Show them by
example that there are different ways of handling
conflict, depending on the situation.
Resolving a conflict between lab members. When
conflict occurs between two or more members of
the lab, determine whether it is necessary for you
(or someone you delegate) to step in and facilitate
a resolution. Usually, people will be able to resolve
their own conflicts, but make sure a conflict does
not fester to the point that it affects morale and
the atmosphere in the lab. Here are a few tips for
how to help resolve conflict in the lab:
n
Try to create an environment that accepts conflict,
as long as the difficulties are faced openly and
honestly by the people involved. Although different
cultures differ in how they deal with conflict, open
disagreement and its positive resolution is a key
part of science. When it comes to matters of
technical work issues and data, it is good to have
an environment where people feel free to express
differences, even if those differences are between
individuals who are at different levels of power,
s t e p s f o r d e al i n g w i t h c o n f l i c t
When faced with conflict:
n
Access the problem.
n
Identify your interests.
n
Assess the other person’s interests.
Select a strategy that balances the importance of the problem, time constraints, power differences, and the relationship of the people involved.
n
status, or seniority. The head of the laboratory
can actively reinforce openness by lab members,
especially the participants in a conflict episode. It
is up to you to make sure that people’s pride and
dignity do not become too wrapped up in matters
of nature. In the end, the data are the data, no
matter which person harvested it.
n
Help the individuals involved get together to discuss
and settle the disagreement. The head of the lab
may, for example, invite the people involved in a
conflict to the office at a designated time to
discuss the problems openly and honestly, and
come to a resolution.
n
Make sure each person understands the other’s
point of view. The head of the lab can do this by
summarizing, clarifying, focusing questions, and
encouraging listening by each person.
Resolving conflicts between
you and others in the lab
Conflicts between the head of the laboratory and
the lab members also occur. Such conflicts are
important and influential in developing the future
course of the lab, particularly during the early
stages. The leader can demonstrate interest in
receiving and understanding negative feedback
and show a willingness to learn from it, when
appropriate. The leader must avoid the trap of
dropping his or her leadership responsibilities and
responding to the challenge by becoming “just
another lab member.” In other words, as the
head of your laboratory, you never have just your
interests at hand but always those of the lab as
a whole.
managing your many roles
69
RESOURCES
Barker, Kathy. At the Bench: A Laboratory Navigator. Cold
Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press,
1998.
appendix
Baron, Renee. What Type Am I? Penguin, New York, NY,
1998.
Please complete part A in advance and
bring it to our meeting or email it to me.
We will discuss part B together at our
meeting, but you might want to look over
the topics.
Boice, Robert. The New Faculty Member: Supporting
and Fostering Professional Development. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass, 1992.
Committee on Assessing Integrity in Research
Environments, Institute of Medicine. Integrity in
Scientific Research: Creating an Environment that
Promotes Responsible Conduct. Washington, DC:
National Academies Press, 2002.
Drucker, Peter F., The Essential Drucker: The Best of
Sixty Years of Peter Drucker’s Essential Writings on
Management. New York, NY: Collins Business, 2001.
Goleman, Daniel. Emotional Intelligence. Bantam Books,
New York, NY, 1995.
Harmening, Denise M. Laboratory Management:
Principles and Processes. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice Hall, 2003.
Kanare, Howard M. Writing the Laboratory Notebook.
New York, NY: Oxford University Press 1998.
O’Neil, John. Leadership Aikido: 6 Business Practices
That Can Turn Your Life Around. Pittsburgh: Three Rivers
Press, New York, NY 1999.
Reis, Richard M. Tomorrow’s Professor: Preparing for
Academic Careers in Science and Engineering. New York:
IEEE Press, 1997.
Online
Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to
Biomedical Journals by the International Committee
of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) lays out a widelyaccepted set of criteria for authorship of scientific papers.
http://www.icmje.org/index.html#author.
The U.S. National Academy of Engineering has a range
of materials relating to scientific ethics available online at
http://onlineethics.org/.
Performance Review Form
Part A. Six-Month Review of Goals
Date:
Candidate:
I. Accomplishments
II. Goals for the next six months
III. Long-term goals
Part B. Joint Feedback Meeting
I. Feedback on training
n Frequency of interactions
n Quality of interactions
n Level of involvement
n Positive aspects of interactions
n Areas for effort/improvement
II. Comments from advisor
n Quality of work
n Organization and efficiency
n Knowledge base
n Communication skills
n Working relationships
n Leadership/supervisory skills
n Areas for effort/improvement
III. Summary of discussion
n Strengths/achievements
n Areas for effort/improvement
n Scientific goals
n Long-term plans
Lab Director:
Lab Member:
Date:
(This form was created by Tamara L. Doering, Washington University
School of Medicine.)
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e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
chapter 5
managing your time
“Success
i s n o t t h e k e y t o h a p p i n e s s . Ha p p i n e s s i s t h e k e y t o s u c c e s s .
i f y o u l o v e w h a t y o u ar e d o i n g , y o u w i ll b e s u c c e s s f u l .
”
Albert Schweitzer
Science can move very fast and the demands it
places on your time will sometimes become large.
On top of the work itself, there will someday—
maybe now—be invitations to present your work,
serve on peer review and advisory committees
for grant makers and publishers, provide advice
to government and international bodies, and
more. All of this spent time, from working hard
on a problem that has finally begun to unravel to
going away to share your expertise, advances your
career. And much of it is exciting and pleasurable
and helps make the world a better, safer, healthier
place. But there are only 525,600 minutes in a
year, and science is not the only part of your life
that requires your time. How can you balance
science’s demands with those of the rest of your
life—home, family, community, and self?
Learning to manage your time will help you make
the most of every work day during this phase of
your career. Life goes through phases—in the next
few years you may be laying the foundation of
your career, raising your children, and growing in
responsibility within your institution, your country,
and your community. It is important to tend to
your work life and home life during these start-up
years. Try not to be overwhelmed, and at work
and at home take life “one step at a time” without
worrying too much about the distant future. Your
hard work during this start-up time will pay off,
and the dividend will be a better and much less
hectic life.
From a practical perspective, one of the most
daunting challenges for beginning investigators
is learning how to fit all the things that make up
your life into a 24-hour day and a 12-month year.
You will need to deal with the practical aspects of
running your lab, such as hiring staff and writing
grants. There will also be the needs of your
personal life, such as maintaining a household and
seeing to your children’s education and caring for
your extended family. You will also need to spend
time establishing relationships with colleagues
and competitors in your own country and beyond.
Such demands may be even more pronounced
if you trained abroad, because you will have
already sacrificed months or years by going away,
and may have also gotten used to not having to
account for yourself to your institution or your
family quite so often.
managing your time
71
If you have left your own country to train, on your
re-entry you may go from being a trainee to being
a leading expert in your field, or you may come
back and find yourself relatively low in the pecking
order among the trained scientists at your institution. Before you even have a chance to set up
your own lab, you may be pulled away by travel,
sitting on panels, or advising other colleagues.
Similarly, if you have trained in your own country
and now have been promoted to new responsibilities, or moved to a new institution, you will face
new challenges.
Strategies for Planning
Your Activities
Many returning scientists come home to substantial demands from extended families who have
made large sacrifices and have placed great hope
in their success. The needs of parents, siblings,
grandparents, aunts, uncles, and communities
who have made such an investment in one’s
career are very important, but these needs can
also create large time demands. In the end, trying
to build a successful career at the expense of the
things that make life worthwhile does not work.
Even though you will have to work very hard when
you are an early career scientist, you also need to
preserve time and energy for the other things that
are important to you.
Long-term goals are likely to be a combination of
tangibles (e.g., promotions within your institute,
service to the government, service at a high level
to an international organization such as the World
Health Organization or the Pan American Health
Organization) and intangibles (e.g., a satisfying
personal life and the various milestones that
define such a thing for you) that may change over
time, making goal-setting an ongoing process that
you should revisit periodically. In defining your
long-term goals, you are also defining yourself—
who you want to be, and how you want to be
perceived.
Finding ways to manage all of these demands
can be a challenge for a scientist starting out in a
career. This chapter discusses planning strategies
that are critical for successful time management,
such as defining long- and short-term goals and
setting priorities. Tips for day-to-day time management are also presented. The chapter also offers
guidance on managing institutional committee
service commitments, balancing research and
teaching, and juggling the demands of home and
work. In addition, it covers some issues specific
to physician-scientists, who may also need to be
spending considerable time in the clinic and may
be called on frequently to help family and friends
get appropriate health care.
Defining Goals
Planning is a process that starts with a goal. Once
you have set a goal, you can identify the steps
necessary to move toward it. Goals come in
descending sizes, each of which informs the next:
long-term goals (years), intermediate-term goals
(months), and short-term goals (weeks and days).
Intermediate-term goals, such as publishing a
paper, are often composed of many short-term
objectives, such as preparing figures and writing
text. Short-term goals are the ones written on
your weekly and monthly calendars—the small,
concrete, finite tasks that can swallow your time.
Getting from Here to There
Take the time to craft a formal plan, beginning
with your long-term goals. Then set interim goals
along the way that are realistic indicators of
progress. By setting achievable goals, you avoid
having too much to do and not knowing where to
begin. Accomplishing just one goal can serve as a
powerful motivator to tackle the next goal.
Write down all of your goals, with each achievement tied to a specific time frame. Putting your
ideas into words can help refine your thinking and
provide a concrete checklist to keep you on target.
Every so often, take a look at your plans, reflect
on them, and revise them as appropriate to changing circumstances. Priorities shift; be prepared to
reevaluate yours, but also to defend them.
72
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
C h e c k y o u r w o r k : t h e 9 0 - y e ar t h o u g h t e x p e r i m e n t
Imagine how old you will be at the end of your life, if you are lucky and healthy. Now think backward.
In other words, what do you want to be able to see when you look back at your life at age 90? What will
you need to be doing in your life at age 80, 70, 60, 50, 40, 30 for that dream to come true? What needs
to be true about your life and your career this year, or ten years from now, if you want to be on track to
be the person you picture yourself to be at 90? If what you are doing today does not get you there, how
can you change course a little (or a lot) to make sure you achieve what you want to achieve? If your
track clearly leads away from your vision, does this tell you that what you think you want to be doing at
90 is not really what is right for you? Or does it tell you that what you are doing today might not be your
heart’s desire? How can you prepare yourself and those around you for a life that may lead you somewhere quite different from the common assumptions? Or if you want a life much like those of your
parents and grandparents, how can you make science fit into that tradition?
Lifetime goals
Intermediate-term goals
At the end of your life, looking back, what do you
want to see? Accomplishments? Wealth? Happy,
healthy great-great-grandchildren? It is important
to check in with yourself now and then to make
sure that the things you are chasing are really the
ones you want to catch.
These goals can be achieved in six months to a
year. For example, you might be thinking about
the experiments needed to complete your next
paper or to put together a poster. Completing
publishable chunks is an essential intermediateterm goal for faculty. Other goals of similar scope
include obtaining preliminary results for a grant,
putting together a new course, or organizing a
scientific meeting.
Long-term goals
These goals can be achieved in three to five years.
Before jotting down your long-term plans, first ask
yourself where you want to be after this stage in
your career. For example, if you are training in a
foreign lab, do you plan to return to your home
country or remain abroad? If you wish to remain
abroad, for how long? A lifetime? A career?
Until you are well-established? At what type of
institution? At a research-intensive institution?
At a university much more dedicated to teaching
students than to doing research? At a government
ministry? An international organization? When you
have those answers, then ask yourself, “What will
I need to accomplish to make myself competitive
for that job?” If you are an assistant professor, you
probably want to work toward promotion. “What
will I need to do for that—how many papers,
invited seminars, professional meetings, and other
accomplishments?”
Short-term goals
These goals can be achieved in one week to one
month. They include preparing figures for the
paper you are writing, completing an experiment,
preparing reagents for the next set of experiments, or writing letters and making phone calls
to secure a seminar invitation. If you find it hard
to get organized, make a daily or weekly to-do list
and check tasks off as you complete them.
managing your time
73
Making Choices
Saying no, saying yes
One of the simplest things you can do to streamline your life is also one of the hardest for many
people—learning to say no. Remember, you cannot do everything, please everyone, be available
to everyone, and at the same time be a successful scholar. There are certain tasks to which you
must say no, and others for which it is fine to
deliver a less-than-stellar performance. Making
such choices will allow you to focus on doing
an outstanding job in what is truly important to
you. Establishing these priorities depends on the
intermediate- and long-term goals you have set
for yourself.
Managing Your
Time Day-to-Day
Many people find long-term goals easy to set—
for example, “I want to be a professor by the
age of X.” More difficult is the daily multitasking
—managing the flood of small chores that can
threaten to drown even the most organized
professional. This section covers how to make
the most of the time you have.
Finding Some Extra Time
To be able to focus and think creatively, you need
blocks of uninterrupted time. Here are some tips
to help you do this:
n
Get your email under control. If you are lucky
enough to have administrative help, have an assistant screen messages and flag time-sensitive ones
for you. You can also print email messages that
require a personal reply and hand write responses
during short breaks in your day. Then have your
assistant type and send them later. If you do not
have an assistant, set aside specific times of the
day for reading and responding to emails or take
hard copies of your emails home and read them in
the evening.
n
Use a telephone answering machine or voice mail
service.
n
If one is available to you, invest in a family cell
phone plan—one which provides a few family
phones and makes calls between them inexpensive—to make sure you are available for family
communication and emergencies when you have
silenced your office phone.
n
Close your office door or come in early. A sign
on your door that reads “knock if important” lets
your students and colleagues know you are in and
working but do not want to be disturbed. Working
during the early hours of the day, whether at the
office or lab or at home before the family is awake,
might buy you precious focused time away from
clamoring students and colleagues.
n
Close your lab door if you are still working at the
bench yourself. Securing uninterrupted time in the
lab is important if your advancement depends on
what you can get done with your own hands
during the day.
Saying yes judiciously will make it easier for you
to say no to things you do not want to do. Since in
most jobs you must accept some administrative
assignments, try to make them work for you.
Explore the options, and sign up early for duties
that either interest you or will work to your advantage professionally. This may give you leverage
to turn down administrative duties that have less
value to you.
Maximizing returns
Given the ever-increasing demands on your time,
it is impossible to do everything perfectly. Decide
which projects need to be completed to near perfection (e.g., your grant application) and which do
not (e.g., a draft of a manuscript you are reviewing
for a collaborator).
Disconnecting
Part of saying no is also not being available on
demand. Today’s technological “conveniences”
are often needless interruptions to concentration.
Any sound strategy for time management involves
learning to disconnect and become the master of
those tools rather than their servant.
74
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
n
Make and keep appointments with yourself: Find
a quiet hideaway for thinking, writing, and reading
and use it on a scheduled basis. This practice trains
people to expect that you will be inaccessible at
predictable times.
You might select some milestone during the year
—your birthday or name day, New Year’s Day,
or some other day that normally provokes some
reflection—and use that as a day to consider
whether your career and life are going in the right
direction. Similarly, in addition to your regular dayto-day conversations with them, it can be useful to
establish for yourself a time each year for assaying
your spouse and family to be sure that you understand whether you are moving your life and theirs
in ways that conform to what matters most to you.
Rotating Your Tasks
If you tend to find it difficult to focus on one
task for long periods, you can turn this potential
weakness into a strength through multitasking.
Always have several things to work on (e.g., the
introduction to a grant, a paper to review, or a
recommendation letter to write), perhaps three
or four, and cycle through them with increasing
lengths of time. Make sure they are clearly
arranged on your desk so that you do not waste
time figuring out what you should do next.
Time Management Grid
not urgent
Setting Priorities
On the basis of your goals, decide what you need
to do and when, and follow the ‘keep it simple”
rule. A grid that allows you to rank short-term
claims on your attention according to urgency
and importance can be a useful tool (see Time
Management Grid below). Try to control the not
urgent/not important quadrant. You get relatively
little value for the time spent doing tasks in this
quadrant. The urgent/important quadrant puts you
in crisis mode, where few people operate best.
For maximum efficiency, you should be spending
most of your time in the upper right-hand quadrant, on tasks that are important but not urgent.
If it is important but not urgent, remember your
priorities and schedules:
n
Plan ahead and know your deadlines.
n
Set aside blocks of time for specific tasks.
n
Break large tasks into smaller tasks.
n
Delegate tasks.
n
Complete tasks on time.
not important
important
Most Email
Ongoing experiments
Discussing weekend plans, the day’s weather,
the latest gossip, etc. with lab members
Preparing to speak at an upcoming meeting
Watching World Cup matches (though in some
situations clearly this is important and urgent!)
urgent
Working on a grant that is due next month
Maintaining strong relationships with family,
friends, and lab members
A rumbling stomach 20 minutes before lunch
An earthquake
Ringing telephone
A grant due tomorrow
A salesman who wants a minute of your time
Accidental exposure to pathogen
Time Management Grid – Adapted from Stephen R. Covey’s time management matrix in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful
Lessons in Personal Change.
managing your time
75
Making the Most
of the Time You Have
Technology Changes Everything
It is important to find ways to make efficient
and productive use of your time. Be aware that
for some activities, it may not be immediately
apparent that your time spent is worthwhile. For
example, attending seminars in your department
can actually be a productive and efficient use of
your time. Not only will you learn new information,
but if you ask questions, you will also boost your
visibility.
Better communications—from email and
web applications to wireless phone service
have made it easier for laboratories in
relatively resource-poor regions to play a
larger part in the international scientific
community. If you work in a place where
Internet access is slow, and you are
interested in computers and technology,
it may be worthwhile for you to form a
committee with like-minded individuals to
find opportunities for upgrading to faster
technologies. Foreign and domestic governments, non-government organizations,
and technology companies from both the
telephone and computer sides might be
willing to develop the infrastructure to improve your speed and connection quality.
Efficiency. Successful people tend to be efficient.
They have evolved practices to create blocks of
uninterrupted time for “brain work.” Here are
some tips to help you make the best use of those
parts of the day you control:
n
Create an environment conducive to productivity.
Make a place for everything, and put everything
in its place. Clutter is inefficient. Do not make
yourself look for the same piece of paper or pocket
calculator over and over again.
n
Find or make a quiet space (or time) to work.
n
Know your biological clock, and protect your most
productive hours for your writing and designing
experiments and other critical tasks.
n
During your protected work hours, focus and do
not allow interruptions.
n
Set time limits. Give yourself predetermined
amounts of time to complete tasks (e.g., two
hours to review a paper).
n
Eliminate unnecessary tasks.
n
Avoid procrastination. Start tasks early—at least in
outline. If you have a grant due, write your goals
early enough to let your lab staff start gathering
relevant data without last-minute panic. If a critical
reagent requires a long lead time to produce, start
it early enough to make sure it will be ready when
you need it.
n
Structure and supervise meetings.
n
Delegate work.
n
If it is possible and inexpensive, make a quick
phone call instead of having an often less efficient
back-and-forth email conversation.
76
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
Fitting It All In. Successful people also learn
to use small units of time, capitalizing on free
minutes here and there (in professions such as
law, people sometimes bill their time in increments of 15 minutes or less). Returning phone
calls, drafting memos, and reviewing your weekly
schedule are just a few ways in which you can put
a few minutes to work for you throughout the day.
The trick is to be prepared when those moments
arise by having messages or email, students’
homework, a notepad, and perhaps a cell phone
with you. Some tasks, such as reviewing papers
and reading science magazines, adapt well to
commuting time if you do not drive.
Improving Your Lab Staff’s Time
Management Skills
Here are some tips for helping your staff work
more efficiently:
n
Establish clear goals and expectations early,
starting with simple tasks your staff can handle.
Make sure they understand the tasks. Reward
and correct them as appropriate, expand the tasks,
then repeat the process.
n
Help them seek advice without taking up unnecessary time. Teach them how to describe projects,
issues, and problems accurately and efficiently.
n
Develop an agenda for every meeting, and stick
to it. Start meetings with a clear description of the
purpose of the meeting and when it will end.
n
After lab meetings, send a follow-up email
containing a summary and to-do list. Use these
informal minutes to start the next meeting and
gauge progress. Meeting minutes are also useful
for patent protections in establishing proof of an
idea, attribution, and date.
Once the members of your lab learn the importance
of time management, you can also delegate to a
key staff person the task of summarizing meetings
and assigning follow-up actions.
MANAGING
NON-RESEARCH TASKS
In some institutions, scientists are required to take
part in committees or groups that meet on a regular
schedule. Such committee duties can connect you
with interesting people in your department, your
institution, and beyond. They can also help bring
your research to the attention of your colleagues—
a genuine plus for a beginning faculty member. On
the other hand, they can take valuable time away
from your research. If you have some influence
over which committees you will serve on, be proactive and seek out committee service that suits
your interests and schedule so you can turn down
other requests with the legitimate excuse of previous committee commitments. As you begin to
build an international reputation, you may find you
are asked to sit on more committees (including in
other countries), collaborate more, and perhaps be
called on for service to your government. Consider
such opportunities carefully. Though many may be
good for your career and your reputation, they may
also be exhausting because of the travel involved.
As with opportunities close to home, you should
pace yourself when accepting these obligations.
The local government authorities should not
expect you to attend the opening of every
road, school, or health center. Many public
servants take pleasure in performing such
functions, but you may not have time for it.
Moses Bockarie, Papua New Guinea
”
Time management is a major challenge for
clinician-scientists based in resource-limited
settings. Clinical demands are high, which may
on occasion severely compromise protected
research time.
Brian Eley, South Africa
”
In some institutions, you will be required to teach
courses to students. This can be a very rewarding
experience for many scientists, but can also take
a large portion of your time at the expense of
everything else.
If research is of primary importance for your
promotion and career goals, you will have to set
limits for non-research tasks and stick to them.
When time is up for one task, move on to the next
item in your daily planner. This way, you start each
day anew without carrying forward serious work
deficits that accumulate through the week.
managing your time
77
T h e Tr i p l e L o a d o f t h e P h y s i c i a n - S c i e n t i s t :
L a b , Cla s s , a n d Cl i n i c
Physician-scientists may have some teaching duties, but the larger challenge for a physician who is running a research lab is balancing lab and clinical time. An even split between the lab and clinic is increasingly rare; it can be as much as 80% lab and 20% clinic, but this varies considerably from person to
person and by nature of the work. The following are some tips for working in both the lab and the clinic.
In the lab:
n If feasible, consider hiring a lab manager, or training a strong worker to assume that role—a welltrained, responsible, seasoned researcher who can help move things along when you cannot commit
your time to being in the lab yourself. Such a person may be relatively expensive compared to other
kinds of workers you could hire, but what they can add to your productivity can be well worth the
money. A good lab manager can help keep the lab on track while you are on clinical duties.
n Establish a system where you can review the lab members’ notebooks and data even if they are not there (e.g., if clinical duties keep you from being in the lab until late in the evening).
n Explain to your lab members that you will not be around much when you are on clinical duty. Try to schedule times when you can meet with your technicians, students, postdocs, medical residents, and other trainees to keep yourself apprised of their research and educational progress.
Focus your research program on what you are uniquely qualified to do. Avoid overextending yourself with work that you could delegate to a worker with less training than you yourself have.
n
In the clinic:
n If appropriate, tell patients and clinic staff how you want to be contacted during times when you are not in the clinic, especially if messages from the clinic rarely reach you when you are involved in your other duties.
n If you have access to support staff (many junior faculty do not), use them effectively. Educate nurses or other staff to do as much of the preparation as possible before your appointments, as well as the follow-up.
n Learn to tell patients when you are running out of time to spend with them or must turn their care over to another clinical worker.
n Make colleagues aware of your dual roles, and tell patients about your divided schedule when it is
relevant to them (for example, when research-related activities will call you away from the clinic for several days during their course of treatment).
Remember, in the lab, in the clinic, and at home—the most important thing you need to learn is to be
flexible with your time so that you can serve all of your priorities well.
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e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
FAMILY MATTERS
In Sierra Leone and Papua New Guinea,
where peer group discussions are the biggest
pastime activities, rumors are rife. People do
not believe in innocent relationships between
men and women and working at night is
always suspicious. Attending meetings/workshops in hotels with staff members easily
creates stories. To ensure a happy home life
and avoid confusion regarding after-hours lab
work, meetings, and international travel, I
treat my lab staff and their families as one big
extended family. Spouses are encouraged to
attend seminars. They are educated about the
need for working late at night and attending
meetings. Selection criteria for international
meetings and other perceived privileges are
made clear to everybody, including family
members. I have learnt that once your family
trusts your relationship with your workmates
and students, other family issues will be easy
to manage.
Many scientists face great demands from their
extended families and communities. Although
these demands matter and these relationships
are centrally important, to be successful at any
profession one may need to find ways to contain
and manage the time involved.
The issues can be practical—how can you be in
two places at one time? But they can also be very
emotional. If it has always been a tradition that
you will go home to family to help prepare for a
holiday or a change of seasons or to help with a
harvest, deciding to make another use of your
time, or to come in only for the feast and leave
the work to others, is not easy. It is even harder
when you consider that your parents, siblings,
in-laws, cousins, aunts, uncles, and neighbors will
all have an opinion and will likely express it! This is
a matter that is very specific to your own life, but
it is also universal. There are no perfect solutions.
But you can try to separate the practical aspects
of the situation (for example, what work requires
one more set of hands, and can you provide some
help without providing your own hands?) from the
emotional ones such as the perception that you
care more about your career and what it gives you
than about the people who love you, or that you
have gotten “above yourself,” or that you look
down on those who make your life possible.
Home and Work:
Can You Have It All?
This question applies to many professionals in
high-pressure careers, including both male and
female scientists pursuing academic, government,
institutional, and industrial career tracks.
It helps to start with a supportive partner and
family. Have clear discussions about career and
personal goals—yours and those of your family—
early on. To avoid the resentments of unspoken
and unmet expectations, be as explicit as possible
about your aspirations with those who are important to you. Shared goals for work and family make
compromises easier. In some families, your career
will be a primary driver of your family’s future.
For others, both spouses may have professional
Moses Bockarie, Papua New Guinea
”
needs to fulfill. Whatever your situation, it is probably true that if your family understands what you
are doing, why it matters, and how it will improve
the family’s future, things at home will go better
than if everyone is kept in the dark about things.
In addition to sharing your long-term goals, keep
your family aware of your short-term plans and
projects. Letting them know in advance about an
impending grant deadline can buy some understanding. Here are some ways to keep your family
informed of your schedule, and keep you involved
with your family:
n
Post a calendar at home with your travel dates
and big deadlines.
n
Schedule activities with your family and keep
those commitments
n
Turn business travel into a vacation. Have your
partner or family join you after a scientific meeting
and take a few days together to unwind.
managing your time
79
n
Having papers and grants that are free of typos,
spelling mistakes, and grammatical errors is so
important that having “more eyes” on a document
is very valuable. If your spouse is interested in
your work and familiar with your field’s jargon, he
or she may be a helpful reader for you. As children
advance in their education, those interested in
science might also enjoy being given a chance to
read your work.
Balancing work and children
Unquestionably, children complicate the equation,
but they can also provide the sanity, personal
satisfaction, and motivation to make you a more
focused and efficient scientist. Here are some tips
for balancing work and family life:
n
If they are available to you and affordable, consider
taking advantage of options for assistance in cooking, cleaning, and other domestic chores that take
your time and energy, especially if you are having
trouble personally living up to your own standards
for good meals and cleanliness.
n
Seek out the help of family members if they are
nearby.
n
Teach your children to take appropriate pride in
being “self-starters” at their schoolwork and home
chores.
n
If you and your spouse both work outside the
home, make the best child care arrangements you
can. If you are away from your family all day, it is
especially important to carve out and protect family
time on evenings or weekends.
Is it possible for ambitious scientists to have it all?
For those who learn to balance competing demands,
the answer is a qualified yes. The key is to identify
what matters most to you and then to apportion
your activities throughout the day and week to
address your true priorities.
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e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
RESOURCES
Allen, David. Getting Things Done: The Art of
Stress-Free Productivity. E Rutherford, New Jersey:
Penguin USA, 2003.
Barker, Kathy. At the Helm: A Laboratory Navigator.
Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Press, 2002.
Boss, Jeremy M., and Susan H. Eckert. Academic
Scientists at Work: Navigating the Biomedical
Research Career. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum
Publishers, 2003.
Blanchard, Kenneth H., and Spencer Johnson. The One
Minute Manager. 10th ed. New York NY: Berkeley
Books, 1983.
Covey, Stephen R. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective
People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. New York:
Fireside, Simon & Schuster, 1990.
Drucker, Peter. Managing Oneself. Harvard Business
Review, March-April 1999.
Ridley, Matt. The Origin of Virtue. Penguin, New York,
NY, 1996.
chapter 6
project management
“We
m u s t h a v e p e r s e v e ra n c e a n d a b o v e all c o n f i d e n c e i n o u r s e l v e s .
W e m u s t b e l i e v e t h a t w e ar e g i f t e d f o r s o m e t h i n g a n d t h a t t h i s t h i n g
must be attained.
”
Ma r i e C u r i e
To increase the output of your laboratory, you can
either increase resources by somehow obtaining
more money, equipment, and supplies and finding
a way to bring more people to work with you, or
make better use of what you already have. Often
it is not easy or possible to get more resources.
Project management is a formal approach to
better managing the resources that you do have.
“Project management” is a term that has come to
mean something beyond simply being in charge
of a project. It means allocating, using, and tracking resources to achieve a goal in a desired time
frame. There is a set of terms and a group of
planning tools strongly associated with the project
management approach. The approach itself is
heavily used in the pharmaceutical industry, as
well as in software, construction, and other
industries because of its usefulness in helping
managers coordinate complex operations and
bring scarce resources into place exactly when
they are needed.
It can be tempting to over-promise when you plan,
even if you are only making promises to yourself.
Project management’s tools help a manager
keep track of resources and worker effort, which
can help ensure that even if multiple delays
and scheduling changes occur, your work will
still go forward smoothly. In a scientific setting,
goals may include publishing a paper, obtaining a
research grant, completing a set of experiments,
or even getting promoted. While keeping creativity intact, project management can help reduce
wasted effort or inefficient use of reagents. It can
track progress (or lack of it), and respond quickly
to necessary deviations from important aims.
This chapter highlights some of the techniques of
project management and how you can use them.
Though one may think, “I live in an unpredictable
place!” project management can help overcome
some of life’s unpredictability, particularly by laying
out which tasks can go forward when other tasks
have stalled. If you need more detailed information, refer to the resources listed at the end of this
chapter.
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81
What is Project Management?
DECIDING ON A PROJECT
Project management is a series of flexible and
iterative steps that gives you a system for laying
out what you want to achieve and a reasonable
way to achieve it, with specifics as to who will do
what and when. Formal tools have been developed
for complicated time-sensitive efforts such as
constructing large buildings with all of the site
preparation, building materials, carpenters,
plumbers, electricians, painters and other kinds
of workers moving through at the right times and
in the proper order.
You may have an endless number of ideas for
projects, but your resources (i.e., research funds,
number of students and other people working in
your lab, time, etc.) are limited. Deciding which
projects to pursue within the limits of your
resources and considering your laboratory mission
(see chapter 4) will help you get the best use out
of what you have.
The strategies used in project management can be
useful for anyone in any size project, and the tools
(especially software) that have been developed
to keep track of fluctuating resources and active
workers can be useful for managing complicated
projects in the laboratory. Project management
capabilities are increasingly becoming required
components of clinical research projects and multisite projects. Formal training in project management
may be available to you through your institution,
government, or international NGOs.
It should also be borne in mind that biomedical
research in the South, especially in diseaseendemic communities, relies heavily on field
surveys involving several people and
complicated logistical issues. Personnel and
transport management and financial administration are major components of project
activities involving field surveys. However,
many emerging science centers in low- and
middle-resource regions do not have sufficient
human resources with adequate skills in
project management.
Moses Bockarie, Papua New Guinea
82
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e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
Finding funding can itself be a complex project.
Though finding money is seldom easy, you may
decide that to accomplish the research or public
health goals you would like to achieve, you will
need to look for more funding. Imagine that you
have identified a grant program that seems to fit
the work you would like to do. The grant deadline
is in eleven months, but you see that it is a very
competitive program. To have a chance of being
funded, you will need to have at least one publication that connects the work you are proposing to
do with the new grant money to work you have
done in the past.
So you have two complicated but fairly welldefined tasks in front of you: to get a new paper
accepted for publication and to submit a grant
proposal by a given deadline. If you decide to
use formal project management tools to organize
your efforts as you work toward submitting the
proposal, you should ask yourself the following:
n
What experiments do I need to conduct to write a
research paper and submit it for publication before
the grant deadline?
n
Do I have enough time to obtain the necessary
data?
n
Are there members of my group who could help
generate these data, or a student or trainee to
whom I might delegate the work?
Once you have defined your overall objectives,
how to get there, and from whom you need buy-in
and participation, you can start the process of
planning your project, working backwards from
your stated objective:
My project is to get a grant funded within a
year-and-a-half.
Thinking from the goal backwards, you can put
down what steps will make that dream a reality.
You might say:
I will need to: n Submit the grant with preliminary data
(11 months).
n
Submit a paper for publication (6 months).
n
Integrate data and start writing a manuscript
(5 months).
n
Complete the initial set of experiments
(1-5 months).
The sections below outline the tools that can help
you plan each step of this multipart effort. One of
the most important benefits of project management
is that it helps you accurately anticipate how much
Question
time a project will take and what resources you
will need. Even if some back-of-the-envelope
thinking convinces you that a project is worth
pursuing and that you can generate preliminary
data for your grant in five months, you will need
to plan each step more carefully to answer the
following questions:
n
How long will the project really take?
n
Do we really have the people to do this?
n
Do we really have the funds to do it?
n
Can we get it done in time?
Think of these questions as tools for your own
use. You are not trying to convince a funder or
impress an influential scientist—you are realistically
considering what you will be able to get done,
given other demands on your time and resources,
in the next week, month, year, and beyond.
q&a
Do the strict definitions you impose when you set up a project management system
limit scientific creativity?
answer
Not necessarily. All projects, including highly innovative ones, rely on defined resources. Project
management helps you take stock of resources before you start working. If a creative idea comes along,
you will have a better idea of how much money, materials, and “spare hands” you have to follow the
idea through, or which sub-projects you might delay to free up the resources you need. Knowing what you
have available helps you bring your best ideas to completion, rather than leaving them foundering when
you run out of some critical resource. Regardless of the scientific goals of a project, project management
helps you determine whether your ideas can be implemented with the resources at hand and how best
to approach these ideas. If you realize ahead of time that you do not have the resources you need, you will
know you need to get them.
project management
83
q&a
Question
Does project management discourage us from trying high-risk projects?
answer
Scientists must work within the limits of their resources. This does not mean high-risk projects should not
be attempted; it just means that one should know the risks involved before starting the project. Project
management helps define what the risks will be. For example, you may use up all available funds before
you get an additional grant or you may produce one paper in three years rather than one a year. Once you
know the risks involved, you can plan for them. Project management can also help you conserve some of
your resources to use for high-risk projects. The more information you have at the outset of a project, the
better you will be at allocating resources. The better you are at allocating resources for the work that has to
get done (e.g., the experiments proposed in your funded grant), the more likely it is that you will be able to
save some funds for more speculative projects.
Question
Given the uncertainties in science, is project management feasible?
answer
Project management is not meant to be rigid or blindly restrictive. By reexamining goals and circumstances
in a systematic way, project management encourages you to reconsider which path is best many times
during the course of a given project. When resources are limited—and they almost always are, everywhere—this approach helps you achieve your goals by keeping track of factors that could lead you to
spread a resource too thin.
Getting Started
Purpose
The statement of work is a written document
that clearly explains what the project is. It should
include the following sections:
n
Background: Why the project was initiated and
by whom, what happens if it is not done, and what
else relates to it.
n
Scope of work: What you will do. This is a brief
statement describing the major work to be performed.
n
Strategy: How you will perform the work, who
will do it, and what funds are available for the work.
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e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
Objectives
Objectives are the end results to be achieved by
the project. Each objective should include:
n
Statement: A description of the desired outcome
when the project is completed.
n
Measures: Indicators to assess how well you
have achieved the desired outcome.
n
Specifications: Target values of the measures
that define successful results.
Constraints
These are the restrictions on the project, which fall
into two categories:
n
Limitations: Constraints set by others, such
as limited funds for your laboratory, or teaching
responsibilities that will limit your research time.
n
Needs: Constraints set by the project team, such
as wanting to complete a project three weeks
early because one of the key people will be leaving
the lab, or finishing a field project early enough to
avoid problems with seasonal weather.
Assumptions
These are statements about uncertain information you will take as fact as you conceive, plan,
and perform the project. For example, you might
assume that your clinical or teaching loads will not
increase in the next year, or that no one will leave
the project before a certain milestone is reached.
Be aware that as your project progresses, your
goals, constraints, needs, and assumptions may
change. Build into your planning periodic reviews
of results against objectives, and then revise the
objectives if necessary. If a reagent has been
delayed and a whole project has been stalled as a
result, you can re-visit the plan and think through
how to move forward. Are there later scheduled
steps that you could do sooner while you wait for
the delayed material? Should you change the project’s future milestone dates, given the delay? No
matter how much you have invested in a project, it
is never too late to redirect or stop work altogether
if you discover, for example, that another route is
more promising than the main avenue of research,
or a key premise was off-base, or that someone
else has gotten very similar work published before
your project has come to a conclusion.
See Appendix I, on page 92, to see a real-life example of a statement
of work.
Defining the Audience
Project management also uses the concept of an
“audience.” Any of your audiences—the people
and groups who have an interest in your project,
who are affected by it, or who are needed to
support it—can sink the entire enterprise if their
needs are not considered. Early on, you should
make a list of the project’s audiences, both within
your institution and outside it. Although you can
do this in your head, a written list serves as a
reminder throughout the project to touch base
with these stakeholders as you proceed. If you
must maintain the good favor of your department
chair, head of institute, minister of health, or
another high figure (or if you yourself are that high
figure and must maintain the trust of your audiences), it is useful to think about those who have
interests in your project and how to keep them
apprised of and supportive of your work.
Divide your audience list into three categories:
n
Drivers: People who tell you what to do, defining
to some degree what your project will produce
and what constitutes success. You are the main
driver for your research. Additional drivers may
include competitors and collaborators in your
field, the editors of scientific journals (if they are
advising you on what experiments should be done
in order to get a manuscript published), and the
scientists or administrators who will be reviewing
your application for funding (if their feedback is
shaping the course of your research project).
If possible, keep those people abreast of how
the project is going, or consult with them before
changing direction or branching out in a different
area. For example, if an editor at a scientific journal
has requested specific experiments in a revised
manuscript but you decide to do different ones
that you think are more appropriate or easier to do
given the expertise in your lab, contact the editor
to make sure that the proposed experiments will
satisfy his or her requirements.
project management
85
n
Supporters: People who will perform the work
or make the work possible (e.g., the students and
other people in your lab, as well as the program
director for the organization funding the project).
Make sure these people are motivated to do the
work and understand how what they are doing
relates to achieving the overall scientific goal (see
chapter 4, “Managing Your Many Roles”).
n
Observers: People who have an interest in your
project but are neither drivers nor supporters. They
are interested in what you are doing, but they are
not telling you what to do or how to do it (e.g.,
other scientists working in your field, mentors,
and potential supporters). It can be helpful to your
career to inform as many scientists as possible of
what you have accomplished. This can be done by
giving presentations at meetings and conferences,
by asking colleagues to review a manuscript you
are preparing to submit for publication, or by sending scientists in your field copies of a paper you
have published.
As you work on the project, revise the list as
necessary. Categorizing audiences is less difficult
than it may look, and you do not have to start
from scratch for every activity. Many of the same
people are likely to be on your audience list over
time for different activities.
Defining who does what and when
The work breakdown structure (WBS) is an outline
of all of the work that will have to be performed for
your project. To develop a WBS, start with broad
work assignments, break them down into activities,
and divide them into discrete steps (see Appendix
II, on page 94, for an example). On your timeline,
you will want to list resources and the people
who will carry out the activities, so that you can
successfully complete some milestone event—for
example, getting a paper accepted, a grant funded,
or a difficult technique reduced to practice.
The WBS is one of the most important elements
of project management as it will help you schedule
the project and its parts, estimate resources, assign
tasks and responsibilities, and control the project.
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e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
When you develop a WBS, think in one- to twoweek increments. You probably wouldn’t want
to include detailed plans for activities that take
less time, such as experiments to be done each
day. However, the level of detail you include in
your WBS depends in part on who is doing the
work. Most students just starting in the lab will
need more detail than an experienced scientist or
technician. It may be useful to teach your trainees
to think in this time- and resource-aware way, perhaps quite early in their stay in your lab, by having
them write out detailed weekly plans or design
flow charts for how they intend to work through a
difficult technical issue at the bench.
To decide whether your understanding of a
particular part of the project is detailed enough,
ask yourself these three questions. Based on the
WBS:
n
Can you determine a reasonable estimate of the
resources (including people) required for this
work?
n
Can you determine a reasonable estimate of the
time required to do this work?
n
Can anyone charged with one of these activities
understand it well enough to perform it to your
satisfaction?
If the answer to any of these questions is “no,”
more detail is necessary.
In basic science, it is unlikely that you will be able
to make a detailed plan very far in advance. Much
of the detailed planning will be done “on the fly”
as the project proceeds. Try a rolling approach, in
which you revise estimates in more detail as you
progress through the project.
In addition to planning experiments, you can use
the WBS to set up the lab and divide big tasks into
smaller ones—for example, ordering equipment,
hiring staff, and dealing with any regulatory issues.
q&a
Question
If I have experiments A, B, C, and D, is it reasonable to do detailed planning only for A
first and deal with the others later?
answer
That may be reasonable, but what if B is not entirely dependent on A, and you could have done some work
for B or any of the other experiments without waiting until A was done? Project management tools and
software can help you see where timelines may overlap, so that you can use your time most productively.
Tracking the Work
and the Resources
Tools for Developing
Schedules
Complex projects require a series of activities,
some of which will need to be performed in
sequence and others that can, in theory, be done
at the same time. Project schedules outline the
order in which activities are to be performed,
and include estimates of how long each activity
will take. For each step of the schedule, you will
need to assign the necessary resources, including
people, funds, equipment, supplies, facilities, and
information. To effectively schedule your activities
and resources, you will need to follow these steps:
You may have seen some of the schedules,
timelines, flow charts, and other tools used in
project management before. Here are some
popular ones:
n
Key events schedule—a table showing events
and target dates for reaching them. Remember,
events are milestones signaling the completion of
one or more activities.
n
Activities plan—a table showing activities and
their planned start and end dates (see Appendix III,
on page 95).
n
Gantt chart—a graph consisting of horizontal
bars that depict the start date and duration of each
activity (see Appendix IV, on page 96).
n
Program (or Project) Evaluation and Review
Technique (PERT) chart—a diagram in which
activities are represented by lines and events on
the nodes (typically depicted as circles or bubbles).
The acronym PERT, rather than the full name, is
universally used.
1. Identify activities and events (from the WBS).
2. Identify constraints (from the statement of work).
3. Determine the durations of different activities and,
if more than one person will be involved, who will
be performing them.
4. Decide on the order of performance.
5. Develop an initial schedule.
6. Revise your schedule as necessary.
project management
87
The key events schedule and the activities plan
display dates better; the Gantt chart and the combined milestone/Gantt chart give a better overview
of how long activities will take and where they
coincide. Regardless of which format you use, if
you use these tools, take the time to develop a
schedule you have a reasonable chance of meeting. Think realistically and estimate how long each
step will take, how many uninterrupted hours
you have available during the day, and how other
demands on your time will affect what you or your
lab can get done. If your plan includes mastering
a new subject by reading a vast literature, divide
it up—how many papers do you normally read in
a day like today? Just because you can read 15
papers in a day does not mean that you will (or
should) bring yourself to read that much each day
for a month, even if there are 500 papers in a pile
in front of you.
To determine how long a very complex process
may take, think about similar things you have done
before. Flip through your notebook or calendar
and try to remember—how many hours did it
really take you to write, edit, get feedback on,
make figures for, revise, revise again, and submit
that last paper or grant? Try to be conservative
Question
q&a
It sometimes takes longer than I think
it will to complete new experiments.
How do I plan accordingly?
answer
The work breakdown structure will help you
see where inherent difficulties in experiments
or bottlenecks in the procedures are; you
can then add time and resources to address
those issues. For example, you might pair
an experienced member of your lab with a
new student who is responsible for a step in
the protocol, or give a technician who has to
establish a new technique in the lab time for
several trials and revisions of the procedure.
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e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
in your estimates. When it comes to planning
bench work, an accurate assessment of the skills,
experience, and limitations of your staff will help
you match the right people to each task. Stretching to accomplish more than before is good, but
failing because of overreaching is not. If your team
lacks the expertise required to complete a specific
goal, you may need to find a suitable and willing
collaborator. Collectively, these scheduling tools
will:
n
Provide ways of tracking the work.
n
Identify the order of experiments that will define
how long it will take to complete the project.
n
Show the relationship of experiments to each
other (e.g., do they need to be done sequentially
or can they be done in parallel?)
n
Identify bottlenecks.
As the work progresses, make adjustments to
your schedule or the resources needed. For
example, time estimates can be replaced with
actual times. In cases of delays in the schedule,
additional resources, more money, or more
helpers may be needed to make up for the time
that has been lost. If you can get those resources,
you may be able to finish within the time frame
you initially planned. But if you cannot get those
resources, at least you can accurately revise your
estimate of how long it will take to finish the project.
Do I Have the Resources?
Once you have made an outline of the activities to be done in a given time frame and who
will perform the work, you may want to know
more precisely how much of a given resource
the project will use up. For example, how many
hours a scientist in your lab will have to work
each week to complete his or her activities (see
Appendix V, on page 96), or how much money
will be spent. This will help you identify potential
bottlenecks that have been created by your
starting assumptions. For example, even the best,
hardest-working, most committed scientist cannot
work 37 hours a day!
Question
q&a
I have done some experiments so many times that I already know how long it will take
and the resources I need. Should I add these experiments to my plan?
answer
Not for your benefit, but you should consider whether others need to know what you are doing—the
sequence of steps as well as the materials and time required. If they do, a written work plan can also be
a useful part of the record. Project management is not just a planning tool, it can also be a training and
communication tool.
Question
Despite the best explanations, inexperienced students may focus only on their part of the
work. Are there devices to help them get the big picture?
answer
It is important that they do get the big picture, and project management may be part of the solution.
Although it is true that project management encourages a focus on details, it also encourages you to
consider the big picture. Think of a project’s detailed plan as being like a metabolic map—if students can
see how their work connects to a greater whole, they may be more motivated to think about their own
small projects and to ask bigger questions about the lab’s work and the broader field. Young students may
be reluctant to admit what they do not know. By walking them through the field’s complicated issues and
ongoing controversies, you can convey to them that it is alright not to know everything, and customary to
ask others to explain things. Get them to talk about what they are doing, and paraphrase what they say,
highlighting the places where their work intersects with other work in the lab. Or, you could ask them to
write a statement of work for their part of the project, which will require them to learn the background on
the project as a whole.
Project Management Software
As you can see from the figures, many of project
management’s tools can be produced by hand
or with a spreadsheet program like Microsoft
Excel. If you are keeping track of a simple project
involving only one or two individuals, you can
probably use a network diagram drawn on a board
or in an electronic document. But as the number
of projects and responsibilities you juggle grows,
you may want to make use of one of the many
software packages available. They can help you
spot, for example, resource conflicts (such as one
person assigned to three overlapping activities),
and identify which activities can be delayed to
accommodate that problem without jeopardizing
the schedule. Good software helps you brainstorm
the organization of activities on screen, create a
WBS, link activities, develop a schedule, identify
resources, maintain information on progress,
and generate reports. When you make a change,
the software reflects the impact of that change
throughout the project.
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89
Microsoft Project, a program that seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Office applications including
Outlook and its calendar, is a very popular choice.
The software lets you enter any number of tasks
and schedule them. You can then view the data
using multiple formats (e.g., Gantt charts or
PERT diagrams). You can also enter cost for each
resource and the software will automatically
track the spending of the project. Other popular
choices are the packages Act! (Symantec Corp.)
and Now Up-to-Date (Qualcomm, Inc.). Free Open
Source packages including Open Workbench and
OpenProj are now available. For information about
other products available, see http://www.projectmanagement-software.org.
Like other software, project management programs
come with bells and whistles you may never need
or use. Remember that software is merely a tool to
help you plan and organize your work. It should not
become your work, bogging you down in complex
manipulations or fancy graphs and charts that look
impressive but do not improve on simpler presentations of the information.
After some short training on these software
packages, it is straightforward to build new plans.
Several fields, including construction and some
areas of business management, make extensive
use of this kind of software. If these programs
are in common use in your area, you may be
able to find undergraduate students, especially in
Question
engineering or business schools, who would be
eager to polish their skills (and get a line for their
resume) by doing the work needed to transfer
already established plans onto the computer.
Controlling the Project
Effective project management demands that the
components of a project be constantly monitored
and revised with new information. The head of a
laboratory typically plays this role in addition to the
following tasks:
n
Championing the project for the project audience
(e.g., through seminars and informal updates to
supporters) and maintaining their support for the
work being done.
n
Clearing away obstacles for the project team, for
example by minimizing other responsibilities for
the team members and providing a supportive
and comfortable work environment.
n
Providing resources such as funds, access to
essential equipment, and technical skills.
n
Communicating the project vision to keep the
team motivated and focused.
n
Communicating with the head of the institution,
individuals from funding agencies, journal editors,
and the external collaborators.
q&a
How do I finish projects when key people are recruited away before our work is finished?
answer
Project management can help you anticipate and plan for their departure. Identify who is most likely to
leave and the places in the project when loss of key personnel would be especially damaging. When it
does happen, stop and assess the impact on your project and determine steps you can take to minimize
the effects.
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e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
The principles of project management can be
applied to many day-to-day tasks. I completed
a course with the University’s Faculty of Engineering in 2004 and since then have used the
principles of project management to complete
many small and large projects successfully.
Brian Eley, South Africa
”
Keeping your work on track
It is hard to predict how the course of a project
will run. Flexible planning is needed to help you
deal with the unexpected and still keep your many
projects moving. Here is a list to help you stay on
track:
n
Consider different scenarios to identify what may
not unfold as you anticipate, and identify the range
of ramifications and how you would address them.
n
Select aspects of your project that are most likely
to slow things down, for example, a student
who is not familiar with interpreting experimental
results and thus may slow progress, or a technician who does not aggressively follow up on
maintaining equipment or placing orders with
supply and reagent companies. Monitor them
closely to avoid roadblocks.
n
Develop strategies to reduce the likelihood of
deviations, as well as contingency plans for any
that occur.
n
Create indicators or defined results (such as a
completed Western blot or a clearly interpretable
experimental finding) that will help you evaluate
the project against your stated objectives. The
indicators should be clear and should directly
relate to your objectives. Poorly chosen indicators
are worse than none at all, and may cause you to
abandon a project when in fact the objective may
be sound.
n
Monitor the project carefully and consistently to
promptly identify detours from course.
n
Implement contingency plans and revise your
master plan as necessary.
As a scientist, you want your work to be worthwhile, even if it does not proceed the way you
planned or produce the expected outcome. To
get the most out of your investment of project
resources, learn to work through the “what-ifs”
by positing multiple possible outcomes and timelines and planning ways to deal with each one.
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NICEF/ UNDP/ World Bank/ WHO Special Programme
for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR).
Effective Project Planning and Evaluation in Biomedical
Research (Training Manual). Geneva, Switzerland: World
Health Organization, 2005.
Austin, Rob. “Project Management and Discovery.”
ScienceCareers.org (September 13, 2003), http://
sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_development/
previous_issues/articles/1890__1/project_management_and_discovery.
Effective project planning and evaluation in
biomedical research, a training manual and step by
step guide to project management from WHO/TDR
http://www.who.int/tdr/svc/publications/training-guidelinepublications/trainers-project-planning-course.
appendix I: Statement of Work: A Real-Life Example
Section 1: Purpose
Background
Teresa, a scientist training in the laboratory, wants to examine the possible role for alterations in the
gene Sumacan in prostate cancer. She noted that Sumacan, which encodes a growth factor receptor,
maps to a genetic region involved in human prostate cancer. Current studies in the lab focus on the
role of Sumacan in brain tumors. Robert, another scientist training in the laboratory, is screening
drugs that block Sumacan function; Anna, a graduate student, is elucidating the functional pathways
Sumacan is involved in; and David, a graduate student, is performing a mutational analysis of the
Sumacan gene. These same studies can be applied to prostate cancer, thereby opening up new
potential avenues for funding through prostate cancer foundations.
92
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
appendix I continued
Scope of Work
Examine whether the functional pathway for Sumacan is present in human prostate cancer cells.
n Compare the expression of Sumacan in normal human prostate tissues and prostate cancers, and
correlate expression levels with clinical outcome in prostate cancer.
n Identify mutations in Sumacan in patients with prostate cancer.
n
Strategy
Each person in the lab is already working on different aspects of Sumacan biology in brain tumors. In
each case, the work will be applied to prostate cancer cell lines that we will obtain from Mike, a colleague in our department. We have identified two additional potential collaborators—Rajiv, a pathologist
who studies human prostate tissues and cancers, and Kathy, a geneticist who studies human prostate
cancer families. We will use funds from our current grant to obtain preliminary findings. We plan to use
these findings to obtain another grant to the laboratory.
Section 2: Objective
Statement
Investigate the possible role of Sumacan in prostate cancer.
Measures
Measure #1. Our experiments will provide preliminary evidence to either support or deny a role for
Sumacan in prostate cancer.
Specifications
n We will receive several requests for information about the research.
n We will publish at least two research articles in the scientific literature.
n We will present the research results to at least two conferences in one year.
S e c t i o n 3 : c o n s t ra i n t s
Limitations
n The grant proposal is due June 1 next year. This means that the first research manuscript must be submitted for publication by approximately January 1, and accepted by mid-April.
n Our lab has limited funds to cover the generation of preliminary data, which means that productivity must be reviewed monthly.
Needs
n Our lab needs to be able to grow prostate cancer cells.
n Our lab needs to be able to handle human prostate cancer specimens.
Section 4: Assumptions
The current research team will be willing and able to perform prostate cancer studies in addition
to their brain tumor studies.
n The collaborators we have identified will be willing and able to work with our group or will provide
the name of another person who wants to collaborate.
n
Based on a real-world example provided by Milton W. Datta, Medical College of Wisconsin.
project management
93
a p p e n d i x II : E x a m p l e o f a W o r k B r e a k d o w n S t r u c t u r e
activity 1: determine whether
sumacan is expressed in the prostate
1. Determine where to obtain human prostate cells.
2. Determine how to grow human prostate cells.
n the type of medium and serum they require, and
n the optimal conditions for growth
3. Determine whether we can isolate RNA and protein from human prostate cells.
n try the same technique we use to isolate RNA from brain cells, or
n develop a different technique
4. Determine whether we can perform quantitative RT-PCR for Sumacan expression.
n primers and positive and negative controls
5. Determine whether we can perform a Western blot for Sumacan expression.
n test whether the antibody we use in the brain works in the prostate and determine what size
protein band(s) is identified, and
n identify positive or negative controls for protein quality and Sumacan identification
Note: Steps 1 to 3 must be done sequentially, but once step 3 is completed, steps 4 and 5 can be
done at the same time.
activity 2: determine whether
s u m a c a n i s e x p r e s s e d i n p r o s t a t e c a n c e r c e ll s
1. Determine where to obtain human prostate cancer cells.
2. Determine how to grow human prostate cancer cells.
n the type of medium and serum they require, and
n the optimal conditions for growth
3. Determine whether we can isolate RNA and protein from human prostate cancer cells.
n try the same technique we use to isolate RNA from brain cells, or
n develop a different technique
4. Determine whether we can perform quantitative RT-PCR for Sumacan expression.
n primers and positive and negative controls
5. Determine whether we can perform a Western blot for Sumacan expression.
n test whether the antibody we use in the brain works in prostate cancer cells and determine what size protein band(s) is identified, and
n identify positive or negative controls for protein quality and Sumacan identification
Note: Steps 1 to 3 must be done sequentially, but once step 3 is completed, steps 4 and 5 can be done
at the same time. In addition, activities 1 and 2 can be done at the same time, although this may result
in higher resource costs if both tasks fail.
94
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
a p p e n d i x II c o n t i n u e d
activity 3: determine whether there is a difference
i n s u m a c a n e x p r e s s i o n b e t w e e n n o r m al a n d c a n c e r c e ll s
1. Determine the difference in RNA expression.
2. Determine the difference in protein expression.
3. Determine the relationship between RNA and protein expression.
Note: Activity 3 involves analysis of the data collected in activities 1 and 2, and thus cannot be performed
until those two activities are completed.
a p p e n d i x III : E x a m p l e o f a n A c t i v i t i e s P l a n
a c t i v i t y / p e r s o n ( s ) r e s p o n s i b l e / s t ar t d a t e / E n d d a t e
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
Identify sources of prostate cells/Teresa/August 1/August 5
Identify sources of prostate cancer cells/Robert/August 1/August 5
Grow prostate cells/Teresa/August 5/August 26
Grow prostate cancer cells/Robert/August 5/August 26
Isolate RNA and protein from prostate cells/Teresa/August 26/September 26
Isolate RNA and protein from prostate cancer cells/Robert/August 26/September 26
Perform RT-PCR from prostate cells/Teresa/September 26/October 26
Perform RT-PCR from prostate cancer cells/Teresa/September 26/October 26
Perform Western blots on prostate cells/Robert/September 26/October 26
Perform Western blots on prostate cancer cells/Robert/September 26/October 26
Compare the levels of Sumacan RNA in the prostate and prostate cancer cells/Teresa and Robert/
October 26/November 5
Compare the levels of Sumacan protein in the prostate and prostate cancer cells/Teresa and
Robert/October 26/November 5
Compare the levels of Sumacan RNA and protein to each other/Teresa and Robert/October 26/
November 5
Note: Each of these activities can be broken down further if more detail is needed. For example, if
the activities are being performed by a new graduate student, you may want to explain the different
protocols to use to perform RT-PCR from prostate cancer cells and what controls should be used, as
well as alternative protocols to use in case the first ones do not work.
project management
95
appendix iv: Example of a Gantt Chart
Project: Role for Sumacan in Prostate Cancer
ActivityAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberPerson Responsible
Sumacan Expression
in Prostate Cells
Find Cells
Teresa
Grow Cells
Teresa
Isolate RNA and
Protein
Teresa
RT-PCR and Western
Blots
Teresa and Robert
Sumacan Expression
Prostate Cancer
Find Cells
Robert
Grow Cells
Robert
Isolate RNA and
Protein
Robert
RT-PCR and Western
Blots
Teresa and Robert
Compare Results
Data Analysis
Teresa and Robert
appendix v: Example of a Loading Chart
This chart displays Teresa’s workload. She is responsible for the first three steps in determining
Sumacan expression in prostate cells. Step 1 (looking for prostate cells) is done in week 1, step 2
(trying to grow the cells) in weeks 2-4, step 3 (isolating RNA and protein) in weeks 5-8, and step 4
(doing RT-PCR on normal and cancer cells) in weeks 9-13. In addition, during the time the project is
being run, she will be teaching a microbiology lab course (5 hours/day with monthly exams).
96
weeks
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
Research
hours
7
10
10
10
8
8
8
10
25
25
25
25
25
microbiology
lab hours
25
25
25
35
25
25
25
35
25
25
25
35
25
total time
32
35
35
45
32
32
32
45
50
50
50
65
50
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
chapter 7
getting funded
“Diviser
c h a c u n e d e s d i f f i c u l t é s q u e j ’ e x a m i n e ra i e n a u t a n t d e p ar c e ll e s
q u ’ i l s e p o u rra i t e t q u ’ i l s e ra i t r e q u i s p o u r l e s m i e u x l e s r é s o u d r e .
”
R e n é D e s c a r t e s
Once you have started your career as an independent scientist, have put your laboratory in order,
and perhaps have hired some people, an important
next step if you would like to have an international
career is to find international funding for your work.
It is beyond the scope of this book to address
funding in all of the countries of the South, since
the funding situation is different everywhere and
in some places can change quite quickly. Instead,
this chapter will concentrate on international funding sources and how best to present your work so
that you may tap into these sources. This chapter
also uses the U.S. NIH funding process as an
example of a two-level peer review system. Not
all international funders use the same system—in
fact, each major funding body has a system that is
distinctly its own. But the example used here will
give you a good idea of the how’s and why’s of peer
review, which we hope will give you insight into how
to prepare the strongest grant application you can,
no matter what funding body you are approaching.
This chapter includes advice on how to turn your
concept into a solid research plan, and discusses
what to do if your application is not funded.
UNDERSTANDING
THE REVIEW PROCESS
example of peer review: funding a
U.S. NIH R01 Research Project Grant
Though the U.S. NIH is sometimes an international
funder, it is (as are your own country’s government
agencies focused on health) an organization whose
mission primarily focuses on the health of its
country’s citizens. For this reason, its spending on
many problems of interest in other parts of the
world is relatively small.
There is no grantsmanship that will turn a bad
idea into a good one, but there are many ways
to disguise a good one.
”
William Raub, former deputy director, U.S. NIH
The quote above: Descartes, in the second rule of his Method, says to break each difficulty down into smaller resolvable component parts.
getting funded
97
behind closed doors:
what goes on in a peer review meeting
Peer review committees:
n Are managed by a scientific review administrator (SRA), a professional NIH employee at the M.D. or Ph.D. level with a scientific background close to the study section’s area of expertise.
n Have 12-24 members recruited from active scientists, generally people who have (or have had) R01s themselves. Most members are academics. Some have long-term appointments to the study section and others are temporary members.
n Will review as many as 60-100 applications per meeting.
n Usually assign three reviewers to very closely review each application, though the whole panel should read all of the applications.
Study section meetings:
n Are closed—the discussions are not made part of the public record and spectators are not allowed.
n Include a discussion of general business, provisional approval of the list of applications which are declared uncompetitive and thus not scored, and discussion of the remaining applications. Reviewers who have a conflict of interest with a given applicant are asked to leave the room when that
applicant’s grant is discussed.
Discussion of applications includes:
n The three reviewers most closely linked to each grant providing discussion of that grant’s strengths,
weaknesses, and their preliminary scores.
n Other members discussing scientific and technical merit.
n All members stating their scores, which are recorded.
n Any recommendations for changes in the budgets of individual grants.
After each meeting, the SRA documents the results in a summary statement, which is forwarded both
to the appropriate institute or center that would support the grant (if budget is available) and to the principal investigator. These summary statements, which are often called “pink sheets” because they were
once given back to the applicant as the pink layer from a multi-sheet carbon-paper form, are the key to
understanding what was said about your grant during the review.
Summary statements may vary somewhat depending on the SRA, but all contain:
n Overall résumé and summary of review discussion (for applications that were discussed and scored).
n Essentially unedited critiques by the assigned reviewers.
n Priority score and percentile ranking.
n Budget recommendations.
n Administrative notes (e.g., comments on human subjects or animal welfare).
The major grant that funds most U.S. health
scientists’ work is called an “R01.” There is no
special reason these grants are called R01—it is
not an abbreviation for any longer term. The letter
R conveys that it is a Research Project Grant, but
there are other types of NIH research grants that
begin with other letters.
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e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
R01 grant applications are usually investigatorinitiated—that is, the researcher proposes a topic to
study rather than the agency indicating what kinds
of topics it would like to see. Other approaches are
also common among large funders. Many funders
(including NIH) use Requests for Proposals (RFPs),
Requests for Applications (RFAs), or Program
Question
q&a
Where do research funds come from?
answer
National governments, including both that of the country where you will work and those of other
nations that have taken an interest in supporting work in your area of science or your geographical
region.
n
n
Non-governmental organizations—a very broad group of national and international organizations.
Multinational organizations such as the United Nations and its agencies (for example, UNICEF), the
World Health Organization, etc.
n
Public-Private Partnerships such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, the
International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, etc.
n
Private foundations such as the Wellcome Trust, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Howard
Hughes Medical Institute, etc.
n
n
National and multinational corporations such as mining companies, oil companies, etc.
Announcements (PAs) to alert researchers to
grant opportunities that will fund research around
particular topics.
Applications to NIH are submitted to the agency
and then immediately sent to a division that
specializes in managing the review of applications
—the Center for Scientific Review (CSR). There
the grant is reviewed on two levels: one is a peer
review level meant to evaluate the proposal’s
scientific and technical merit, the other is review
by staff members from a few of the agency’s
many institutes and centers to determine where
the grant might best fit into the agency’s interests.
For example, a grant that focuses on atherosclerosis would face peer review by a panel of experts
in heart disease and, after review by the institutes
and centers, would likely find its way to the
institute that focuses on heart disease. Within the
overarching agency NIH, that is a section called
the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. A
grant you might write with an American collaborator to fund research on Chagas disease (a parasitic
infection with considerable impact on the heart)
might make its way to that institute, or to the NIH
institute that focuses on infectious diseases, or, if
it is a Fogarty International Research Collaboration
Award (FIRCA), it might be funded by the Fogarty
International Center, which is also a section of
NIH. The Fogarty Center’s work focuses on global
health and international partnerships.
At NIH, the level of review that focuses on
scientific and technical merit is carried out by
one of many “study sections,” each of which is
organized around a general scientific area. Each
study section has a specific scientific focus. Individual reviewers who are members of the study
section review a grant application for scientific
merit. Each rates it with a numerical score, and
then the whole committee comes to agreement
on the proposal’s final score, a three-digit number.
In this system, 100 is the best possible score,
and 500 is the worst. After reviewing the proposal
as individuals, proposals that the committee
members agree are not of high enough quality to
be competitive are often not even discussed at
the peer review meeting, and will not receive a
numerical score.
getting funded
99
When poor scores are given
Who might be interested in supporting
your work?
Disease control programs that require evidence-based information in order to
implement appropriate control measures
in disease-burdened areas.
Applications may receive poor priority scores for
any number of reasons, including:
n
Policymakers who require quality research
results for policy formulation, policy guide lines and informed decisions in the control
of various diseases.
n
Lack of original ideas.
n
Absence of an acceptable scientific rationale.
n
Lack of experience in the essential methodology.
n
Questionable reasoning in experimental approach.
n
A diffuse, superficial, or unfocused research plan.
n
Lack of sufficient experimental detail.
n
Lack of knowledge of published relevant work.
n
An unrealistically large amount of work for the
given time frame or funding level.
n
Uncertainty about future directions.
n
Chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing
companies wanting to know the efficacy of
their products against target vectors and
diseases.
n
Construction companies may require
assessment of the impact of their projects,
for example, the construction of an irrigation
scheme in an arid area.
n
Communities themselves are interested in
research results so that they can understand
their population’s health status and the prob lems associated with it, as well as where
they may need to improve it.
n
n
Waterworks and sewerage institutions
constantly need to monitor the quality of
water and sewage in order to keep harmful
organisms at minimal levels, thus averting
epidemics of waterborne diseases.
Research funders who will want to know if
their funds are being used in the manner in which they are intended and the outcome of the research conducted using these funds.
n
n
Investors also have an interest in some of
the research results produced, because they
will guide them in what health care systems
to adopt if they do decide to invest in an
area. These health care systems should of
course be in sync with the health policies of
that country.
Susan Mutambu, Zimbabwe
100
”
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
PREPARING A STRONG
GRANT APPLICATION
Getting Started
Successful grant applications begin with a good
idea. See page 102 for the sequence of steps that
can guide you from your good idea through the
submission of an application to the final decision
about funding. You can send the same application
to multiple funding sources, but you must disclose
your multiple applications to each potential funder.
If two or more funders agree to support the same
application, you must let them know that the work
has already found support. This may cause some
funders to withdraw their support, but others will
only ask you to propose some new work that will
go beyond the original proposal. Although it may
be tempting to keep both, you do not want your
supporters to find out later to their surprise that
they have “bought” the same work as another
funder.
Once you have a good idea, you can get started in
two realms: your own institution and an appropriate funder. Information about potential funders is
contained in the Resources section of this chapter.
Seek input at your own institution. If no one
at your institution has been successful at getting
funded, look for others as close to you as possible
who have gotten international grants. In some
places this may mean approaching people who are
across the country from you, or even in another
country in your region. Colleagues from farther
away may be able to give you helpful insight on
scientific issues and the overall logic of the work
you are proposing, but get as much input as you
can from people who face the same kinds of funding challenges that you will.
Keith Yamamoto, a well-known cell biologist,
recommends this to his younger colleagues: ask
three colleagues who have written fundable grants
to serve as a “grant committee” to help you get
your own work funded. If you have found a group
of colleagues who are willing to help you this way,
set a time to talk with them, as a group if possible, about your research goals, aims, and ideas.
Prepare yourself beforehand—you should be able
to brief them on your specific goals, grant ideas,
and potential funders in approximately two hours—
not two days.
After you have sharpened your thinking by preparing for the conversation and talking with your
grant committee, read the grant solicitations that
seem to fit you best and choose one on which to
focus. List three to five specific aims, and explain
in writing for yourself why each aim is important.
Then discuss this limited group of aims with the
same small group of experienced colleagues, and
then refine your aims according to their comments.
Again, this conversation or group of conversations should be short—on the order of two
hours—because you will have focused on what is
important and will not be discussing other topics.
Once you have finished, you are ready to write a
grant. The specific aims are the hardest part and
are the true heart of a grant, and at this point, you
have them well in hand.
In general, a good grant application will answer for
a reader:
n
What do you want to do?
n
Why is it important?
n
Why do you think you can do it?
n
Has this area been studied before? If so, what
has been done?
n
What approaches will you use, and why?
n
Why do you think it is feasible?
n
What will you do if your initial approach does
not work as planned?
n
What resources and expertise are available to
you from your institution?
Keep in mind that your reviewer may pick up your
proposal after reading tens of others. You need
to do a very good job of writing and of arguing for
your ideas, because your reader may be distracted,
disinterested, grumpy, hungry, or in a bad mood
by the time he or she begins looking at your
grant. Start working on the writing well ahead of
the deadline so that your grant will put your work
forward well. Prepare your application with care—
use your computer’s spell check but also read
your work over many times and give it to others
to get “fresh eyes” looking for simple errors. No
matter how strong the science, typographical and
grammatical errors leave a poor impression. Do not
try to evade the page limit by using small type or
narrow margins. Do not feel you must write up to
the full page limit; you get points for strength, not
length.
In the specific aims, be specific about reagents
and quantify whenever possible. You may be trying
to leave your options open, but a reviewer may
see a lack of detail as a lack of knowledge on your
part. At the same time, be brief—try to keep your
specific aims to two or three sentences each.
Use language and formatting to create signposts
for overworked reviewers, for example:
n
The long-term objectives of this project are…
n
The general strategy of the proposed research is to…
n
The specific aims of the present study are to…
n
Four goals are envisioned:…
n
In these experiments, molecular genetic, biochemical, and structural approaches will be used to…
Do not put anything that is critical for reviewers
to read, such as key graphics, in an appendix,
because reviewers are not required to read
getting funded
101
Call y o u r p r o g ra m o f f i c e r
Program officers are generally PhD or MD staff members of funding organizations. Their job involves
connecting researchers with grants. It is always appropriate to call or write to the program officer who
manages a funder’s grants in your area of research interest. A good program officer will tell you more
about a grant program you are considering applying to, can recommend other funding opportunities that
may also fit you or may fit you better, and can give you some sense of whether your planned application
has a good possibility of being supported by the agency.
Before you call, be sure to have an abstract of your research project ready (see box “Tips on Writing an
Abstract”). The program officer will probably ask for a copy. If not, you can offer to send one.
The program officer will not evaluate the quality of the research idea or the science. That job is left to
your institutional colleagues and the study section. But the program officer can be your best advocate
and advisor at a funding agency throughout the application process and beyond. This book was
conceived and helped along by program officers from different agencies, all of whom wanted to provide
you with a resource that will help you become an even more successful researcher.
appendixes. Do include clear tables, figures, and
diagrams (along with legends). Put them in the
body of the text, not in pages following it as you
might when submitting a paper.
The particular format of a given grant may vary,
but just like scientific papers, scientific grants have
predictable structures. Draft an abstract, research
design section, and methods section. Then draft
the section on your current relevant work, and
the sections on the background and significance
of what you propose to do. Conduct a thorough
literature search and cite all relevant literature
(omissions here are often a source of criticism).
Be sure to discuss your work in the context of
these published results. Conclude each section
in the research plan with a few sentences stating
what you will learn and why that information is
important—for example, “These experiments are
important because nothing is known about X, and
they will enable us to distinguish between two
controversial models that are widely discussed in
the field.”
Reviewers will look for your record of getting
related work done, so if you do not yet have
published work showing your success with the
required methods, do some preliminary work and
present a short summary of the results in your
grant application. Re-read the funder’s instructions
very carefully, paying particularly close attention to
102
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
whether you have done everything the application
requires and whether your work matches well with
any criteria for selection listed.
If you will be using human subjects, collecting
human samples, or using animals, make sure to
give yourself time to discuss the project with the
people who will be responsible for approving the
project’s ethics and determining that your use of
animals is in accordance with international
standards.
If new data become available after you have
submitted the application, contact the appropriate
program officer to see whether you will be allowed
to submit this additional information, and if so, how
to do so.
The Application: From Concept to Submission
n
In the beginning: have a good idea.
n
Find a home for your research; investigate funding
agencies that may support the kind of work you
propose.
n
Seek input at your own institution.
n
Write an abstract describing your proposed work in
clear language suitable for an educated layperson.
n
Contact program officers at the agencies you
would like to approach for support.
n
If the conversation is encouraging, send an abstract
to the program officer.
n
If the conversation is discouraging, and if it is a
large agency, contact another program officer
and have the same kind of conversation with a
different person. If you are discouraged a second
time, your idea is likely not a good fit for the agency.
n
Prepare your application; refer frequently to any
instructions on what will determine which grants
are funded.
n
Draft a one-page cover letter in which you express
why you believe your application fits the agency
or the particular solicitation to which you are
responding. Suggest potential reviewers for your
work, and mention your conversation with a
supportive program officer.
The Application: From Submission through
Funding Decision
Components of a Generic
Grant Application
Abstract
Research Plan
n Specific Aims
n Background (like a review article)
n Significance or Relevance
n Preliminary Results
Research Design and Methods
Resources and Facilities
Including description of your lab and
the equipment in it, as well as shared equipment and equipment you have
access to at nearby facilities
Budget
n
Submit your application on time; follow instructions
carefully.
n
Check by email to make sure the application was
received.
n
After peer review, carefully read any feedback
given by the review committee. At some agencies,
this feedback may come before funding decisions
are made.
Reviewers Focus on the Four Cs
If revision and resubmission are recommended,
consult colleagues at your institution and program
officer for guidance, address all critical comments
thoroughly, and resubmit your application. Learn
from the summary statement and the program
officer: negative comments will contain information that could help you write a stronger proposal
in the future.
Content. Organize your ideas around
associated aims linked to your central
hypothesis. (The mission statement of
each funding institute or review committee sets forth its areas of emphasis.)
n
n
If appropriate, consult the program officer about
challenging a review you think is flawed, especially
if the reviewers’ comments seem to miss the
point of your proposal.
n
If the application is funded, first, celebrate. Find
out when and how the grant will be paid, and
then wait expectantly—soon, you can begin the
proposed work!
n
If the application is not funded, consult your
program officer for guidance and either revise and
resubmit the application, or apply what you have
learned to write a new application.
Clarity. Cross-reference current literature
in laying out your premises.
Coherence of concepts. Present a coherent
set of ideas predicated on previous work.
Cutting edge. Be ready to take legitimate
risks, preferably based on preliminary data,
to move the science forward.
Tips on Writing an Abstract
The abstract should convey the big picture
—the general hypothesis and aims, the
methodological approach, and the significance of the research. Try to avoid technical
jargon, and write the abstract in language
an educated layperson can understand.
getting funded
103
direct costs vs. indirect costs
Direct costs comprise those expenses that are directly related to conducting a research project.
They include salaries, employee benefits, equipment and scientific instruments, consumable supplies
such as printer paper and pipettes, reagents, laboratory computers, and postage. Indirect costs
(informally termed “overhead”) comprise the expenses that are paid to your institution by the funding
organization to support your research but cannot easily be charged directly to a specific grant. These
include administration, utilities, computer infrastructure, building maintenance, security, and custodial
services. These items can add significantly to the cost of doing research. Generally, an institution’s
administrators, on behalf of the investigator, will negotiate indirect costs with funding organizations that
allow these costs. The organization then provides funds for indirect costs to the institution, along with
funds to cover direct costs charged to the research grants.
Some organizations, especially foundations, do not allow indirect costs, but often will allow many of the
items listed above to be included as direct costs of the grant.
Criteria for Rating. Here are some questions that
reviewers will ask about your proposal:
n
Significance: Does it address an important
problem? Will it advance scientific knowledge? Will
it affect concepts or methods in this field?
n
Approach: Are the experimental design and
methods appropriate to the aims? Does it
acknowledge problem areas and consider
alternative tactics (in other words, is there a
thoughtful backup plan)?
n
n
n
Innovation: Does it employ novel concepts,
approaches, or methods? Does it challenge existing paradigms or develop new methodologies?
Investigator: Is the investigator appropriately
trained to carry out the proposed work? Is the
work appropriate to the experience of the principal
investigator and collaborators?
Environment: Does the institutional environment
contribute to the probability of success? Is there
evidence of institutional support?
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Thinking about a grant’s budget
The budget is a categorical description of the
proposed costs. Generally, it explains staffing and
supply/service consumption patterns, the methods
used to estimate/calculate these items, and other
details such as lists of items that make up the total
costs for a category. The budget should address
each of the major cost categories, such as:
n
Personnel
n
Number of positions and level of expertise for
each position
n
Percent effort for each position
n
What each member of the proposed research
team will be doing
n
Equipment
n
Why you need this piece of equipment
n
What equipment you used to get preliminary data
n
Why the above equipment is not sufficient to
support R01-level effort
not chosen?
Occasionally, mistakes are made during the review process. If you believe that the reviewers criticized
you for information they overlooked in your application, or think the review was flawed for other
reasons, consult the program officer about the possibility of appealing the study section’s decision.
Although this action is sometimes appropriate, it is usually better to address review comments and
resubmit your application. Follow the program officer’s guidance on this matter.
If the reviewers thought your starting hypothesis was seriously flawed, do not waste your time revising
and resubmitting the application. Instead, learn as much as you can from the summary statement and
discussion with the program officer and your colleagues, reconsider your project and approach, and
write a stronger application the next time.
If the program officer thinks it is worthwhile for you to revise the application, keep these points in mind:
n Reviewers of amended applications get to see the summary statement from the previous reviews.
n Always treat review comments respectfully.
n Respond to all suggestions and comments, even if you do not agree with them.
n Be explicit about changes. Mark each section of the revised application where you have addressed reviewer critiques.
n Provide any additional data that are now available, and update your publication list if necessary.
n Resubmit the revised application by the due date. Your revised application now begins its journey through the review process all over again, along with the next batch of new submissions from other applicants.
n
Cost sharing for new equipment is advisable
n
Supplies
n
Categorize
n
Explain large expenses
n
Travel
n
Describe proposed meetings, travelers, and
estimated cost/trip
n
Justify any foreign travel
n
Other
n
Detailed description of animal per diem costs
n
Categorize other expenses
The most important challenge for a scientist
in my country is that funding for research is
limited. Although new private foundations
and business companies have started to
offer grants for scientific research, there are
fewer sources of funding than in developed
countries. Additionally, salaries at universities
are relatively low. The most important way
of facing this challenge is, first, to learn how
to apply for grants as early in one’s career as
possible. It does not matter if the applications
are not successful, but starting to learn the
process is very valuable.
Gilbert Brenes Comacho, Costa Rica
getting funded
”
105
RESOURCES
Allen, Ernest M. “Why are research grant applications
disapproved?” Science 132:1532-1534, 1960.
Online
Example of a Funded RO1:
Annotated RO1 Research Plan and Summary Statement
(NIAID): http://www.niaid.nih.gov/ncn/grants/app/.
GrantsNet (http://www.grantsnet.org), maintained by the
American Association for the Advancement of Science,
is a well-maintained database of funding opportunities
worldwide.
Other Sources of Funding Information:
FedBizOpps, an evolving database of all U.S. federal
government granting programs of more than $25,000:
http://www.fedbizopps.gov.
Major Sources Of International Funding:
The Fogarty International Center produces and updates its
Directory of Grants and Fellowships in the Global Health
Sciences, which lists international funding opportunities
from all over the world. It can be found at www.fic.nih.gov.
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chapter 8
TEACHING AND COURSE DESIGN
“ A
t e a c h e r a f f e c t s e t e r n i t y ; h e c a n n e v e r t e ll w h e r e h i s i n f l u e n c e s t o p s .
henry adams
If you are associated with a university, college, or
medical school, teaching may be an important part
of your work. You might have mixed feelings about
taking your place in front of a class. You may find
yourself staring out at a sea of faces and thinking,
“What am I doing here? I am a scientist, not a
teacher.” If you have done little or no teaching
before, but now find yourself cast in the role of
“The Professor,” you have no choice but to learn
as you go.
and other professionals. It also offers advice for
revising and designing courses, helping graduate
students and other trainees who may someday
find themselves in charge of a classroom learn
how to teach, creating a “teaching portfolio”
—a coherent presentation of your experience
with teaching and your ideas about your work in
the classroom—and balancing your teaching and
research responsibilities.
This chapter focuses on some strategies for
becoming a more effective teacher by using a
variety of methods, including “active learning.”
By experimenting with different teaching methods,
continually assessing their effectiveness, and
modifying them based on feedback from students
and other teachers, you can become a “scientific
teacher” who is as rigorous at teaching as you
are at research. This chapter focuses on teaching
undergraduates at large research universities and
students at medical schools, but the methods
described can easily be adapted to other settings.
WHY TEACH WELL?
The chapter suggests ways to improve your
current teaching style by assessing your strengths
and weaknesses and learning from colleagues
Science is about learning—both learning what is
already known and learning from the questions
your experiments ask of the natural world. Gaining
the varied skills required to become a good teacher
will benefit you professionally by enhancing your
communication skills, adding a whole new range
of activities to your resume, and making you
rethink the most foundational ideas that underlie
your field. When you prepare your lectures and
when students ask you naïve questions, you will
look in new ways at your assumptions about how
things work. Thus, teaching can bring new energy
to your lab investigations. You will also contribute
to the greater good of society by educating
teaching and course design
107
”
the next generation of students (those who
become scientists as well as those who go into
other fields), and you should take great personal
satisfaction from giving students the knowledge,
insights, and enthusiasm they need to succeed as
well-educated members of society. These reasons
are explored in greater depth below.
For me, the best thing of being a scientist
is that one is capable of understanding information that might seem complex to others,
and then one is also capable of translating
this information to others to spread the
knowledge.
Gilbert Brenes Comacho, Costa Rica
Reasons to Teach
”
Love of Learning. Teaching completes the
learning cycle. It is a logical extension of your own
studentship.
A Strong Teaching Record Can Help Your
Research Career. If you are at a university that
values teaching, the fact that you are knowledgeable about teaching will help you advance in your
environment. Taking on your fair share of the
institution’s teaching load will help establish your
reputation as a valuable peer and colleague.
Get to Know Potential Students for Your Lab.
Teaching will likely give you access to students who
may want to join your lab. Teaching an important
class extremely well will help spread your reputation among the best and most serious students.
Increase Science Literacy. Increasingly, scientists
are called upon to communicate effectively with
the public about complex and practical issues
ranging from health policy to the philosophical
and real-world quandaries of crop engineering,
embryonic stem cell research, or preservation of
scarce resources. Delivering class-room instruction will improve your communication skills. Also,
by teaching students who will choose many
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careers beyond science, you may influence future
policymakers, business leaders, corporate decisionmakers and others. Thus you will increase science
literacy and the general perception of science among
those who affect how things move forward.
Science and other Technical Fields Need to
Retain Excellent Students. By adopting a teaching
style that engages students, helps them become
excited about the discovery process, and creates
in their imaginations the possibility of a rewarding
life in science, you will excite many more students
about pursuing scientific careers.
Intellectual Growth. Ongoing interactions with new
students will prompt you to rethink “the basics” in
ways that give you a deeper understanding of your
work. Their questions may push you to acquire new
skills and improve on existing ones, so that you
yourself can extend your experimental reach.
Increased Job Satisfaction. Your scientific
experiments and other aspects of laboratory work
are not always going to go according to plan, and at
times you may become frustrated with the pace of
research in your lab. Teaching can provide muchneeded balance that re-energizes you and can give
you a sense of accomplishment. When you teach,
you build the future, give individual students a
chance for better lives, and increase the community’s knowledge. It is often a much more sociable
and direct experience than your progress through
laboratory science.
It is important to tell the history of certain
experiments and talk about the personal
knowledge one has of some of the “actors”
who made important contributions to, for
instance, molecular biology. Make the science
we teach alive. Foster enthusiasm. I usually
say that I cannot teach any subject that does
not interest or fascinate me. When I am fascinated by the subject I am teaching, I manage
to get fascination in the audience.
Alberto Kornblihtt, Argentina
”
Giving Back. Teaching allows you to give something important back to your country, as well—you
transmit the knowledge that you have attained to
new generations of students who may, in turn, have
a role in moving science and the country forward.
BECOMING AN
EFFECTIVE TEACHER
Teaching the lecture component of a basic science
curriculum for medical school students or a course
for undergraduates can be daunting. You want to
be well-prepared for this new responsibility. How
do you become a capable and effective teacher
whose students really learn the material you are
presenting? There are several steps you should
take before you even set foot in the classroom.
Assess Your Strengths
and Weaknesses
Research has shown that the best teachers are
not only knowledgeable about their subject matter,
but also show a concern for students and know
how to stimulate interest, encourage discussion,
explain topics clearly, and show enthusiasm. Think
back to any previous teaching experiences you
may have had. Even if they are only presenting at
lab meetings, nervously giving talks in your own
student days, or sharing a new skill with a friend,
they may give you some insights into what teaching skills you could improve.
The type of course you are asked to teach may
not mesh with your scientific interests, but you
should take the time to assess your strengths and
weaknesses and take those into account when
planning your classes. Since good teaching is part
art, part technique, and part personality, you will
need to find techniques that will both fit your own
personality and will address your students’ varied
learning styles.
For example, if you are an outgoing person who
takes great joy in sharing what you know, conveying your enthusiasm for science to students should
be easy for you. But your enthusiasm may be
overwhelming. You might need to avoid presenting
students with a tidal wave of complex ideas, and
instead give them more time to pose questions
and reflect upon solutions. If you are a less
gregarious person, you might find teaching in a
large lecture to be so intimidating that you retreat
behind your lecture notes and have difficulty
interacting with students. If you are given a choice
of how to organize your course, you can build your
confidence by starting with a topic you know well
and feel passionate about.
Whether you are bold, shy, or somewhere in
between, after you have established some rapport
with students, stimulating discussion around the
subject matter might become easier for you.
Observe and Be Observed
Just as you learn to improve your scientific
work based on the critiques that editors give to
your submitted manuscripts or comments that
reviewers make about your grant applications, you
can also learn about teaching from peers, senior
colleagues, and others at your institution as well
as from feedback provided by your students.
Ask a Peer for Feedback. You might want to
consider a reciprocal arrangement with another
junior professor in which you visit each other’s
classes, staying in the back and just watching the
lesson and how students respond to it. When you
are being observed, ask your colleague to provide
a frank assessment of your teaching skills. He or
she can give you information and advice informally
or by completing a written checklist that contains
specific categories, such as structure and goals
of the class, teaching behaviors, rapport with
students, and subject matter and instruction.
Observe a Senior Colleague. Seek out senior
colleagues who are reputed to be good teachers,
and ask them if you can attend their classes to
see what they do that is effective. If you would
like a faculty member to observe your teaching,
and possibly serve as a guide for you as you
learn this skill, choose someone who seems
enthusiastic and knowledgeable about teaching
and who has a reputation among students as a
good teacher (not just as a giver of high marks).
Experienced colleagues can offer suggestions
for dealing with particular topics and can give you
additional ways to clarify and enliven the material.
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109
Seek Feedback through a Formal Peer Review
Project. As you become a more experienced
teacher, you might want to participate in more
formal peer review of teaching projects, which
aims to engage faculty in capturing the intellectual
work of teaching by helping instructors document,
assess, and reflect upon ways to improve student
learning and performance.
Ask your Students for Feedback. Student evaluations of teaching effectiveness can offer valuable
clues as to what you are—and are not—doing
well. However, many standard assessments, which
contain quantitative questions designed to be
analyzed by computer (e.g., “Overall, how would
you rate the quality of the instructor’s teaching?”),
may not provide enough specific information.
You might want to create an informal survey,
with plenty of room for comments. The students’
critiques can help you make any necessary course
corrections. Bear in mind, though, that student
ratings for your first course might be low. They
should quickly improve as you gain experience
and confidence as a teacher. Some students may
use an anonymous evaluation as an opportunity
to make cruel remarks, but if you emphasize that
this is a practical evaluation meant to improve
their classroom experience, there should be useful
feedback on what you are doing wrong, from
speaking too softly to asking unclear examination
questions, as well as some encouraging acclaim
for the things you are doing right.
THE PRINCIPLES
OF ACTIVE LEARNING
Whether you teach at a large research university,
a medical school, or a smaller school, you can aim
to create a classroom that reflects the process of
science and captures the rigor, iterative nature,
and spirit of discovery of science at its best. Even
in courses where you expect to stand at the front
of the room and lecture, there are ways to get
students thinking and asking questions. (See the
box “Active Learning in Small and Large Settings”)
What Is Active Learning?
Active learning uses a variety of problem-solving
techniques to help students become active
participants in the learning process, giving them
the chance to clarify, question, apply their knowledge and consolidate what they have learned.
The concept was originated by John Dewey, a
philosopher of education who contended that
learning must be built upon the experience of the
learner, who actively integrates new knowledge
into an existing conceptual framework. A growing
body of research supports that supplementing (or
replacing) lectures with active-learning techniques
and engaging students in discovery and scientific
process can improve their abilities to understand
concepts, think critically, and retain the knowledge
they have gained in the course.
A c t i v e L e ar n i n g i n S m all a n d L ar g e S e t t i n g s
Active learning presents opportunities and challenges for the teacher. If you have small classes and
frequent, relatively informal contact with the students both in and out of class, that will make some
approaches easier to employ. At a larger or more formal institution, some active learning approaches
may be very difficult to apply, but related ideas, such as students forming small study groups or
frequent quizzes to check student understanding, may be useful.
Upper-level courses and other small-sized classes are excellent opportunities for departures from
straight lectures. In the instances where you teach labs in connection with your science courses, you
can introduce inquiry-based experiments in your lectures from the start. Because undergraduates,
graduate students, and technicians will contribute substantially to your research agenda, the time you
spend training them and helping them organize their projects will present many opportunities for
experimenting with active learning approaches in the lab.
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In the classroom, the principal tools of active
learning are:
If you use active learning in your classroom, keep
the following pointers in mind:
n
Cooperative learning, in which students work in
groups, helping each other understand the material
they are grappling with.
n
Inquiry-based learning, in which students ask and
answer questions and engage in the process of
science, by doing laboratory exercises, for example.
Do Not Try to Cover Too Many Topics at Once.
To make active learning work well, especially
within the large lecture format, pare down each
lecture to the core concepts you want or are
required to introduce, and organize the concepts
in a meaningful sequence.
n
Assessment, in which the teacher very regularly
assesses what students are learning and what
parts have gone “over their heads.” The teacher
uses the feedback to make revisions as the course
progresses so that students spend adequate time
on ideas that are critical for their understanding of
the material.
Implementing Active Learning in
the Classroom
Most scientists will have experienced learning as
undergraduates or even graduate students via the
“sage on the stage” approach of lecture classes.
Delivering a lecture may be the teaching style
that will be most natural for you. Some active
learning approaches integrate well into lectures
and can make the material more engaging for your
students. You might lecture for 10-15 minutes
and then carry out an activity. For example, ask
students to work in small groups on a problem or
equation, and then resume the lecture by solving
the problem at the board in the front of the room.
You might present the results of a scientific study
and ask students to make a prediction, based
on their understanding of the material, of what
the next step would be. Asking the students to
write on a note card the most important concept
they learned in the day’s lecture and hand it in
as they leave can let you quickly gauge whether
the class is struggling with the material. Similarly,
asking students to jot down questions, and then
answering them at the beginning of the next class
session, can help ensure that most students are
keeping up with the material.
Provide an Appealing Context for the
Concepts you Highlight. While you might find
a lecture on metabolic pathways exciting, your
students might learn even more if you present an
absorbing case problem to which an understanding of the metabolic pathway will hold a key.
Start Gradually and Then Add More. If you are
comfortable with an informal style and it is acceptable at your institution, you might try introducing
active learning components slowly, experimenting
with different ways of teaching the material to
engage students. For example, you could start by
stopping your lecture for a few moments to ask
students questions (which you can formulate in
advance) about the content you are teaching:
n
Description: What do you see? What happened?
n
Common purpose: What is the purpose or function
of…?
n
Procedures: How was this done? What will have
to be done?
n
Possibilities: What else could…? How could
we…?
n
Prediction: What will happen next?
n
Justification: How can you tell? What evidence led
you to…?
n
Rationale: Why? What is the reason?
n
Generalization: What is the same about…and…?
What could you generalize from these events?
n
Definition: What does…mean?
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111
Encouraging Student Questions
n
n
n
n
Do not ask, “Any questions so far?” Rather,
answer a question with a question to encourage
students to define concepts in their own words.
For example, if a student asks, “What is polymerase chain reaction (PCR)?” answer the question. but then ask a related question that will test
the student’s ability to apply the knowledge that
you just gave them. “Can anyone think of why a
researcher would want to use PCR?”
Encourage students to question concepts, ideas,
and theories by using examples from your own
research or research important in your scientific
field to explain how the scientific process is carried
out.
One of the problems with asking questions in
class is that it can become a private conversation
with just a few students who volunteer answers.
Instead, you might try asking students to write the
answers individually, or to work on the answers in
a group.
At the end of a class, ask students to write down
two good questions or test problems related to the
material you presented, and start your next lecture
with a reference to those questions. You can also
ask a question that can be answered by those who
read the material for the next class, and then ask
any student to present his or her answer at the
beginning of the next session.
Question
n
If home internet use is common for your students,
consider using web-based resources such as a
discussion board to encourage students to ask and
answer each other’s questions.
Use Real-World Examples
n
Use current newspaper and magazine articles to
show the relevance of the topics students are
studying. For example, if you are teaching about
DNA sequencing, bring in articles about genomics
and post-genomics or ask students to bring in
relevant articles they may have seen.
n
Involve the class in assessing the biological implications of a real or planned community project,
such as a plan to control communicable diseases
or an animal population. Assign student groups to
investigate various aspects of the project, collect
data, and present evidence-based recommendations to the class.
Use Technology to Enhance Teaching. If you
have access to a computer or to the Internet
during your class, there are ways to use technology
to make classes more engaging.
n
Provide some historical background to key
discoveries in biology by showing films or news
clips of early, groundbreaking experiments.
q&a
How do I get students to respond to my questions and not be met with silence?
answer
Make it clear that you expect participation, but develop the patience to deal with at least 10-15 seconds
of silence when you ask a question. Even if you feel frustrated when no one speaks up, refrain from
answering the question yourself, or you will set the wrong tone for the rest of the course. If students
are very reticent to ask and answer questions, you might try framing an opening question in the form of
“Choose one of these answers.” Call for a vote by show of hands, then ask one of the students who
knew the answer to explain to the others why that answer was correct.
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n
Integrate new media technology such as animations or virtual labs to make the subject more vivid.
Slides, photos, and film clips will also get your
students’ attention and may open familiar material
to surprising new questions.
n
Use interactive demonstrations and simulations to
illustrate concepts. Or show maps, photographs,
or diagrams and ask students to make their own
observations and interpretations.
n
If you decide to use PowerPoint slides in your class,
learn to make your presentations visually dynamic
and engaging to students. Reading a lecture aloud
from a series of slides is painfully dull for both the
teacher and the students.
Set the Stage for Active Learning
n
n
Set the pattern for active participation from the very
first day. Remind students of the value of active
learning, ask questions that call for genuine discussion, and get students talking several times during
the first session or in separate discussions later.
Learn the names of as many of your students as
you can. At the first class, tell students to choose
their seats for the semester and then make a seating chart, which you can study while students are
working on in-class exercises.
Active Learning in the Lab
The teaching laboratory associated with a course
is a perfect place for students to actually practice
science by designing experiments, gathering and
analyzing data, and presenting their findings.
If you want your students to experience the thrill
of science, consider taking a different approach by
either designing or adapting existing inquiry-based
experiments. When they are properly designed
as discovery-based learning activities, labs can
provide rich learning experiences for students and
can help them develop a variety of professional
and technical skills.
Most inquiry-based labs begin with a question—
either one generated by the teacher or by the
students—that provides students with a specific
issue or topic to explore. Students research the
topic, offer a hypothesis, design an experiment
to test the hypothesis, collect and analyze the
data, and determine if their hypothesis was
confirmed. The students then present and explain
their findings to the class as a whole. This can
be useful even when facilities and resources for
doing experiments are not available. Students can
be given mock data from which they can do the
relevant analysis and think through results, even
if it is impossible to give them a chance to collect
the data themselves.
As students start to understand and apply the
scientific method, they can begin to experience
the rewarding pleasure of discovery. From inquirybased labs, students can also develop better
communication and critical thinking skills and learn
to work together as part of a problem-solving team.
Case-Based Learning
Case-based learning allows students to learn science in a very practical way, by exploring the kinds
of issues they might actually confront as scientists
or as physicians or engineers in practice. Students
meet in small groups with a faculty member or a
more advanced student, who acts as a facilitator.
They are then assigned roles, such as discussion
leader, reader, scribe, or timekeeper. For each
case, which they will have read and thought about
ahead of time, they receive a list of objectives; a
narrative description of an issue, phenomenon, or
scientific advance; and a list of questions to address
and problems posed by the narrative. The exercises
are designed to integrate previously learned classroom material, so students are expected to refer
to material they have studied before attempting
to answer the questions. In addition, students are
encouraged to pose hypotheses, present any new
information they may have, reach conclusions as
a group, and evaluate the exercise. The whole
process can be done in an hour.
In this kind of learning, your role is likely to be
that of a facilitator. Your goal should be to assist
the student groups to function smoothly so that
students can learn from one another. You should
not take over and begin lecturing the small
groups, but you should correct any misinformation
that might arise during student discussions.
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113
Here are some ways you can help them learn
without delivering the material yourself:
n
Encourage the group to recognize and formulate
problems by asking students to brainstorm and
make a list of possible causes of the problem
being discussed.
n
Give group members opportunities to demonstrate
their outside reading by asking them to describe new
information they might consider from other sources.
n
Ensure that all group members have a chance
to contribute by preventing the “talkers” from
answering too quickly, while encouraging quieter
students to participate.
n
Encourage the groups to critically evaluate ideas
by asking probing questions and suggesting other
avenues to explore.
n
Provide timely, constructive feedback to help the
groups analyze what went well and what went
astray in their discussions, and to make sure that
at the end the groups have not come to illogical or
incorrect conclusions.
n
Model respectful and professional behavior by
showing respect and support to all students while
making the rules of small-group discussion very clear.
(Adapted from Guide to Small Group CBL Exercises, BMS6204: Medical
Biochemistry and Genetics, Florida State University College of Medicine.)
Developing
Examination Questions
Remember that writing exam questions takes
time; do not try to “throw it together” at the last
minute. Before you start, make sure you ask if
your institution has any established formats to
which your exam questions must conform. If you
have students or other trainees helping you teach
the class, involve them in writing the exam or
in reviewing a draft of it to make sure that your
instructions are clear and that the test can be
completed in the time allowed.
Your school will have its own customs and requirements for testing students’ knowledge. In some
places oral exams are common; in others written
ones are used nearly exclusively. Regardless of
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the type of exam, you should use a variety of
questions to evaluate what the students have
learned.
True/False Questions. These questions lend
themselves to written exams. They present a
statement and ask the student to decide whether
the statement is true or false. While the tests
are among the easiest to write and score, they
are limited in the kinds of student mastery they
assess and have a relatively high probability of
students guessing the right answer. “True or
make true” questions, which ask the student to
recognize and correct false statements, can also
be useful.
Short Answer Questions. These are “constructed
response” or open-ended questions that ask
students to create a short answer (one sentence
or several sentences). In a written exam, students
fill in a blank or complete a sentence. Although
the questions are relatively easy to write, they
are harder to score because students are free to
answer the question in any way they choose.
Multiple Choice Questions. These questions are
used primarily in written exams. These present a
question and ask students to choose from a list
of answers. Questions can be simple statements
or complex cases or scenarios that require careful
consideration on the part of students. The questions can be more challenging to answer (if they
require both one correct answer and several false
answers that distract the student by being nearly
true or by playing on a common misunderstanding
of the concept), but are easy to score.
Essay Questions. These questions can be
used both in written and oral exams. They allow
students to focus on broad issues, general
concepts, and interrelationships, rather than on
specific facts or details. The advantage is that the
tests allow you to see the quality and depth of
each student’s thinking. However, they can be
difficult and very time-consuming to score,
because the answers vary in length and variety,
and you might tend to give students a better
grade if they have strong writing skills.
COURSE DESIGN
You may be asked to design a new course from
scratch, or you may want to redesign an existing
course to better suit your teaching style and
knowledge or advances in your field. Course
design is a complex and time-consuming undertaking, so before starting down this path, give
considerable thought to how you will find the time
to build the new course, how many times (if any)
you will be able to substantially re-teach the same
course, and whether your new course—especially
if it is a significant departure from a well-loved
predecessor’s course—will generate potentially
damaging turbulence for you from your teaching
and research colleagues.
n
Clarify your department’s expectations for this
course. If you are teaching a course for only one
year and must hand it back to your colleague when
he returns from a sabbatical, you might want to
invest minimal time and effort. If you can get a
commitment to teach the course for several years,
revising it will make more sense.
n
Review and evaluate the course syllabus, lecture
notes, textbooks and other assigned readings,
assessment questions, and other materials the
faculty member who previously taught the course
will make available to you.
n
Review students’ final exams to learn where
the course was strong or weak in teaching key
concepts. If they are available, skim a few years’
worth of students’ course evaluations.
n
If possible, ask the faculty member who has been
teaching the course to describe his or her impressions of what worked and what did not, or observe
this person teaching a class and jot down your
thoughts about what you would keep or change.
Determine what Changes to Make. If you do
decide to make changes to the course, figure out
what and how much you want to change. Are your
predecessor’s lecture notes written in a style that
is similar to your own way of presenting material?
If not, spend some time editing the lectures to
make them your own. Is course content basically
good, but is it presented primarily in lecture form
with few activities that press the students to think?
If the content of the course seems satisfactory
overall, you can focus more on your presentation.
But if you think it is necessary to introduce a
substantial amount of new content or make major
structural changes, then it may be useful to start
from the beginning and design a completely new
course.
Designing a New Course
Creating a new course is more difficult and
time-consuming than revising an existing one.
Before starting, ask yourself why you want to
design a new course. Has your department or
school requested that you fill a gap in the existing
curriculum? Will you earn good will and be viewed
as a team player if you take it on? Do you have
a special research interest that is not currently
represented in the curriculum?
You will face three critical decisions—what to
teach, how to teach it, and how to ensure that
students are learning what is being taught. Ideally,
you should begin planning your course several
months ahead of the term to give yourself time
to order textbooks and request other resources
and to prepare your course handouts. But even
if you are asked to develop a new course at the
last minute, you can still use many of the planning
guidelines described below.
Decide what to Teach. Determine how the
course relates to other courses in the department’s
curriculum by asking these questions:
n
Will the course be required before students can
register for higher-level courses? If so, talk to the
instructors of the advanced courses to see what
kinds of knowledge and skills they expect from
students who will have taken your course, and
make sure you are covering that material well.
n
Is it an advanced course? If so, talk to the instructors who are teaching the basic courses that
students will have taken before yours so that you
can better understand what skills and knowledge
students will have when entering your course.
teaching and course design
115
n
Are there curriculum changes underway that might
affect your course? If, for example, your school
is considering new approaches—such as doing
away with introductory biology and chemistry and
replacing them with a multidisciplinary life sciences
course—you will want to keep that long-term
plan in mind. Knowing how your course fits into
the entire structure of the students’ education is
important, and will call for discussions with other
faculty and perhaps a collaborative or interdisciplinary approach.
Establish content goals. Identify three to five
general goals (e.g., “understanding the concept
basics of metabolism”) for the course that will
explain what you want your students to know and
be able to do when the course is over. If you include
non-content goals (such as “work conducted
collaboratively with other students”), keep in mind
that they are harder to assess.
Identify major course themes. These principles
or fundamental postulates lend continuity to and
provide perspective on the entire course. For
example, a year-long course in introductory biology
might involve three broad themes: information
and evolution in living systems, development and
homeostasis, and energy and resources.
Identify core concepts within your major themes.
Try to provide a balance of concrete information
and abstract concepts, and balance material that
emphasizes practical problem-solving with material that emphasizes fundamental understanding.
Define the objectives of individual units or lessons.
For example, one objective might be that students
will be able to propose tests of evolutionary
hypotheses or critique arguments pertaining to
evolutionary evidence. Such definitions will help
structure the content of each lesson
Determine How to Teach It. Determine the
general structure of your course. Ask yourself
these kinds of questions:
n
What combination of lecture and homework
assignments, labs, seminars, and journal club do
you want to use?
n
What will be the balance of faculty lecture and
other teaching methods, including student
presentations, group projects, or laboratory work,
in the course?
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e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
n
Do you want to, or are you required to include
other faculty presenters?
n
Will any class sessions be filled by field trips,
movies, or other non-speaker events?
Select resources. Choose textbooks and journal
articles. Use letterhead to contact publishers for
review copies (some publishers will send you a
free sample of their textbook on request if you are
teaching at an established institution). If you will
be able to use a computer in your presentations
to the class, investigate the use of technology
enhancements such as animations, videos, simulations, or virtual labs. Make sure the textbooks
match your idea of the course’s goals and objectives, or be prepared to tell students how to make
the best use of the reading resources. Think about
guest speakers or faculty members who might be
appropriate and willing to teach several classes.
Determine what other resources you need, such
as students or trainees to help you teach student
labs or grade homework and examinations, teaching laboratory space, supplies, library resources,
and student textbooks if those are provided by the
institution. Find out what you must to ensure that
all of the needed items, people, and resources are
in place.
If you plan to have a Web site for your course,
familiarize yourself with your institution’s procedures
for placing material online.
Based on the goals of the course, determine how
you will assess student learning for each goal.
You can use active assessments, as well as more
traditional quizzes, in-class or at-home examinations,
papers, problem sets, in-class presentations, and
projects.
Divide the course into manageable pieces, perhaps
punctuated by examinations if having several
examinations per course is customary at your
institution. Divide the larger units into individual
class sessions with objectives, methods, and
evaluations for each. Choose activities for each
class and create a table or grid for each class
to plan those elements. Pay attention to major
holidays: if most students will go home for a few
days, think about whether your planned schedule
will lead to poor performance by students who may
be rushing to go home or may return unprepared.
Check your college or university’s calendar. Look
for exam dates, holidays, and other events that
might affect class schedules. Try to avoid having
sessions that cover related material span major
holidays.
Look at existing syllabi (course agendas) to get an
idea of the appropriate format at your school. They
may typically include:
n
Name of the course, number of credits, classroom
meeting place and time, and semester and year
the course is to be given.
n
Name and contact information for you and any
other faculty involved.
n
Course Web site, if there is one.
n
A brief course description and statement of overall
course goals.
n
A brief statement of objectives.
n
A description of course format.
n
A statement of assessment techniques.
n
A schedule of class dates and topics.
n
A schedule of due dates for papers, tests, and
projects.
n
Pertinent information about academic policies and
procedures such as class attendance, make-up
assignments, late work, group projects, and grading.
Determine if Students are Learning. Feedback
can be obtained by reviewing student performance,
from student evaluations, from informal consultations with students, and from evaluations from
your peers. You might also want to have an informal
consultation with a trusted senior teacher who
you have recruited to help you as you start your
own teaching career. It might be useful to conduct
such evaluations periodically during the course,
particularly if it is a new one.
(Sources: Hingorani, Manju. “Course Planning and Teaching,” Davis,
Barbara Gross. “Preparing or Revising a Course,” Tools for Teaching. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1993.)
Once you have taught your course, you will
probably want to revise it based on your sense of
whether the objectives were met and on feedback
from students and colleagues. But resist the
urge to change or correct everything all at once.
Instead, make small adjustments over time.
TEACHING OTHERS TO TEACH
If you are teaching a large course with assistants
who will handle laboratory instruction or grading,
do not expect them to be comfortable using
teaching techniques they have never experienced
as students. If they will be presenting lectures or
speaking during laboratory sessions, demonstrate
the teaching techniques you expect them to use,
having your assistants standing in for the students
for the purpose of the demonstration. You may
spend only an hour running through a few examples, but it could make the difference between
your teaching assistants shying away from your
methods and being willing to use them.
n
Help teaching assistants understand that teaching
is an experimental situation, and emphasize that
they do not have to be perfect teachers. Teachers
can continue to experiment and revise their
courses, even after years in the classroom.
n
Visit sections led by teaching assistants often, and
offer useful feedback in private soon after your
visit.
n
Before allowing others to grade papers for you,
circulate a sample of papers and have each
assistant grade them independently using a rubric
developed in advance. Meet with the graders, all
together if possible, to discuss the answers and
talk about how to resolve differences in how the
graders may be viewing the questions.
n
Tell your assistants to come to you when serious
problems arise, such as encountering students
with obvious behavior or psychological problems.
n
Be sure to brief your teaching assistants on
professional standards of behavior, which may vary
from place to place. These often include standards
regarding fairness and confidentiality, as well as
policies regarding acceptable levels of socializing
between teachers (including assistants) and
students. For example, is dating allowed between
students and their graders? It may also be important to give them some guidance on conducting
meetings with students. For example, in some
places it is common for students and teachers to
meet only in offices with the doors open and other
people around, so that there can be no claims of
inappropriate behavior.
teaching and course design
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a r e la x e d f o r m a t f o r t al k i n g a b o u t s c i e n c e
Start a monthly film club. Invite your laboratory group to watch and discuss a science-related movie.
Though there are many wonderful educational films, this works even better with an entertaining
cinematic movie. The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) has run a “Science in the Cinema” activity
for those who live near its Bethesda, Maryland campus since 1994, and has a long list of movies—
mostly box office hits—and resource materials that will add to a lively discussion. The list can be
found at http://science.education.nih.gov/cinema.
More advice on creating a culture of teaching in your lab can be found in chapter 10, “Expanding Your
Influence: Training the Next Generation of Scientists.”
Creating a Learning
Environment in Your Lab
In a very real sense, your laboratory is also a classroom—one in which the scientific process often
results in something new, exciting, or unexpected.
In the lab, as in the classroom, you will often want
to avoid lecturing and giving trainees answers
too quickly, and will instead prefer to emphasize
questions and encourage reflection. You can create
a culture of learning in your lab for all trainees by
using some of the teaching strategies described
above, and by encouraging members of your lab
group to learn from each other.
Start a Journal Club. Journal clubs are a great
way to examine current literature and to let those
just starting in the lab know that there are many
questions left to be answered. Ask a member of
the lab to select an original peer-reviewed journal
article, distribute it in advance to the group,
prepare an introduction to the paper, and provide
any relevant or background information. If you
have a large group, lab members can break up into
smaller groups to discuss research-related issues
(How good is the data? Should more experiments
have been done?), then reconvene and share
their thoughts with the group as a whole. While
your students are learning about experimental
design and other research issues, they will also
be learning to collaborate and communicate.
Ideally, journal club should be held on a weekly
basis, but if that is not possible, one good way to
keep everyone up on current literature is to ask
each member of the group to present briefly the
abstract of at least one paper at the beginning of
weekly lab meetings. (See chapter 4, page 58.)
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e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
Time Management
When Balancing Teaching
and Research
The amount of time you devote to developing
or teaching a course will depend in part on the
priority your institution places on teaching. If your
institution considers research its top priority, keep
in mind that although you will want to be the best
teacher you can in the time allowed, you should
not permit your teaching obligations to undercut
your commitment to research. Volunteer to teach
the courses your department or institute particularly needs but are not as difficult to teach—that
way you can legitimately say, “Sorry, I am already
committed” when you are asked to teach a
course that would be more time-consuming to
develop or teach.
Even if you cannot reduce the number of hours,
perhaps you could stack your teaching load so
that you teach all of your classes in one semester
and arrange to have a term with no teaching. You
might also ask to teach multiple sections of the
same course to reduce your preparation time, and
request graduate assistants to help you grade
exams. At the very least, you should try to clarify
your teaching load. How many classes will you
have each term? What are typical enrollments in
each class? How much time will you be expected
to spend advising students or supervising theses
or dissertations? Does supervising undergraduate
research count as teaching? How much credit
do you receive for teaching the lab sections of a
course? Armed with such knowledge, you might
be able to make trade-offs that help you manage
your teaching load more effectively.
Borrow, Adapt and Recycle.
n
Teach the same course several times, so that
you are just making adjustments to it rather than
starting from scratch every year.
n
Teach a course previously taught by someone who
is willing to lend you copies of his or her notes,
exams, and homework assignments.
n
Borrow or adapt high-quality curricula that are
already available. Curricula and sometimes lectures
from courses from universities worldwide are
collected at the Open Courseware Consortium’s
Web site, http://www.ocwconsortium.org. Links
include the more than 1800 courses now online
from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
the courses of the UK’s Open University, materials
from several Spanish, Mexican and Colombian
universities, a translation project rendering
materials into Portuguese, and technical courses
from 11 universities in Paris.
Sample Teaching Portfolio
A teaching portfolio includes these items:
n
n
n
Know Yourself.
n
n
Consider your personal rhythms. If you have any
influence over scheduling, choose a class that does
not completely disrupt your day. For example, you
could teach two back-to-back classes or schedule
days without classes to help you find time for your
research.
Set realistic limits on your own class preparation
and do not be a perfectionist.
The Teaching Portfolio
You want to make sure that your teaching successes are favorably considered as part of your
promotion review. One way to do this is to develop
a teaching portfolio. This document is an important
asset—not only for your career, but also for your
own professional development. Compiling your
portfolio will force you to reflect on your teaching,
so that you can continue to analyze and improve it.
While there are many ways to compile a teaching
portfolio and many items you might include, typical
portfolios include a personal statement about your
teaching philosophy, evidence of your teaching, and
supporting materials. Unlike your scientific CV, which
lists all publications you have ever written, the
teaching portfolio is more selective and has been
compared to an artist’s portfolio—a sampling of the
breadth and depth of your work.
Personal Material: A short statement of your teaching philosophy, a broader statement of your teaching responsibilities, representative course syllabi, and steps you have taken to enhance your teaching skills or background knowledge.
Materials from Others: Student and course evaluation data from present and former classes, statements from colleagues who have observed your classroom teaching, statements from teaching assistants (TAs) you have
supervised, and any honors or other recognition you received for teaching.
Products of Teaching: Student scores
on class, departmental, and national
certification exams, samples of student
work, and testimonials from alumni or employers of former students.
While the list might seem overwhelming
at first and could take years to develop to
the fullest, it is manageable if you take it
in steps. The most important thing is to
start collecting and organizing information
related to your teaching philosophy and
accomplishments and to start compiling
those materials in a box, a loose-leaf
notebook,or another format that can easily
be updated and supplemented.
Becoming a good teacher may seem like a lot of
work with little reward, but remember that your
research and teaching careers can work hand in
hand. Your research can inform your teaching,
and your teaching can inform your research.
Learning to be an effective teacher is worth the
time and effort. Not only will you be instrumental
in inspiring and educating a new generation of
scientists, but you will also enhance your own
skills, confidence, and creativity. Remember, too,
that teaching can be a stabilizing force in your life,
especially if your research becomes discouraging
or you lose ground in the laboratory. The time you
teaching and course design
119
spend in preparing an effective course with activelearning activities can give great personal rewards,
as your students demonstrate their knowledge
on a test or tell you that for the first time they
really understand DNA structure and function.
Since teaching is one of the three pillars on which
decisions about tenure and certain grants are
made, your success in teaching and course design
will only improve your chances of having a long,
productive, and well-funded career in academia.
Davis, Barbara Gross. Tools for Teaching. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass, 1993. “Quizzes, Tests and Exams” chapter,
http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/quizzes.html.
Davis, Barbara Gross. Tools for Teaching. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass, 1993. “Preparing or Revising a Course”
chapter, http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/prepare.html.
Davis, Barbara Gross. Tools for Teaching. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass, 1993. “Preparing to Teach the Large Lecture
Course,” chapter, http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/largelecture.html.
Drummond, Tom. “A Brief Summary of the Best Practices
in Teaching,” http://webshare.northseattle.edu/eceprogram/bestprac.htm.
Resources for Undergraduate Biology
Go to http://www.hhmi.org/research/
professors/ for an array of courses, hightech tools, and other resources developed
by accomplished research scientists (who
are also gifted teachers) through grants
from HHMI’s Professors Program.
RESOURCES
Harvard Medical School Case Studies. http://brighamrad.
harvard.edu/education/online/tcd/tcd.html.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Biointeractive.
Virtual labs, animations, and other resources.
http://www.biointeractive.org.
Kuther, Tara. “Teaching 101” Science.Careers.org,
http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_development/
previous_issues/articles/2240/teaching_101.
National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science.
http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/projects/cases/case.html.
Brinkley, Alan, et al. The Chicago Handbook for Teachers:
A Practical Guide to the College Classroom. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1999.
National Science Digital Library, a free online resource
for education and research in science, technology,
mathematics and engineering. http://nsdl.org/resources_
for/university_faculty/index.php.
Handelsman, Jo, Sarah Miller Lauffer, and Christine Pfund.
Scientific Teaching: A Guide to Transforming Undergraduate
Biology Education. New York, NY: W.H. Freeman, 2006.
Reis, Richard M. “How to Get All-Important Teaching Experience,” Chronicle of Higher Education’s Career Network.
http://chronicle.com/jobs/2000/07/2000072102c.htm.
McKeachie, Wilbert J., et al. McKeachie’s Teaching Tips:
Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University
Teachers. 11th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002.
Rodriguez-Farrar, Hannelore B. “The Teaching Portfolio,”
Harriet W. Sheridan Center, Brown University. www.brown.
edu/administration/sheridan_center/docs/teach_port.pdf.
Reis, Richard M. Tomorrow’s Professor: Preparing for
Academic Careers in Science and Engineering. Piscataway,
NJ: IEEE Press, 1997.
The Active Learning Site. A comprehensive bibliography of
articles about active learning. http://www.active-learningsite.com/bib1.htm.
Hingorani, Manju. “Course Planning and Teaching,”
Davis, Barbara Gross. “Preparing or Revising a Course,”
Tools for Teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1993.
University of Minnesota Center for Teaching and Learning.
“Suggestions for Effective Lecture Preparation and Delivery”
http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/teachlearn/resources/guides/
effective/index.html.
Online
BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium, http://bioquest.org.
Center for Faculty Excellence, University of North Carolina,
http://cfe.unc.edu/about/publications.html
Curran-Everett, Douglas. “Learning How to Teach: How to
Do It and Why You Want To,” ScienceCareers.org, http://
sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_
issues/articles/1999_11_12/noDOI.4933230686003237261.
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e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
University of Texas at Austin Center for Teaching Effectiveness. Preparing a Teaching Portfolio, A Guidebook. http://
www.utexas.edu/academic/cte/teachfolio.html.
chapter 9
increasing your impact:
getting published
“ A
word after a word after a word is power.
”
margaret atwood
Having an internationally recognized role in
advancing science requires that you make your
name familiar to people far from your own backyard. Science is not an exclusive club, but as in
most human activities, people will be more open
to you and your work when they know you. The
published literature is the major route by which
other scientists will come to have that critical
sense of familiarity that will make you a “known
factor” and a welcomed colleague to other
researchers around the world.
unfamiliar to those who make decisions about the
course of science at your own institution or in your
own country, your career progress will likely stall. At
the same time, the people you train, the work they
do with you, and the work they may someday do
on their own extend your ideas and your influence
in the scientific community at home and far away.
Your scientific success hinges on several factors.
Your ability to produce a body of publications that
your colleagues will notice and respect is the
key to your success. Granting agencies, other
journals, and your peers around the world look at
your publication record as proof of your research
accomplishments. The importance of publishing
excellent work in well-regarded international
journals cannot be overstated. No other way of
becoming well known matters as much.
Once you have completed several years of
graduate school or medical school and postdoctoral research, you should be familiar with writing
scientific papers and the peer review process for
scientific publishing. But you may not yet have
been able to publish in the high-impact, mostly
international journals that will build your reputation.
To call a journal “high impact” is a description not
only of its prestige and quality, but also of how
far into the consciousness of scientists around
the world ideas published in it go. This chapter
provides some tips on planning for publication,
and some tricks of the trade to help you get your
work out in front of other scientists.
For your career to really flow well, you must
also develop into a recognized local, regional and
national authority. If your work is known in
London, Washington, Paris and Geneva, but utterly
Understanding
Publishing
increasing your impact: getting published
121
The Publishing Process
Types of Journals. Within the broad category of
peer-reviewed journals, individual journals vary in
the audience they try to reach and the scope of
coverage they provide. Local journals are often not
“indexed”, which means that they are not entered
into the searchable mainstream of the scientific
literature where other researchers can discover
them. Publishing in un-indexed journals thus does
little to advance your career outside your own
country. However, there are efforts underway to
strengthen the peer review infrastructure of the
best un-indexed journals—many of them in the
southern hemisphere—so that they can become
indexed.
Within indexed journals, there is a range of types.
Some journals—for example, the top-tier journals
Science and Nature—focus on a broad scientific
audience. Others are deliberately narrower in
scope, publishing research within a scientific
specialty. Most journals are published in English
and have a broader readership, but many are
published in other languages and are primarily read
within a single field or subfield of science. Within
each group of journals there is a hierarchy in terms
of how highly regarded each journal is. One of the
crude measures of a journal’s value is its impact
factor—a measure of how frequently papers
published in that journal are cited in other journals
(see “A Word About Impact Factors,” page 124).
The more prestigious and high-impact the journal,
the more competitive its publication process is.
Though there is great prestige in Science, Nature,
or other top-tier journals, not every paper belongs
there. Science and Nature are both weekly
magazines that not only transmit science but also
carry news each week. Their content is meant to
be science that is especially interesting to a broad
audience, and throughout the year they often
have thematic issues highlighting some particular
scientific topic. Much of any scientist’s work is not
broadly interesting as a piece of news, but rather
represents advancement of an ongoing story, and
is not appropriate for these publications. Even
exciting, unexpected results may be turned down
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e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
The most important advice I would like to
share with researchers just beginning their
independent careers is that the phrase ‘publish
or perish’ is not just an overused cliché. The
only way that people will know about your
work is to have it published. Publishing
first-authored papers in high-impact medical
journals like Lancet and New England Journal
of Medicine contributed tremendously to my
reputation as an established independent
researcher. In publishing, think more about
quality than quantity of publications.
Moses Bockarie, Papua New Guinea
”
if the magazines have recently run a paper on a
similar topic. Getting an excellent review but not
an acceptance from one of these publications is
good news, not a cause for disappointment. And
getting an acceptance is even better.
Work that can be published in an indexed journal
should be, because that is the best way for it to be
read by other scientists. But unindexed local and
regional journals should not necessarily be ignored.
Your work may be important for researchers and
clinicians in your region to know about, and should
Free Journals for Developing Countries
The Health InterNetwork Access to
Research Initiative (HINARI), a partnership
between WHO and scientific publishers,
makes free access to biomedical literature
available to low-income countries. More
than 2000 journals from more than 70
scientific publishers, including very high
impact groups like Elsevier, Springer-Verlag,
and John Wiley, are available through
this program.
More information is available at
www.who.int/hinari
be published in the journals that they read. If your
work is published in an indexed journal, you should
discuss with the editor the possibility of reporting
the results in local journals by re-publishing data
from the papers.
If you get permission to republish the data, you
must make clear to local journal editors and readers that the data has already appeared in print, or
you may be viewed as unethical.
Communication Formats. In scientific journals,
primary research holds center stage, although significant space is often allocated to news, reviews,
and commentaries. Depending on how complete
the study is and how big a story the work to be
published tells, original research can be published
in a variety of formats, including full-length articles,
brief communications, technical comments, or
even letters to the editor.
As a beginning investigator, you should concentrate on getting your research published as
peer-reviewed, full-length articles whenever
possible. Technical comments and letters to the
editor count for very little in most fields.
A well-written and useful review may be worth the
investment of your time, particularly if you have
already collected all of the relevant literature that
should be summarized. However, a review does
not carry the weight of original research, and is not
as valuable to you in the long run as a paper that
reports original research. Generally, a journal editor
will invite you to submit a review. The invitations
are based in large part on the potential author’s
reputation in the relevant field. You may also contact editors yourself and propose writing a review
on the strength of your unique perspective on a
field. Again, your reputation will be a major selling
point to the journal’s editor in considering your
proposal of a review. Good reviews tend to get
cited frequently by other scientists, which would
increase your citation index (a measure of how
many researchers cite your work). It is a “which
comes first, the chicken or the egg?” situation.
How can you get known if becoming better known
requires being known?
If you have a colleague or collaborator who has
gotten a foot in the door and established himself
or herself in the literature, you might approach
that person with the idea of writing a review
together should the opportunity arise. This could
benefit both of you. Reviews are extremely laborintensive, so many authors who do get invited
to write them are happy to have a willing partner
who wants to do some of the hard work.
To write a good review, you need the breadth and
depth of knowledge that generally come only with
long experience and from knowing a lot of scientists working in a field who will share unpublished
data with you. Partnering with a better-established
scientist can help you gain connections to those
other researchers and their unpublished data. It
can be a great opportunity for becoming better
known to a broad group of the people whose
work is moving science forward. But be careful
—a review that reveals your lack of expertise or
shows that your collaborator was not careful in his
or own review of the field could be embarrassing
and career-damaging. You should only take on a
task like this when you know you have the time
and energy to do it well.
As your career progresses, you may want to
consider other opportunities to express your views
—in letters, comments, and discussions of scientific trends. Many readers of the good journals
peruse this “front matter,” and contributing to
it gives you quick and wide visibility. In the very
highest of the top-tier journals, however, front
matter tends to be commissioned by the editors,
leaving the letters to the editor section the only
place where you have a chance to get your
name in print if you have not yet established a
reputation.
The Editors. Some journal editors are professional
editors who trained as scientists but no longer
work in a lab, or who trained as writers or editors
and have chosen to become specialists in scientific
publication. Others are scientists who have their
own research programs but also serve as editors
for a period of time. Journals such as Cell, Science,
Nature, and PLoS Biology are staffed by professional editors. When speaking to a professional
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A word about impact factors
The impact factor, which is published in the “Journal Citation Report” issued by Thompson Reuters, is
one of several types of data regarding the communications of scientists. Thompson Reuters publishes
the Science Citation Index, the thick, cross-referenced directories of all of the science published in a
given field in a given year, once commonly found in scientific and technical libraries. The Science
Citation Index is still produced, but is now more likely to be found in electronic form (either as DVDs
or as the online resource SciSearch) than as a row of thick books. The impact factor, which is updated
annually, is a calculated number that reflects how frequently the “average article” in a given journal
gets cited. It is calculated by dividing the number of current year citations by the number of citable
items published in that journal during the previous two years.
Although the impact factor is often used to provide a gross approximation of the prestige and intellectual reach of a journal, many other factors can influence a journal’s impact and ranking. For example,
review articles are generally cited more frequently than research articles, because they often serve
as surrogates for earlier literature, especially in journals that discourage extensive bibliographies.
Therefore, the inclusion of review articles in a journal will increase its impact factor.
There is a strong bias against publications—many of them outside the axis of strong science-producing
countries—that take several years to publish papers. This bias occurs because the window through
which the impact factor looks—a period of two years—can miss the slower evolution of citations in
journals where papers are considerably delayed.
Other methods of measuring citations are used by other indexing efforts, including Google Scholar and
the scholarly publishers group CrossRef. The United Kingdom Serials Group is promoting the “usage
factor” (http://www.uksg.org/usagefactors), and Google has developed its own calculation, the “Y
factor” (http://arxiv.org/abs/cs.DL/0601030), as a rubric for gauging the visibility and influence of a
published work. The “h-index,” which ranks researchers by a combination of number of papers and
how often the papers are cited, was developed by theoretical physicist Jorge Hirsch to rank researchers
in that field and was published in the prestigious journal PNAS, where, perhaps predictably, it has been
highly cited. Though the order of journals in these indexes may vary, they all illustrate that some journals
will show off your work better than others.
editor about your work, be sure to take the time
to highlight the general interest of your paper and
explain the nuances of the science. An editor who
is also an active researcher is more likely to already
know these things, but short introductions to your
work and why it matters are always helpful.
Planning for Publication
Because publishing original research papers is
critical to your career, this section focuses on
submitting and publishing these types of papers.
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Knowing when to Publish your Research.
Your institution may have some guidelines about
how many papers you are expected to publish
in a given number of years. Or publication may
be a rare event where you work. Make sure you
understand what your institution expects your rate
of publication to be, and also that you understand
what the “goal line” is, and how much publishing
matters with regard to whether you are judged
to be successful by your own organization. At a
well-established research institute, the standard
may be seeing some number of articles in print.
At an ambitious new institute, submitting papers
may be the current benchmark—actually seeing
them in print at some given rate may be the rule
in a few years, but for today, just sending more
of them out is what is expected. At an institution
that is focused almost entirely on teaching, work
toward publishing may be valued, or it may be
seen as a distraction that takes you away from
activities that those who will judge your success
value more.
If you want to have an internationally respected
career, you must publish. However, if you are at
an institution that does not value publishing or
does not push researchers to publish, make sure
that you are excelling at doing the things that the
institution expects you to do, and then work on
your publishing on top of that.
If you have scientists training in your lab who
want to pursue research careers, each of them
is under similar pressure to publish. To obtain
research positions of their own in the near future,
they themselves will need to be working, as you
are, to establish a strong publication record. If you
encourage them and help them toward that goal,
it will enhance your own publication record and
multiply your success.
Research projects usually have natural points
when it makes sense to publish (see “Creating an
Integrated Research and Publication Plan,” page
126). However, you may want to write up your
results before you reach that point. If there is competition in your field and you wait to publish, you
run the risk of being “scooped.” When you are
scooped—when someone else publishes the story
before you can—you will at best be able to place
your work in a journal that is not as prestigious as
the one you had initially envisioned; at worst may
find yourself unable to publish it at all. If you delay
publishing until you obtain the complete set of
results needed to dissect an entire phenomenon,
you may get scooped and/or you may publish at a
rate that will disappoint your institution. You want
to publish good, solid, complete stories, but if you
wait to tell the whole story in a single publication,
you risk the rest of science passing you by. A
topic that is very interesting to much of the world
this year may be virtually unpublishable two years
from now, simply because the topic has been
“overdone.”
In the top-tier journals, there are definite fashions,
and even more modest journals may view a great
paper on an out-of-date topic as being derivative
or a footnote to a story that has already passed by.
You will need to balance several considerations in
deciding when to publish, but if you have a choice,
it is a good idea to resist the temptation to rush into
print. Remember, the quality of your publications
is what matters most in the long run. A paper that
is incomplete or carelessly put together is less likely
to be accepted for publication, and having written
it will have been an inefficient use of your time.
Even worse, publishing incorrect results or shoddy
analysis will damage your reputation among your
colleagues, in your institution and elsewhere.
Choosing a journal
Most scientific papers published today have
multiple authors. All authors typically want to
publish in the most prestigious journal that is likely
to accept their paper, but views on which journal
is best will differ, especially if there are other
groups working on the problem and a rejection
from a high-profile journal would leave you behind
in the race to get your results into print. You may
want to take into consideration the suggestions
of students and scientists training in your lab,
but if you are the senior author, you are generally
the one who makes the final decision. Decisions
about where to publish may become even more
complex when two or more laboratories have
contributed to the work, or when one author is
more tolerant of the risk of being scooped than
the others are.
Here are some questions that can help guide your
decision:
n
Are my results sufficiently groundbreaking, and do
they have enough general appeal, to be considered
by one of the top-tier scientific journals? Do I have
a larger story that makes my results really exciting?
n
Even if my results are not earth-shattering, have
I taken an interdisciplinary approach, making the
findings interesting to scientists in several fields
and therefore appropriate for a general journal?
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Cr e a t i n g a n i n t e g ra t e d
r e s e ar c h a n d p u b l i c a t i o n p la n
There is a balance to be struck between trying to produce a “dream paper” that may never get done
and sending out a set of fragmentary observations. One way to find this balance is to integrate your
plans for publication into your research plans. In her book At the Helm: A Laboratory Navigator, Kathy
Barker suggests strategies for doing this. As you decide on the long-term goals of your research and
on the series of experiments or calculations you want to undertake, Barker suggests that you envision
these experiments or calculations as components of a published manuscript or series of manuscripts.
Think graphically; imagine how each set of results will be displayed in a figure, graph, or table. Put your
ideas in writing at the outset, sketching out the hypotheses you want to pursue, the methods you intend
to use, and the results you hope to get. By integrating research planning, the development of graphic
images of your data, and the work of interpretive writing, you force yourself to focus your energy in a
way that will move your project forward. The questions you generate as you analyze and write up the
results of each experiment should suggest additional clarifying experiments, the results of which you
should also express graphically. As you write, you will uncover gaps in information and shaky conclusions
and will be able to do experiments that make the work stronger. Eventually, you should be able to
decide that you have a set of results that warrants publication.
n
If my results are primarily of interest to my
particular scientific specialty, which journals reach
the members of that specialty? Within this group,
which journal or journals have included articles on
my particular subject area in the past couple of
years?
n
Would any journal be particularly interested in my
subject because it fits into a theme it has been
pursuing? Some journals, and some editors,
pursue their own special interests over time.
The top-tier journals receive far more submissions
than they can publish. For example, Nature rejects
about 95% of the biomedical papers it receives.
Be realistic about your chances. You will lose
precious time submitting your paper to the wrong
journal.
It helps to ask trusted colleagues where they think
your paper should appear. If they are frequent
reviewers for several journals in your field, they
will have a good idea of what the standards are for
each journal.
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Making Your Pitch. To make sure you write
your paper for the right journal, you may want
to submit an initial query to your target journal
to gauge its interest in your work. Most journals
have guidelines for submitting so-called presubmission inquiries. This information can often
be found on the journal’s Web site. If the journal
does not provide guidelines, send an email to one
of the editors, who are usually listed near the front
of the journal and frequently can be found in the
electronic version of English language journals by
searching for the word “masthead” (the name
for the box that contains such information) at the
journal’s Web site. Try to find out the name of the
editor who handles papers in your area of interest.
A pre-submission inquiry usually includes:
n
An abstract stating the purpose of the project,
methods, and main findings and conclusions. This
abstract can be slightly longer than the abstract of
a typical research paper and may include citations
of relevant journal literature. Make sure that the
abstract is clear to non-specialists and that they
will be able to understand what the scientific
advance is.
n
A cover letter briefly describing what questions
led you to your research project, what you did, why
you think your findings or methodology are significant, how your findings advance the field, and why
they are of special interest to that journal’s readers.
Limit the cover letter to no more than 500 words.
If English is not your first language and you are
pitching your manuscript to an English language
journal, make sure the abstract and cover letter
are clearly written and that there are no grammatical errors. There are many companies that
specialize in editing English manuscripts written
by authors who are strongest in other languages.
Their services are expensive, but having the input
of people with good command of a language you
may not know perfectly can make the difference
between a paper being read or not read by the
editors. If you have a colleague who is a good
writer, has English as a first language, and is
willing to help you, take advantage of the offer.
Remember to thank him or her in the acknowledgements section of the paper.
Pre-submission inquiries are typically considered
within a few days at the top-tier English language
journals, but consideration times can vary widely
from journal to journal. When making your
submission, it is fine to email the journal’s editor
to ask about the expected time frame for reviewing the manuscript and accepting or declining the
submission. When that time has elapsed, follow
up with a telephone call or email to the editor. If
you make this second contact by phone, use the
opportunity to make your pitch a second time
using the same kind of persuasive arguments you
used in your cover letter. Be sure to allude to the
larger context of your research—the big picture
that makes your particular effort meaningful.
You can expect a reply of either “we’re not
interested” or “send the full manuscript.” A
positive response to a pre-submission inquiry is
not a guarantee that the manuscript will be sent
out for formal peer review. The editor will want to
see the actual paper before making that decision.
writing your paper
Once you have decided where you want to submit
your manuscript, review the journal’s editorial
guidelines (available from the journal’s Web site or
directly from the editor) and follow them carefully.
Pick the type of paper that is most appropriate for
the story you want to tell. For example, a “note”
might be described by a journal as a 1000-word
paper with no more than three figures, while a
“report” might be one of 5000 words and up to
twelve figures. Which fits your data more
comfortably? You might think of each figure as
a distinctive verse in a song. Are you singing a
quick, light tune, or a lengthy historical ballad?
Either size of paper is good, but you want to
choose the right size before you proceed.
Once you have decided what kind of paper to write,
print or make copies of a few different examples
of that kind of paper from the journal and analyze
them. How much room does each devote to the
introduction? Is the methods and materials section
finely detailed or nearly perfunctory? Is the discussion mixed in with the results or does it stand by
itself? Summarize your analysis of the examples
and use the summary as a guide for outlining your
own paper.
The main consideration when writing a paper is to
clearly describe your most important findings and
their impact in your field. Do not let your manuscript look like a compilation of lab data; make
sure the reader can understand how you have
advanced the field of research. But do not overdo
it—claiming that your work is more important than
it really is earns little more than contempt from
reviewers.
If you are the primary scientifically trained person
involved in generating the data, write the paper’s
first draft yourself. But if the data has been generated by a student or scientist working under you,
you might assign the task of writing the first draft
of the paper to the student or scientist in your
lab who did the work. That person should be the
first author and you should take the role of senior
author. In the life sciences, this is usually the last
name among the authors listed. If someone senior
to you at your institution will be senior author, you
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may need to take the first author position yourself,
especially if you are early in your career and
building your reputation. Generally, in multi-author
papers the first and final names on the list are the
ones the reader will remember.
This is a sticky problem, since often among the
multiple authors there are more than two people
who have worked hard to generate the data and
the thinking necessary to tell the story, and who
need the benefits that come from taking one of
these positions. It will be important for the people
you train to get first authorships themselves.
If someone above you at your institute always
takes one of the prestige spots and you need
to take the other one, over time it will be very
hard for your students to advance. But as a
young researcher, it may be dangerous for you to
argue against this situation. As your own career
advances and your reputation becomes solid, you
may be able to move yourself to second-to-last
authorship, so that your trainees can shine. Over
time your international colleagues, funders, and
journal editors should come to view you as senior.
Compliance with the authorship criteria of the
International Committee of Medical Journal
Editors and the implementation of a memorandum
of initiation for each project, in which the roles
of participants and the principles for determining
order of authorship are stated, can diminish the
worry, hard feelings, and sense of inequality that
can come when distributing authorship, which is a
fundamentally important and greatly coveted form
of recognition. (See chapter 4, pages 63-65, for
more discussion of authorship.)
The author who has actually done the hands-on
work should be the person to prepare the figures,
tables, and legends first, because a scientific
paper is best written with the final form of the
data in front of the writer. Then work with the
author to get the paper into shape. Although this
may not be the most efficient way to write a
paper—there will be times when you could do it
yourself much faster—it is important for people
you have trained to gain experience and feedback
on writing papers.
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Once you have a good first draft, send it to
colleagues in your field and in your department
for review. Have it proofread by someone in your
lab with access to your data and the documents
you have cited. The last thing you want to do is
to appear careless; doing so will raise suspicions
about the quality of all of your work. It is also a
good idea to give the paper to someone outside
your field to see whether they understand its
importance. As mentioned in the section above, if
the journal is not in your first language, it is a good
idea to ask a friend or colleague who is a native
or near-native speaker of the language for help.
If your speaking skills in that language are truly
excellent but you struggle with the rules of its
grammar, reading the paper aloud can make any
written errors more obvious. This is true for native
speakers as well.
The “who writes the manuscript” problem is
not trivial. I personally like to write the draft of
every graduate student’s first paper. For [the
student’s] second paper, he or she writes the
first draft. Postdocs always write their first
drafts. Sometimes it is more difficult to edit or
change a draft written by someone else than
writing the draft directly oneself.
Alberto Kornblihtt, Argentina
”
In terms of other principles I would comment
that because thesis research is by definition
the original research of the student, the
student should have the opportunity to be the
first author of the publication of this work. If
the student is unable to draft the manuscript
within a reasonable and, ideally, pre-established
period of time, then first authorship may
correspond to the investigator who assumes
the writing of the paper.
Nancy Gore Saravia, Colombia
”
Three particularly difficult parts of a paper to write
are the title, abstract, and cover letter.
n
n
Title and Abstract. Create these two elements
after the manuscript is complete. The title should
summarize the take-home message of your paper.
The abstract should briefly summarize the paper
and should stand on its own. Describe the experimental question, the methods, the main results,
and the conclusion. Unless the main point of the
paper is description of a new technique, methods
in the abstract should be limited to a sentence or a
few words. Keep in mind that the abstract will
announce the existence of your work to people
who may not have time to read your paper. If the
abstract attracts their attention, they could be
induced to read your article rather than passing on
to the next abstract. Also note that your title and
abstract will be used as the basic tools for the
retrieval of your paper from electronic and paper
libraries.
Cover Letter. The cover letter should explain why
the paper is significant and why you think it is
appropriate for the journal to which you are submitting it. The letter should cite a major question in
your field and describe how your work helps answer
it. You may want to cite other papers the journal
has published in this field, or provide other reasons
why the journal’s readership would find your work
of interest. The letter of introduction is the place to
mention whether there is competition in the field
that could lead to your being “scooped.” You may
also include a list of colleagues who have reviewed
the paper and any information necessary to ensure
a fair review process. Most journals will give you
an opportunity to suggest people who are qualified
to comment on your work and to exclude one or
two particular individuals who may be competitors
and should not be reading about your work before
it is published.
Many books and articles that explain how to write
scientific papers are available in print and online.
Some are listed in “Resources” at the end of this
chapter.
Submitting your paper
Most major journals now require that manuscripts
be submitted electronically through the journal’s
Web site. Each journal has its own requirements,
such as preferred file formats for text and figures
and the procedures for uploading files. Consult
the journal’s Web site for specific instructions and
be sure to follow them. If you have poor internet
connectivity, it may be a good idea to burn the
paper to a CD or copy it onto a flash drive and
take it to a place where the connection is more
reliable. If your available internet connections are
very unreliable, you should follow up with an email
to the editor enquiring whether the attachments
arrived intact.
Regardless of whether they receive a paper
manuscript or an electronic version, most journal
editors will let you know that they have received
your manuscript and how long you can expect the
review process to be.
Navigating the Review Process
If you submit your manuscript for publication in
a peer-reviewed journal, the reviewers will be
chosen by the journal’s editor, who will take into
account any names you have suggested, his or
her own knowledge of the field, and a literature
search.
Receiving the Reviewers’ Comments. A paper
is rarely accepted after the first round of review.
When you receive the editorial decision and the
reviewers’ comments, you will have to decide
how to proceed. If the paper is rejected, print
the rejection notice and set it aside. Rejection is
never easy. A few hours later, after you have had
a chance to adjust your thinking to the inevitable
need to clear a new hurdle, read the letter slowly
and carefully to see what it is saying. Ignore for
a moment, if you can, the comments about the
science and look instead for the editor’s signals
about what you should do next.
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submitting image files
Today, most images are obtained digitally and programs such as Adobe Photoshop make it very simple
to modify them. But sometimes by adjusting an image you can make inappropriate changes to your
data, which could be classified as scientific misconduct. Since 2002, The Journal of Cell Biology has
been doing simple, routine checks of every image of all accepted manuscripts to look for signs of
manipulation. In some cases, this step has caused editors to withdraw the acceptance of a paper, and
in a few cases, to notify relevant institutions. Other prominent journals, including Science and Nature,
may take similar steps.
Here is what The Journal of Cell Biology says constitutes inappropriate manipulation of images:
“No specific feature within an image may be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or introduced.
The grouping of images from different parts of the same gel, or from different gels, fields, or exposures
must be made explicit by the arrangement of the figure (e.g., using dividing lines) and in the text of the
figure legend. Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or color balance are acceptable if they are applied to
the whole image and as long as they do not obscure or eliminate any information present in the original.
Nonlinear adjustments (e.g., changes to gamma settings) must be disclosed in the figure legend.”
For more information, see Rossner, M., and Yamada K. M. “What is in a Picture? The Temptation of
Image Manipulation.” J. Cell Biol. 166(1):11–15, 2004.
Many times you will be clearly and absolutely
turned down. In other cases, the editors will say
that the work is potentially interesting but too
preliminary, or that it has significant flaws that
preclude its publication. But other times—quite
often—you will see that the editor is giving you
a short to-do list of experiments based on the
reviewers’ comments, and that the journal will be
glad to consider the revised paper. And still other
times—not frequently, but also not rarely—you
will see that the editor will accept the paper if you
only respond to a few quibbles over language.
Sometimes the editors will indicate that they would
like to publish your work, provided you make a few
minor revisions or do a few additional experiments.
Another possibility is that the reviewers will advise
the editors not to publish the work even if it is
revised, because it is either not sufficiently novel
or it does not fit the scope of the journal. Most
editors are happy to talk to you by telephone to
help you assess whether you should revise and
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resubmit your paper or try another journal. In
any event, it is important to remain unemotional
during such conversations.
Responding to Reviews. Do not react defensively. Focus instead on the substance of each
editorial comment. Value good advice wherever
you find it. Read the reviews carefully, and communicate your responses in writing to the editor. It
is a good idea not to respond as soon as you hear
from the editor. Let a couple of days go by. A hastily written and emotional response will hurt your
chances for resubmission. Do not be sarcastic and
do not speculate on who the reviewer might be or
why he or she might be trying to thwart your work.
If the reviews include a request for additional
information that will require a few more experiments, carry them out and send your response
to the editor. You can make the process easier by
repeating each comment, stating your response,
and indicating explicitly where in your paper you
are making a recommended change.
If you think a requested additional experiment is
unreasonable, write a rebuttal letter explaining
why the experiment cannot be done or why it
will not help strengthen the conclusions of your
paper. You may discuss your concerns with the
editor before working on a revised manuscript.
For example, you should ask, “If I do revisions
A and B, but instead of doing experiment C, I do
a different but related experiment, D, will you
still consider a revised manuscript?” Remember
that you are the person best acquainted with the
details of your work and the limitations of your
research tools. If you think a referee’s comments
are completely off the mark, write a rebuttal letter
explaining your concerns. If all three referees, or
even two out of three, had serious misgivings,
it may be difficult to convince the editor that the
referees missed the point.
If the main problem is that the manuscript does
not convey the importance of the work, you may
want to rewrite it and add more data. You might
want to check with the editor first to make sure
this is an appropriate course of action.
Regardless of how you proceed, keep your
emotions in check. You should never demean the
reviewers. The reality is that reviewers, especially
those who manage their own laboratories,
sometimes work under unrealistic time pressures.
Occasionally, the reviewer selected may not
have the expertise to judge a paper competently.
Whatever the case, do not question a reviewer’s
expertise. If you think a reviewer missed an
important point, politely tell your editor, who has
the option of identifying additional reviewers for
your paper if doing so seems warranted.
In the end, you will have to do a cost-benefit
analysis. If you believe that satisfying all the
reviewers’ concerns would bog down your
research program in unnecessary experiments,
you may have no choice but to take your paper
elsewhere.
i f y o u ar e a s k e d t o r e v i e w a p a p e r
As your relationships with journal editors develop, you may be asked to review manuscripts submitted
by other scientists. Take the task seriously. Do the reviews thoroughly and promptly. If you do not have
time or do not think you have the right expertise, let the editors know right away. If a paper arrives and
upon reading it you see it is beyond your expertise, again, let the editor know quickly. They will not hold
this against you. A late or weak review, however, could hurt your reputation with the editors.
Once you have accepted a paper to be reviewed, do your work on it quickly so as not to delay the
review process. This is good not only for moving the science forward but also for building a good relationship with the journal. Be a discerning reviewer, but review others as you would like to be reviewed
yourself. Be polite, not demeaning. Be specific about the paper’s shortcomings, and be frank about how
the author might remedy them. Not every paper merits publication, but do not frame your comments so
harshly that the investigator will see no way forward with his or her work.
You will be asked not to reveal the contents of any article reviewed and will be reminded that you
should not use your knowledge of the pre-published results to further your own research. Take this admonition seriously—it is essential that you respect the confidentiality of the review process. If you have
a conflict of interest that precludes you from reviewing an article (e.g., you are directly competing with
the author of the article you are reviewing or the author is one of your former trainees), stop reading the
paper and let the editors know immediately. They will not be pleased if they find out about a conflict of
interest after you have reviewed the paper.
The benefits of serving as a reviewer are potentially great. Not only will you learn about others’ research,
you will improve your own critical skills and confirm your standing as a knowledgeable scientist in the
eyes of the editors. Your own future papers will be taken more seriously if you do good reviews.
increasing your impact: getting published
131
Submitting your Paper to Another Journal.
If you are advised that your paper is not appropriate
for the journal to which you have initially submitted
it (e.g., it is not sufficiently novel or does not
have the right focus), the best course is usually
to select another journal. In some cases, you may
not want to inform editors of the second journal
that the manuscript was submitted elsewhere
and rejected—it might prejudice the process. For
example, if your paper was rejected by Nature and
you resubmit it to Science (or vice versa), do not
let the editors of the second journal know. These
journals compete for the best papers and do not
want to publish each other’s rejects. If, however,
your paper was reviewed by Nature or Science
and the reviews were generally positive but the
editor did not feel the paper had a sufficiently high
impact value for a top-tier journal, you may be able
to use the reviewers’ comments as leverage for
your next submission to a field-specific journal that
is not seen as a competitor to those two broader
publications. Ask the first journal’s editor to support the resubmission, and tell the second editor
that your paper has already been reviewed. The
second review process may be expedited.
Regardless of your course of action, never send a
rejected manuscript without changes to a second
journal. If the same reviewers receive it from the
second editor, which may well happen if they are
especially well-suited to consider the work, they
will be annoyed to see that you have completely
ignored their comments.
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PUBLISHING HONESTLY
The number of publications is often used as a way
to keep score, with researchers who publish more
viewed as superior. But publishing papers that
are too similar, or that show your work moving
only a fraction of a step forward, may lead other
researchers to view you as a weak scientist.
Publishing the same data as more than one paper
is not generally acceptable, except in studies
where the older data is clearly built and expanded
with new work. Even in cases where new work
makes substantial use of old data, the norm in
research papers is usually to cite an earlier paper,
not to re-publish material from it. Review articles,
which openly gather information from other
papers, digest it, and present it as a digested
whole, are different in this way from research
publications.
Substantially re-publishing an entire paper under
a new title or in a different language is a form of
scientific misconduct. While the increasing number of publications in the world makes it easier
to cheat, increased use of electronic formats has
made duplications easier to detect. While cheating
by republishing is a significant offense, claiming
the work of others as your own is a moral and
professional disaster which can and should end
one’s career.
What if you make a mistake?
Corrections are a normal and acceptable part of
science. Errata—notes published to alert others to
mistakes in the literature—-cover everything from
small printing errors such as an out-of-place table
to technical errors that skewed results but did not
change the overall message of the paper. Retractions are more serious: they withdraw a paper
from the literature because of a gross failure that
renders the paper’s contents invalid or seriously
tainted. Retractions are embarrassing, but over
time, an honest, careful researcher can recover
from having had a paper retracted.
PROMOTING YOUR WORK
Your patience and persistence have paid off, and
your article has been accepted by a good journal.
Now you can use your newly minted publication
as a tool in a legitimate effort at self-promotion.
You want to become known to your scientific
colleagues nationwide. Here are some things you
can do to promote your work:
n
Announce the publication on your personal Web
site and in email correspondence with your friends.
Consider making it available in PDF format on your
Web site, if that is acceptable to the journal. Many
journals now also allow you to distribute PDF
copies of papers to interested individual readers as
you once would have done with paper reprints.
n
Give a workshop at your own institution on the
research described in your article and your future
research plans. Doing so is relatively easy and is
good practice.
n
Call your friends at universities around the country
or region and offer to give a talk on your research
at their institutions or at conferences they are
organizing. However, do not invite yourself to a
meeting by writing to the organizers if you do not
know them. You might come across as arrogant
and put people in the awkward position of having to
turn you down.
n
Once you have an invitation, take it seriously.
Prepare and rehearse your talk.
n
Consider going public. Contact your institution’s
public relations office, if there is one, for help
contacting the media. It is in the university’s
interest to have the good work of its scientists
publicized.
n
If your research was supported by an outside funder,
let the appropriate staff at the funding organization
know about the publication as soon as possible.
n
If a reporter contacts you, make an effort to speak
with him or her. Your university’s public relations
office can help you prepare for the interview. Keep
in mind that many reporters are not scientists and
you will need to give them sufficient background
to understand the importance of your work. If possible, ask reporters to give you a copy of the story
before it is published so that you can check for
accuracy. While some feature writers will respond
positively, most news reporters will turn down this
request. It never hurts to ask, though.
increasing your impact: getting published
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RESOURCES
Davis, Martha. Scientific Papers and Presentations. San
Diego: Academic Press, 1997.
Day, Robert A. How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper.
5th ed. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1998.
Day, Robert A. and Gastel, B. Cómo escribir y publicar
trabajos cientificos. Organización Panamericana de la Salud,
4ta. Ed. 2008.
Matthews, Janice R., John M. Bowen, and Robert W.
Matthews. Successful Scientific Writing: A Step-By-Step
Guide for the Biological and Medical Sciences. 2nd ed.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Wells, W. “Me Write Pretty One Day: How to Write a Good
Scientific Paper.” J. Cell Biol. 165:757–758, 2004.
Online
Curran-Everett, Douglas. “The Thrill of the Paper, the
Agony of the Review: Part One.” ScienceCareers.org
(September 10, 1999), http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.
org/career_development/previous_issues/articles/0210/the_
thrill_of_the_paper_the_agony_of_the_review_part_one.
Curran-Everett, Douglas. “The Thrill of the Paper, the
Agony of the Review: Part Two.” ScienceCareers.org
(September 24, 1999), http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.
org/career_development/previous_issues/articles/0210/the_
thrill_of_the_paper_the_agony_of_the_review_part_two.
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e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
Dee, Phil. “Your First ‘First-Author’ Paper: Part One -- The
Writing.” ScienceCareers.org (February 15, 2002), http://
sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_development/
previous_issues/articles/1400/your_first_first_author_
paper_part_one_the_writing.
Dee, Phil. “Your First ‘First-Author’ Paper: Part Two -- The
Act of Submission and Peering at the Review Process.”
ScienceCareers.org (March 15, 2002), http://sciencecareers.
sciencemag.org/career_development/previous_issues/
articles/1470/your_first_first_author_paper_part_2_the_act_
of_submission_and_peering_at_the_review_process.
Hirsch, J. E. (2005). “An index to quantify an individual’s
scientific research output.” PNAS 102 (46): 16569–16572,
http://www.pnas.org/content/102/46/16569.full.
The International Network for the Availability of Scientific
Publications (http://www.inasp.info/) focuses on communications for scientists in the developing world. One
of their programs, AuthorAID (http://www.authoraid.info/),
provides connections to resources and senior scientists
who will help researchers in developing countries publish
and otherwise communicate their work.
chapter 10
EXPANDING YOUR INFLUENCE: Training
the Next Generation of Scientists
“ A ll
w h o h a v e m e d i t a t e d o n t h e ar t o f g o v e r n i n g m a n k i n d h a v e b e e n
convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth.
”
Aristotle
Teaching someone how to perform a task, or even
teaching a student to understand the fundamentals
of a field, is one thing. Taking significant responsibility for seeing to that student’s growth, seasoning,
and career advancement is another.
One need not have just one mentor—there may
be several people who take a significant interest
in developing, accelerating, or advancing a
researcher’s career. Likewise, everyone in whose
training you take an interest will not become a
protégé; many will simply be your students.
The word “mentor” is often sloppily used in place
of verbs such as “teach” or “supervise” or nouns
such as “boss” or “professor.” However, when
used properly, it means more than to train or to
be in charge of. A mentor is someone who takes
a singular and particular interest in a protégé and
helps in many different ways to advance the protégé’s career. So a mentor, although sometimes
also a boss or supervisor, is most importantly like
a good parent or doting uncle or aunt who takes a
serious interest in a protégé’s career and advancement through life.
Training Others
Although the word is seemingly everywhere in
conversations about educating scientists, true
mentorship is rare, and those who are truly
mentored are lucky and advantaged over those
who must go it alone in advancing their careers.
If you mentor a student or another scientist,
whether it is someone training in your lab or
someone who grew up in the place where you
were raised, you will be helping get their career off
the ground. Mentoring and training also helps you
How can you look for relationships that will advance
your own career? And why will taking on this
demanding role to help others help you in both the
short and the long run? What is expected of you
in relation to the students who do not become
your own protégés? And how can you help those
students find appropriate mentors of their own?
Those are the subjects of this chapter.
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increase your impact as a scientist. By helping
those around you succeed, by ensuring that people
in your laboratory and in your larger circle feel
competent and included, by motivating them to be
productive, you are ensuring the success of your
own research program.
As the people you are training and encouraging
embark upon new projects of their own, you will
naturally be kept abreast of the latest scientific
developments in the areas that interest them. And
when people in your lab, or others with whom you
have this special relationship, establish independent careers of their own, their achievements as
independent scientists will reflect positively on
you. Also, the people you train and encourage will
become potential collaborators and colleagues
who may continue to confide in you and bring you
into their own growing spheres. That will come
about both informally and formally as they invite
you to give talks at their institutions and participate
in the conferences they will someday organize.
As the head of a laboratory, you will probably hire
technicians, perhaps assume responsibility for the
direction of graduate students, and take on a few
scientists who want to train in your lab. If you are
at a university where undergraduate students are
expected to do laboratory research, you may have
a few of them in your lab as well. It is also possible that young scientists outside your lab may
begin knocking on your door, especially if you have
expertise in an area most people are not familiar
with. Within your research community and your
geographic region, you will increasingly be seen as
the expert in your area of interest.
It is natural that people will come to you for insight
and advice about their own scientific interests.
At the same time, you will continue to be in need
of guidance for your own continuing professional
development, and like those who seek your help,
you will be looking to more experienced people
for insight and advice. This chapter describes the
process of providing the very hands-on training of
an individual scientist, with a focus on preparing
the people working in your lab. It also suggests
desirable personal qualities and plans of action
for trainers, mentors and trainees. (Note: In this
chapter, the people you train are referred to as
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“trainees,” although not everyone you encourage
or educate may be receiving training in your lab,
and not everyone you train will become a protégé.)
What is Mentoring?
Scientific training is most often a personal, oneon-one relationship between a more experienced
scientist and a junior scientist or a scientist-inthe-making. But it can also be between peers,
one of whom is entering a new field and another
who knows that field well. The trainer is exposed
to the trainee’s energy, curiosity, and ideas, and
the trainee receives the guidance and encouragement necessary for professional development.
Mentoring and training relationships commonly
form across broad experience gaps—e.g.,
professor to student, but also can be established
between junior and senior students, or between
peers or near peers. For example, a graduate
student whose background is in biology may take
a mentoring role for a graduate student whose
background is in mathematics, or a graduate
student may become a mentor to an undergraduate who shares his or her scientific interests.
Mentors sometimes include those who are officially responsible for the work of junior scientists
or students, such as the head of a laboratory or a
formal advisor (in some places such formal heads
are referred to as mentors no matter how deep
their commitment to training a given individual).
The depth of a senior scientist’s involvement and
interest in a trainee’s career and work may be
limited, especially when there are many people
being trained or in cultures where there are strict
limits on personal contact between professors
and those whom they teach.
However, it is also important to have mentors,
advisors, and trainers who are outside the direct
line of authority, or even outside the trainee’s
primary area of interest, because those who are
further removed from the student’s interest may
ask questions that will help the trainee move
along better than those who share most of the
student’s assumptions. Mentors who have some
distance—and therefore good perspective—can
be especially helpful in providing guidance when
formal advising relationships become strained,
or when the personal or professional interests of
the trainee differ from those of the formal mentor,
or when a young person’s best interests are not
those of his or her advisor, supervisor, or boss.
Perspective becomes even more important
as careers advance and ranges of conflicting
opportunities come into play.
Traits of a Good Mentor and a Good Teacher.
As you establish yourself as a scientist, you may
find that some of the following personal qualities
are useful in forming bonds with someone who is
just learning the things you have already learned:
n
Accessibility: An open door and an approachable
attitude.
n
Consistency: Acting on your stated principles on
a regular basis.
n
Empathy: Personal insight into what the trainee
is experiencing.
n
Honesty: Ability to communicate the hard
truths about the world “out there” and about the
trainee’s chances.
n
Open-mindedness: Respect for each trainee’s
individuality and for working styles and career
goals different from your own.
n
Patience: Awareness that people make mistakes
and that each person matures at his or her own rate.
n
Savvy: Attention to the pragmatic aspects of
career development.
Confidentiality in Advising. As a trainer, and
especially as a mentor, you may be privy to a lot
of information about your trainees, from their
past professional accomplishments and failures
to, sometimes, revelations about their personal
relationships and financial situations. Even in
places where discussing family matters, emotions,
or money is just not done, personal obligations
and financial realities are frequently major factors
in individuals’ progress through life and science—
especially for those considering major upheavals
such as going abroad for further training or job
opportunities. Your advice can be very helpful if
you can bring yourself to discuss these taboo areas
with younger scientists who trust your judgment.
You should treat all information as confidential.
Responsibilities
Mentoring entails commitments of time, energy,
and good will that can sometimes be substantial.
But that is also true for trainees you are not
mentoring. A significant portion of your time must
be allocated to each trainee, and you must be prepared to obtain the resources the trainee needs.
Your “pull” will accomplish things that a lessestablished trainee’s own influence cannot. You
should also use your experience and contacts to
help the trainee establish a professional network,
whether or not you are looking at the trainee in
terms of the special responsibility implicit in the
mentoring relationship.
Choosing Whom to Mentor and to Teach. You
will have to make case-by-case judgments about
which training relationships you can afford to
enter into and how intensive each one should be.
There are some people for whom you are clearly
responsible as a teacher and advisor, such as the
people working in your lab. The students in your
courses also have legitimate expectations of you.
Others, outside your lab or courses, may come
to you for advice. But you will not go the extra
mile for every person who comes into your lab or
even for all of the students who take your courses.
Some people are more promising than others, and
you will want to nurture their talents.
At the same time, you want to be fair—when
you agree to teach, you are taking on significant
responsibilities. Some students will have interests
closely related to yours, and it is natural for you to
want to work closely with them. Others will show
promise, but will be needy in some respect; for
example, their skills may not be fully developed
or they may need help focusing their efforts. Do
not pick a few favorites and let other trainees fend
for themselves. With the people in your lab, the
important thing is to be fair and avoid anointing
some trainees with your favor while letting others
struggle. With people outside your lab who ask for
your help, you need to avoid overextending yourself or setting up expectations you cannot fulfill.
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q&a
Question
How do I communicate the level of my commitment, especially cases where that
commitment is limited?
answer
It is always a good idea to lay out for trainees a clear picture of what they can expect from you. Good
students should be able to expect training from you, support for their work, access to resources necessary
for them to succeed at the work they are doing in your lab, and help with someday moving on to their next
training position or to a job. If you are only able to commit to some of those things, make it clear from the
outset. If you would like to do far more to help a trainee’s prospects in the long term, you do not need to
say so. Actions will speak louder than words.
Question
How do I say no to being someone’s advisor?
answer
Be kind. Imagine yourself in your requestor’s shoes. Listen intently and give reasons related to your own
limitations. However, be clear and firm. Do not invite misunderstanding. Suggest alternative sources of help,
but check first with other potential advisors before your enthusiastically recommend them as potential advisors.
Defining your Role as an Advisor. Generally, a
research advisor provides whatever is needed to
further a trainee’s professional development, but
is not necessarily a friend. You should offer to teach
technical skills, give advice about the political aspects
of science, and suggest networking opportunities.
You can help clarify what is possible, but you
should probably not offer advice on personal matters except in major decisions about career choices
as described above. Often, emotional issues are
relevant to one’s capacity to do good work, and you
can offer moral support, but a good mentor, like a
good friend, should tread carefully around family
matters and emotional conflicts.
Mentor Versus Advisor. In theory, mentors have
multiple responsibilities. Being an advisor is one
of them. The Council of Graduate Schools, an
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American body concerned with graduate education
(http://www.cgsnet.org/), suggests that mentors
come from many roles, including:
n
Advisors: People with career experience willing
to share their knowledge.
n
Supporters: People who give emotional and
moral encouragement.
n
Tutors: People who give specific feedback on
one’s performance.
n
Masters: Employers to whom one is apprenticed.
n
Sponsors: Sources of information about opportunities and aid in obtaining them.
n
Models of identity: The kind of person one
should be to be an academic or a professional
scientist.
In reality, it is unlikely that any one individual can
fulfill all possible mentoring roles. For this reason,
many argue that the term mentor should be used
broadly to mean an individual who helps another
with one or more aspects of his or her personal
and/or professional development. In this sense,
trainees are encouraged to seek out various
faculty members who can provide some of those
components.
Strategies for
Effective training
Make Everything a Learning Opportunity. It
helps to think of serving as a trainee’s advisor
as a highly individualized mode of teaching (see
chapter 8 for more information about teaching).
Establishing a “culture of teaching” in your lab can
help ensure that each individual feels empowered
to seek whatever information, education, or technical advice he or she needs to do good science.
Set Specific Goals and Measures of
Accomplishment. Work with each individual—
when you meet formally to discuss the person’s
progress, in the course of lab meetings, and on
other occasions when his or her work is under
review—to set specific goals and measures of
accomplishment. For example:
n
For a student, you might want to establish a
publishing goal. It should include deadlines.
n
For a more experienced scientist training in your
lab, job-hunting goals might be important. You
might say, “By next month, give me your list of
places you want to apply to. Then we can talk
about developing your job talk.”
n
Have technicians identify new skills they need
(e.g., using new equipment or software). Give
them time to learn and the opportunity to take
courses or seek help from others. Then ask them
to demonstrate what they have learned at a staff
meeting.
In some cases, you may have to push people a bit
to set their goals. In other cases, people’s goals
may be well-defined, but may not exactly fit your
lab’s overall goals. If you can, give them room to
explore options, and offer whatever educational
and networking opportunities you can afford. They
will be much happier and more productive while
they are with you if they feel you are looking out
for them and their future well-being.
Encourage Strategic Thinking and Creativity.
Trainees in your lab, especially newcomers, may
not have the experience to judge how long to
struggle with an experiment or a project that is
not working. As the person steering the larger
scope of the work, you must decide what projects
are most important, how long a given project
should be pursued, and what resources can be
allocated to any particular effort. As the boss, you
should communicate the basis and significance
of your decisions to your trainees. You may feel
that you need not explain yourself to anyone, and
that may be true. But when you have made your
decision, informing people why can be educational
and helpful to morale. It gives your trainees a
better understanding that although the decisions
are yours, they are not whimsical or unfair. In this
way, you give concrete examples of strategic
thinking and prepare your trainees for the day
when they may be in charge of their own research
programs and face similar decisions.
It is also important to give people enough space
to be creative. Do not rush in too quickly with
interpretations of data or solutions to problems.
Let your staff take the first stab. Be thoughtful
and ask probing and guiding questions that help
them learn to be thinkers. By doing this, you
prepare your trainees to work through projects
independently, while at the same time you will
benefit from their insights and creativity.
Uphold Professional Standards. Those new to
research are still forming their professional standards and habits. They will be working with you
for months or years and will learn your lab’s way
of doing things. Set high standards for yourself
and your workers, and make sure your lab offers
an encouraging and disciplined environment.
Experienced lab leaders list these essentials:
n
Encourage good time management techniques.
At the same time, respect individual patterns of
work. (See chapter 5, “Managing Your Time.”)
n
Clearly state your expectations. Let people know
when they are not meeting them.
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n
Offer criticism and correction in a way that conveys
your message but does not shame or discourage
people.
n
Keep abreast of laboratory record-keeping. This
is a key management responsibility and an aspect
of mentoring. As the person responsible for the
work being done, you are also responsible for
seeing that your people keep meticulous records
documenting their work and meeting regulatory
requirements. This habit will serve them well later
on. By reviewing lab notebooks frequently, you
also guard against falsification of data.
Impart Skills. Do these things to encourage your
lab workers to learn new skills:
n
Involve everyone in the scientific publishing and
grant-writing process. Part of your job is to teach
your trainees how to write publishable scientific
papers and successful grant proposals. For papers,
have the first author write the first draft, and then
send the paper around the lab for review. For
proposals, have each person write a piece of the
proposal, and then have everyone review successive drafts of the whole package. By doing this,
everyone will gain invaluable experience and get a
chance to see the big picture of the lab’s activities.
n
Impart technical skills. As a manager, you need to
know the skill sets of each member of your lab, and
make sure that each important skill is passed on
to several people in the laboratory, for their benefit
and yours. If only one person in the lab can perform
a particular technique, you are risking your future
on an assumption that this person will not leave.
n
Teach lab management explicitly. Give the people
in your lab managerial responsibilities, at least
within the confines of the lab space. For example,
have them coordinate among themselves the
sharing of equipment in the lab, or ask them to
draw up a list of routine lab jobs to be rotated
among lab members.
Provide Networking Opportunities. One of
the most important benefits you confer upon
the people you train is entrée into the network
of scientists in your field. Your reputation opens
doors for those associated with you, and the
connections are not likely to be made without
your involvement. So take steps to facilitate the
introductions, including:
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e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
n
Allowing trainees to meet with seminar speakers
invited to your institution.
n
When possible, take trainees with you to meetings
and introduce them to your colleagues.
n
Encourage trainees to approach your colleagues
about scientific matters, using your name, as by
emailing “I am a student in Dr.
’s lab,
and wonder if I might ask you some questions
about your recent work on hemoglobin transport.”
n
Encourage trainees to make presentations at
meetings when they are ready.
Provide Moral Support. You can help the people
you train and mentor estimate their own potential
and chart their life course. To do so, you must be
supportive and honest. Try to convey to each of
your trainees that you have a commitment to him
or her and that when a problem surfaces, you
have an interest in helping to solve it and will do
everything you can to do so.
Different Needs
at different stages
Each type of individual who may ask you for advice
—for example, a student, a more experienced
scientist training in your laboratory, a clinician, a
technician, or a cousin who hopes to go to medical
school some day—is on a different professional
trajectory. As you work with them, you need to
keep in mind their path and their location on that
path.
Educating Undergraduate Students. The seeds
of a scientific career are planted in the undergraduate years or even earlier. Undergraduate students
can be invited to take part in research through
an academic program at your institution or at a
nearby university. They may be eager to find paid
work during the school year or during school
breaks. Take their interests and their work seriously,
and set high standards for them. You might place
them under the day-to-day guidance of a welltrained person in your lab, but you should maintain
a strong role in overseeing their training and the
overall flow of their work within the lab. Keep in
mind that these beginning researchers may need
extra encouragement when their experiments are
not going smoothly.
One of the best ways of hiring good and
dedicated researchers is to screen students in
your lab during rotations and thesis dissertations
and retain the best ones.
Abdoulaye Djimdé, Mali
”
Training Graduate Students. In science as in
other fields, graduate education is vastly different
from the undergraduate experience. Perhaps the
most important difference is that undergraduates
are expected to be primarily engaged in absorbing
knowledge, whereas graduate students are
expected to begin to make their own contributions.
An advisor helps new graduate students make this
transition. A graduate student may have several
mentors, but the most important person for a
student’s success is the head of the laboratory
where the student is working.
A typical graduate student follows this trajectory:
n
First year(s). As the head of the laboratory, your
main task is to provide a coherent plan of study for
the student. The student faces a steep learning
curve. Basic techniques must be learned, and often
comprehensive exams taken, and a thesis topic
chosen. The principal investigator keeps tabs on the
student’s progress. The student’s success depends
on your effective communication of expectations
and help with clearing certain formal hurdles.
n
Middle year(s). At some time during these years,
the student may be struggling with his or her
experimental work. Things often do not work as
planned, and the uncertainty and slow tempo may
frustrate even very good students. You may help
the student out of a slump by offering moral
support and suggesting ways to tackle a scientific
problem. By the middle part of training, the student
will have learned a lot and should be sharing information and techniques with colleagues, younger
students, and postdocs. Teaching others is a good
way to learn.
n
Final year. The student is preparing to move on.
The thesis should be near completion, and the
search for a more advanced position should be under way. You may be asked for letters of reference
and perhaps more active job-hunting assistance.
If the student wants to go abroad for further training, you may need to put some effort into helping
him or her find opportunities, and at least should
help the student by sending introductory emails
to colleagues abroad who know your work. This
will help keep the student’s inquiries to these labs
from being overlooked or discarded.
Working with Scientists who are Furthering
Their Training in your Lab. You may have highly
trained professional scientists working in your lab
for a limited time to conduct research within the
general parameters of your shared interests. This
training may be a stepping stone to an academic
position. Your task as an educator and potential
mentor of new scientists is complex.
Keep in mind that the amount of time you can
spend helping these scientists will be limited, so
use that time efficiently. In addition, find ways to
have them help one another or obtain assistance
from other sources.
You must strike a delicate balance in directing
their work. Although the scientist training in
your lab may be working on your projects, it is
appropriate to treat him or her something like a
collaborator, rather than just as an employee or
student who requires close supervision. Encourage
these individuals and give them the help they
need in setting research and career goals, but give
them sufficient independence for them to take
considerable responsibility for the progress of
their projects.
You do have a protective function when it comes
to the politics of the larger academic world. The
scientists training in your laboratory are probably
young, politically inexperienced, and vulnerable.
Be prepared to steer them away from projects
that might result in conflict with researchers who
are already working on similar projects and who
might publish results before them.
If a promising person has come into your lab but is
not achieving what you both had hoped, encourage
him or her to make a change, whether to another
project or to another lab entirely. You may be able
to help this individual find a more suitable project
or position.
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It is important to discuss career goals with your
trainees, especially those more advanced in their
research careers. Not all will be interested in a
long-term competitive career in science. For those
who are, help them develop a project that will
teach them many things and that produces ideas,
at least—if not whole projects—that they can use
as seeds when they leave your lab and begin to
establish their own labs. After they have gone,
keep in touch with them. They will be an increasingly important part of your professional network.
You have a role to play facilitating your trainees’
job hunts. Keep alert to job openings, counsel
them about the process, coach them on their
interview presentations, and give them the best
letters of recommendation you can. Sometimes,
when the search does not go smoothly, you may
need to keep them in your lab a little longer than
you expected to, if you are able. Lack of continued
funding for them may make this impossible, but
sometimes their well-trained hands can be of
considerable use to you and it may be to your
benefit for them to stay. Keep up the words of
encouragement during this difficult period.
Advancing the Careers of Physician-Scientists.
Physician-scientists have an especially complicated
balancing act: caring for patients and carrying out
experiments at the bench. As a result, they may
not be able to spend as much uninterrupted time
in the lab as their Ph.D. colleagues. However,
the strength of physician-scientists is that they
have a clinical base. As someone involved in
their training, you should understand the unique
challenges physician-scientists face, and you
should value the insights their clinical perspective
can bring into the lab. Help physician-scientists
in your lab to establish priorities and develop
effective time management skills. If you are not
a clinician yourself, you might put them in touch
with someone who can help them with these
competencies as they apply to the clinical side
of their responsibilities. In addition, encourage
physician-scientists in your lab to use their clinical
base. For example, they might enroll patients from
their clinic or practice following a simple protocol.
They might collect answers to a questionnaire
with demographics, or obtain data on clinical presentation, progression and response to therapy, as
well as collect relevant serum or tissue samples.
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(Adequate ethical permission should be attained
first.) Clinical work sometimes allows physicianscientists to see connections that someone with
a basic science background training may miss. As
a researcher, you should take advantage of this
perspective by making sure that questions about
moving research results into the clinic, or bringing
clinical observations back to the bench come up in
formal and informal discussions in the lab.
Working with Technicians. A technician is an
employee who has been hired to get work done,
not to advance his or her career. That being said,
many technicians are a distinct type of professional
scientist. You should understand and encourage
their aspirations. Make it clear to them that they
are valued contributors to your projects. If they are
interested, you may want to give them research
projects of their own. If their aspirations are purely
technical, encourage them to gain new skills.
helping those Outside Your Lab
When you receive a request for significant career
help from a young scientist in another lab, or
even in another university, think carefully before
you agree. Do not enter into such a relationship
secretly. Insist that the individual inform his or her
direct supervisor that you two are speaking. On
the one hand, the request says something positive
about your standing in the research community,
and by taking on a new relationship you might
open up the possibility of future collaborations and
increase the impact of your work. On the other
hand, there may be problems you are not aware
of. Ask yourself the following questions:
n
Why is this person asking me for help? There may
be a negative reason. In the case of a postdoc,
perhaps he or she is dissatisfied with relationships
in the home lab. If this is the case, make sure you
are not offending the individual’s supervisor. You
may find, however, that the supervisor welcomes
your help as an extra resource.
n
What are the person’s expectations? You need to
be clear about whether you are being asked for
occasional advice or for long-term assistance. If it
is the latter, determine whether your role as an advisor will be formal, involving scheduled contacts
and expectations of a particular amount of your
time, or informal and confined to occasional conversations as the trainee’s work moves forward.
n
Do I really have the time and energy to commit to
this relationship?
n
Is this someone who is smart, honest, and capable?
n
Is this someone I want to advise and work with?
The people in your lab deserve priority. But if the
person fits, and you can extend yourself, do so.
n
Seek out informal advisors, usually experienced
scientists within your department or elsewhere
who can give you a broader perspective on science
and scientific politics. It is especially important to
do this if your institution has not officially given
you any contacts to serve as guides during your
early days.
n
Establish a set of work-based friends and
confidants. These are people with whom you can
openly share information about politically sensitive
issues. Choose them carefully. You may be more
comfortable limiting your confidants to one-on-one
relationships. Or you may find a group that puts
you in close touch with colleagues whose situations
are similar to yours.
n
Keep meetings professional. Respect others’ time
constraints. Be prepared and specific about what
you need from them and what you are asking
them to do for you.
How to Get the
Career Help and
Advice That You Need
Finding people who will be your own advisors,
teachers, and mentors is another way of making
your achievements and contributions known at
your university and other institutions, thus increasing your impact and helping you advance in your
career. Finding help requires knowing whom to ask
for what, knowing how to accept the professional
advice you receive, and maintaining long-term
personal and professional relationships.
These suggestions may be useful:
How to be Well-Advised. Here are some qualities
to cultivate in yourself as you seek an informal
education in how to move forward to whatever
goals you hope to achieve:
n
n
Foresight: Start early to think about your future.
n
Gratitude: Everyone likes to be thanked.
n
Humility: Be willing to accept critical feedback so
that you are open to learning new ways of thinking
about and doing science.
n
Proactiveness: Do not expect to be taken care of.
You could easily be overlooked in the competitive
world of science.
n
Probing: Ask tough questions. Find out about the
experiences of others with this potential mentor.
n
Reciprocation: Repay your mentor indirectly by
helping others.
n
Respect: Be polite. Make and keep appointments.
Stay focused. Do not overstay your welcome.
n
Do not let go of those who have taken an interest
in your career. Stay in close touch with all of your
past advisors, even those with whom you only
worked for a short time or in a limited way.
Although they may not be familiar with your new
environment, their distance from it, combined with
their general understanding of the world of science,
can help you put your current environment in
perspective. Also, you never know when you will
need to ask them for a reference or other professional help. Even a quick email to let them know
that you published a paper or received a research
grant or an award will help them support your career.
Establish a relationship with a set of official advisors,
especially if your institution assigns you to contacts
with certain senior scientists who are meant to
help you “learn the ropes.” These individuals may
also evaluate your job performance, so cultivate
them carefully and treat them with respect.
Generally, you do not want to vent your frustrations
or confide your uncertainties and weaknesses to
such a group. Keep them apprised of your progress. Do not avoid them if things are going badly—
address the problems directly and unemotionally,
and enlist their help.
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When Mentoring,
Advisory, or Supervisory
Relationships are Not
Working Out
What you view as a problem may simply be a
matter of personal style or a different understanding of the mentor’s role. Have a conversation
about getting the advice and help you need. If
that does not help solve the problem, you may
need to think about finding others to help you as
you navigate your career. Within your institution,
especially if there are formal advising relationships
set up, consider finding an additional guide if yours
is clearly and consistently uninterested in you,
undervalues your abilities, or displays any other
signs of undermining your work and your career.
But think carefully—someone who helps you see
your shortcomings is actually helping you. Tough
criticism or a discouraging word may be exactly
what you need at a given moment. If your feelings
get hurt now and then, it is not necessarily a sign
that your trusted advisor has turned against you.
But find others to advise you if the people from
whom you have been taking advice behave
inappropriately by violating workplace rules or
failing to fulfill essential responsibilities to you—
for example, by not sending letters of reference
or by not reviewing your grants and papers.
Finding additional trusted advisors can always be
helpful. However, be very careful about severing
old relationships—even ones that were “forced
marriages.” Even if the relationship is not going
well, you do not want to offend someone unnecessarily. If the relationship is official, ending it
will require explicit action and will most probably
generate bad feelings. If the relationship is informal,
and you can just allow it to fade away, do so. If,
on the other hand, an un-productive advisor wants
to terminate the relationship, accept the decision
with good grace. It will be better for both of you.
RESOURCES
Association for Women in Science. Mentoring Means
Future Scientists: A Guide to Developing Mentoring
Programs Based on the AWIS Mentoring Program.
Washington, DC: Association for Women in Science, 1993.
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Barker, Kathy. At the Helm: A Laboratory Navigator.
Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press,
2002.
Council of Graduate Schools, A Conversation About
Mentoring: Trends and Models. Washington, DC: Council
of Graduate Schools, 1995.
Council of Graduate Schools, On the Right Track: A Manual
for Research Mentors, DC: Council of Graduate Schools,
2003.
Fort, Catherine C., Stephanie J. Bird, and Catherine J.
Didion (Eds.). A Hand Up: Women Mentoring Women in
Science. 2nd ed. Washington, DC: Association for Women
in Science, 2005.
Nettles, M.T. and Millet, C.M. Three Magic Letters: Getting
to Ph.D. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press,
2006.
Nyquist, Jody D., and Donald H. Wulff. Working Effectively
with Graduate Assistants. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Publications, 1996.
Reis, Richard M. Tomorrow’s Professor: Preparing for
Academic Careers in Science and Engineering. New York:
IEEE Press, 1997.
Online
American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Science’s Science.Careers.org. Feature articles on
mentoring, http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org.
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.
Individual Development Plan for Postdoctoral Fellows.
http://opa.faseb.org/pdf/idp.pdf.
National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council.
Reports from the Committee on Science, Engineering, and
Public Policy. http://www7.nationalacademies.org/cosepup.
National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of
Engineering, and Institute of Medicine. Committee on
Science, Engineering, and Public Policy. Adviser, Teacher,
Role Model, Friend: On Being a Mentor to Students
in Science and Engineering. Washington DC: National
Academy Press, 1997. http://www.nap.edu/catalog.
php?record_id=5789.
National Institutes of Health, Office of the Director. A
Guide to Training and Mentoring in the Intramural Research
Program at NIH. Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of
Health, 2002. http://www1.od.nih.gov/oir/sourcebook/
ethic-conduct/TrainingMentoringGuide_7.3.02.pdf.
University of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of
Graduate Studies. How to Mentor Graduate Students:
A Guide for Faculty at a Diverse University. Ann Arbor, MI:
University of Michigan, http://www.rackham.umich.edu/
downloads/publications/Fmentoring.pdf.
chapter 11
collaboration
“La
p u i s s a n c e n e c o n s i s t e p a s à f ra p p e r f o r t o u s o u v e n t ,
m a i s à f ra p p e r j u s t e .
”
H o n o r é d e Ba l z a c
One of the best ways to move your science into
a higher league is to collaborate. International
collaboration is important and will be the subject
of much of this chapter, but the basic benefits of
being a good collaborator become apparent as
soon as you explore shared interests with the
scientist at the next bench, down the hall, in
another department, at another institute, or in a
city that is an easy drive away. When someone’s
clever work delights you, or another’s curious
result seems in line with yours (or utterly contradicts it in an interesting way), or even when
someone working on a completely different kind
of problem has a technique you would like to apply
to your own, you have fertile ground for potential
collaboration. The scientific world is a very social
one. Finding ways to be scientifically productive
with people you enjoy is one of its great
pleasures.
the COLLABORATIve effort
Twenty-first century science is often a collaborative effort. As a beginning investigator, you may
want or need to work with scientists in other labs
who can offer resources or technical expertise
to complement your own. Because a scientific
collaboration is a complex exchange, you will
need to sharpen your managerial and political
skills to be a successful collaborator. Whether you
are working with friends or with people who are
nearly (or completely) strangers, it is important
that you and your collaborators share the same
understanding of what is to be done, who is to do
it, how “things that come up” will be managed,
how any unexpected benefits will be apportioned,
and how, when, and where credit will be shared.
This chapter summarizes some of the questions
you should ask yourself before embarking on a collaborative project and provides some guidelines to
help ensure that your work and your interactions
with valued colleagues proceed smoothly.
The quote above: Balzac says that power is not in striking hard or often, but in striking well.
c o lla b o ra t i o n
145
SHOULD YOU COLLABORATE?
For researchers in developing countries,
collaboration is an important route to establishing an international track record, strengthening
laboratory capacity, through technology transfer
and building human capacity.
Brian Eley, South Africa
”
THE VARIETIES OF COLLABORATION
Scientific collaborators are researchers who share
an interest in the outcome of a project, not service
providers or customers. Sharing reagents or
materials that have been described in a publication
does not in itself constitute collaboration. Scientists
are expected to make published materials available
to others. Similarly, a service rendered by a scientist
in a core service facility within his or her own
institution—for example, the medical laboratory
scientist who regularly processes blood in the
hospital, or the scientist in charge of running an
institution’s shared DNA sequencing capacity—is
usually not considered a collaboration. Such core
service facilities exist to perform specific tasks
for other laboratories. Without added intellectual
contributions beyond what is normally required for
their job, they will have done nothing special that
would make it reasonable for them to demand
credit as a collaborator. Of course, scientists in
such facilities may interact with you in ways that
are truly collaborative, for example, working with
you to invent a new technique or bringing to your
attention an unusual phenomenon that you then
go on to investigate together.
Collaborations can vary greatly in scope, duration,
and degree of formality. A limited collaboration
might entail only a series of consultations about
a technique or the provision of samples to be
tested. At the other extreme, several scientists
or laboratories might join together to establish a
permanent consortium or center for the pursuit
of a particular line of research. Depending on its
complexity, a collaboration can be launched by an
informal agreement sealed with a handshake or an
email, or may involve complex negotiations and a
legally binding document.
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e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
Collaboration is a major responsibility—one that
should not be taken on lightly. It will take time,
effort, and the nurturing of relationships. Before
you start a collaboration, you should know for
sure that you can see it through.
It may seem awkward at first, but if you would
like to set up a collaboration, it is important that
you nail down some details in an early conversation
to make clear on both sides that you are actually
planning to accomplish something together and
not exchanging optimistic social pleasantries.
Think of how often good friends will say “We must
get together sometime!” Unless they pause to
schedule a date or time, they often drift away until
chance again brings them together. It is better
to be a bit awkward and ask for some particulars
than to misunderstand and find yourself waiting
for your potential collaborator to follow through,
or worse, to find out years later that the other
person, after a long period of waiting for you to
follow through, has concluded that you cannot be
taken at your word.
The larger the collaboration, the more complicated
it may be to fulfill your obligations. Be sure you
have the time you will need to be a good collaborator, and that a given opportunity is right for you.
Once you have signed on, you will be expected
to follow through on your commitments, and your
scientific reputation will be at stake.
If someone simply wants your technical expertise
or the opportunity to run his or her experiments
on your equipment, he or she may not consider
you a collaborator at all. The essential ingredient
of collaboration is mutual interest in the research
outcome. If you have this interest, but the other
party assumes that you do not, you may not be
treated as a collaborator, but rather as a service
provider. This may be acceptable, as long as you
understand what you are getting into.
Scientists working in resource-constrained
environments should not let the temptation
of allocating large budgets for their laboratory
get them into committing to doing things that
are not doable. In collaborative grants, only
propose activities that you can independently
carry out as a senior investigator.
Moses Bockarie, Papua New Guinea
”
Assessing a Collaborative
Opportunity
Whether you are approached by another scientist
to collaborate, or are thinking of approaching
someone to collaborate with you, here are some
questions you should ask yourself before embarking on the project:
n
What exactly is being asked of me?
n
Do I need this collaboration to move my own work
forward? Is there a missing piece—a technique or
resource—that I must have, and which this other
person can provide?
n
Even if collaboration is not strictly necessary to my
current work, will interacting with the proposed
collaborators enable me to contribute something
significant to science and perhaps generate new
opportunities?
n
Do I really have the expertise or other resources
being sought by the other collaborator? If not,
are there funding sources available through this
collaboration that will allow me to get those things?
n
Can I afford to be involved? Will my potential
partner bring resources (including funding) that
will make my group’s investment in the project
possible?
n
n
Can this collaboration be conducted efficiently,
given such factors as distance, restrictions imposed
by my institution, and, in the case of international
collaborations, cultural differences or possible legal
and political complications?
Is there funding for the work envisioned? If not,
can it be obtained?
n
Can I afford the time? How much will it take away
from my other responsibilities? Is the project close
enough to my central interests to warrant the
necessary time expenditure?
n
Is this person someone with whom I want to
collaborate? What is his or her track record? Can
someone I trust tell me whether this potential
collaborator is honest and reliable?
n
Are our professional and scientific interests
compatible? Does what each of us has to lose if
things go wrong seem comparable?
n
Will this person be accessible to me and consistently interested in the project?
n
If I will collaborate with a larger group, will there
be a reliable “point person” on my collaborator’s
end who is responsible for handling day-to-day
issues and small matters?
n
Can I rule out potential conflicts, either personal or
institutional? For example, it is often a bad idea to
collaborate with a rival of the person who signs your
paycheck, and it may be a bad idea to collaborate
with someone who has a major collaboration with
an institution that is openly hostile to your own.
There can be other practical challenges to
collaborating with people who are not close by,
and you should also take some time to consider
these very frankly. Whether you are considering
collaborating with someone overseas, someone
who is relatively near you but beyond easy travel
distance, or someone in a place where border
crossings are difficult, finding yourselves unable
to get together or communicate can be a very big
problem for healthy collaborations. A less famous
person who will give you his attention is a better
collaborator than a more famous one who will not.
Ask yourself these questions:
n
How much travel will be required? What will be
the costs of each trip in terms of transportation
costs, tariffs on materials that must be moved
between sites, accommodations, and time away
from the lab? Are there sources of funding to support travel?
n
Is a visa required for travel? If so, how difficult is
the process of visa application and how long does
it usually take a visa to come through?
c o lla b o ra t i o n
147
n
Is travel safe and convenient, or will each trip
involve logistical headaches and considerable
uncertainty?
n
How good are the channels of communication?
Will you be able to talk by phone (or internet phone)
easily? Is email between you quick and reliable?
n
Do I know the language of my potential collaborators? Do they know mine? Will we be able to
communicate effectively both about science and
about the more subtle human factors that will be
involved in a good collaboration—for example,
knowing when to “push” and when to let the
other person have some time to respond?
n
Will scientific papers be published in a language
in which I am not fluent? If so, how can I vouch
for the translation? How can I be sure my group is
involved properly in the writing and in authorship
credit? Do my collaborator and I start with the
same assumptions about credit, publishing, and
authorship?
Although physical and technical factors are
important, it is the human dimension that most
often makes or breaks a collaboration. Be
especially sensitive to emotions that may be in
play under the surface, especially if there is an
imbalance of resources (e.g., money, reagents, or
access to required sites or populations) brought
into the collaboration by each partner. For example,
if your collaborators depend on you for access to
a population group, your partners may grow to
resent you for how you control this “doorway,”
Question
and you may grow to resent them for regarding
you as a door! If you are in a large institute with
good access to reagents and equipment and your
collaboration is with a very small, under-funded
facility, you may grow to resent your partners for
taking liberties with your generosity and taking
more of your resources than they need. Being
aware of these imbalances and trying to maintain
your own sense of good will can be very useful in
keeping things running smoothly.
Two key ingredients should be in place at the
outset of a long, stable collaboration: a shared
understanding of potential funding so that your
partnership can survive the perhaps inevitable ups
and downs in support, and at least one individual
in the other lab who is as committed to the
project as you are and is willing to help push past
roadblocks that may arise.
Before making a decision about a collaboration,
consider all factors. A good collaboration can
take your research in a completely unexpected
direction. A bad one can waste your energy and
demoralize you.
SETTING UP A
COLLABORATION
Someone may eventually ask you to collaborate,
but if you are a beginning investigator, it is more
likely that you will need to approach a potential
collaborator yourself. A collaboration, like many
q&a
If a powerful person asks me to collaborate but the proposed partnership does not suit me,
how do I politely decline?
answer
Explain that you do not have the resources at the moment to enter a collaborative project. Offer instead to
provide input and suggestions into the research and, if possible, suggest other people with similar expertise
who may be good collaborators.
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e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
other types of interpersonal relationships, has no
fixed rules. However, there are some guidelines
you can follow to ensure that the collaboration
starts off on the right foot and proceeds smoothly
(see “Personal Qualities of a Good Collaborator,”
page 153).
Approaching a
Potential Collaborator
Once you have identified a potential collaborator
and decided that you want to go forward, develop
an outline of your proposal for the joint project.
Define in detail how you think you can complement each other’s efforts.
Send an Email. Make your initial contact with an
inquiry designed to whet the other person’s appetite. Send a short email describing your research
in general terms and asking for the opportunity
for a conversation. Do not call on the telephone
first—you do not want to put the person on the
spot, and you do want to give him or her a chance
to find out more about you through personal
contacts or your scientific publications. It is a good
idea to use an informative email subject header,
for example Understanding drug resistance in
vivax malaria, rather than an empty subject line
or one that could be mistaken for a scam, such as
Help a young professor.
Many people have set up their spam filters to
delete mail coming from hotmail.com and other
popular free web mail services. These filters rarely
give you any notice that your message has not
gone to the intended reader.
In your email, focus on the big picture and convey
your enthusiasm. You must convince your potential collaborator that:
n
You have the expertise you claim.
n
You believe that he or she is the best possible
collaborator for the project at hand.
n
Both of you stand to benefit from the collaboration.
n
The whole is indeed greater than the sum of the
parts.
Sometimes people will not acknowledge unwanted
emails, so you may not hear back from a researcher
with whom you want to work. If that happens,
following up with a paper letter may encourage
your potential collaborator to respond. Remember
to include your email address in any paper letters
you may send.
Some countries have become so associated
with dishonest money-raising scams that it may
be difficult to get people to read any email or
paper notes coming from them. If you are in one
of those places, you can enhance your note’s
chances of being read if you get to the point
quickly. A letter, printed on university letterhead,
that begins…
Dear Dr. Jones,
Your recent papers on the evolution of virulence
in African trypanosomes suggest an interesting
parallel with a phenomenon I have observed in my
laboratory’s work on seasonal occurrences of
leishmaniasis.
…is more likely to be read than one that begins
with elaborate flattery, or comes in a handwritten
envelope, or is typed on lightweight airmail paper.
Be Informed. To make your pitch effective, you
need to be familiar with your potential collaborator’s
work. Be sure to read the lab’s published papers.
You will also need to have a clear idea of what you
want to do and the respective role each of you will
play.
Your email should lead to telephone conversations.
After that, a trip to your collaborator’s lab for a
face-to-face meeting is often worthwhile, and you
should both look for opportunities to get together.
The Collaboration Agreement
Using an Informal Agreement. An exchange of
emails is usually sufficient to get a project under
way. Before you actually start the work, however,
it is best to develop and agree on a detailed written summary of your joint research plan. The plan
should spell out:
n
The purpose of the collaboration.
n
The scope of work.
n
How, when, and in what format raw data will
be shared.
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n
The expected contribution of each collaborator.
n
Financial responsibilities of each collaborator.
n
Milestones.
n
Reporting obligations to funders or other
stakeholders.
n
Expectations about authorship.
n
How and when papers will be written.
An explicit plan offers several advantages. It
prevents misunderstandings and it helps keep
the project on track. Furthermore, if you expect
to apply together for funding for the project, this
plan can be expanded into a grant proposal. In a
collaboration between two academic labs, the
collaboration agreement can simply be emailed
back and forth until both parties are satisfied.
Obtaining signatures could seem overly formal,
but it is very important that on both sides all
key participants explicitly signal that you have
concluded these negotiations and have reached
a clear agreement.
Using a Formal Agreement. A formal, legally
binding written agreement is probably necessary
if the collaboration involves a commercial entity
such as a pharmaceutical company, or if you are
working toward a commercial application in which
a patent is an expected outcome (Chapter 12 will
discuss patents). For collaborations that do not
involve a commercial entity, a general Letter of
Agreement or Letter of Intent spelling out the
interest in collaboration between institutions can
provide a framework for a range of collaborative
activities. Written and agreed-upon work plans for
specific activities or projects developed together
can then provide the explicit terms of the collaboration. Even if it is not intended to be a legally
binding document, you and your collaborator
will want to consult with appropriate offices at
your respective institutions to help you draft this
agreement. It can be very useful to have someone
who has not been part of your discussions read
what you have written down, because you may be
so accustomed to your own assumptions that you
will have neglected to write them down.
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Collaborations that involve provision of materials
such as biological samples such as DNA, microbial
isolates, genetically modified organisms or reagents
developed by you or your research team may
include a “Materials Transfer Agreement.” This
document is to be signed by the recipient, indicating the material provided, the purpose for which
the material will be used, the conditions under
which the material was provided and instructions
for acknowledgement of the contribution and
restriction of distribution to others.
If your institution does not have an office that
helps make this kind of agreement, you should
make sure you have the power to promise the
things you have promised, or have someone
at your institution who does have the power to
promise get involved. In a large institution, this
may be a technology transfer office, and their staff
may also arrange for legal review by the institution’s attorneys. In an institution without such an
office, you should find people with appropriate
authority to review and sign the proposed contract.
Look for other researchers who have made such
agreements, and discuss the restrictions with
legally trained people in your own country. It
may be that there are not yet laws within your
country related to this kind of agreement, but
someone with legal training can at least help alert
you to language in the proposed documents that
seems to commit you to more than you would
like. Negotiations are expected in these kinds of
agreements—the most important thing is that
you know what rights you may be signing away,
and that you do not release more of your (or your
institution’s, or your country’s) rights than you
mean to or have the authority to.
Make sure that such documents spell out the time
period of the collaboration or provide a mechanism
by which you can terminate your involvement.
Be aware that if your collaborator has financial
support from a company for his or her share of
the work, that funding agreement may contain
restrictions that apply to the collaborative project.
For example, the company may have the right to
delay publication and to license the results of the
collaboration. If the collaboration is an important
Learn how to propose and organize collaborative
projects with researchers from both developed
and developing countries. Collaborative projects
have the advantage of:
• Increasing the number of possible sources of funding,
• Taking advantage of economies of scale
by spreading the fixed costs across
participants, and
•
Becoming more interesting or appealing for
funding agencies, given that comparative
projects generate more information than
single-country projects.
Gilbert Brenes Comacho, Costa Rica
”
one for your laboratory, be sure to ask in advance
whether your collaborator will use company funding for his or her work on your joint project. If so,
you can ask your institution’s technology transfer
office or a person knowledgeable in law and
contracts to help you determine whether there are
restrictions that apply to your share of the work.
It may be possible to negotiate an agreement
that limits the effect your collaborator’s funding
arrangements have on you (see chapter 12 on
intellectual property for more information about
company-sponsored research).
Someone above you at your institution may try
to abuse the potential collaboration by pressuring
your collaborator to provide resources or make
payments beyond what is needed to do the project,
or may even try to block your collaboration in favor
of pushing you to work with a different researcher.
You do not want to undermine your position at
your institution, so proceed carefully. It may be
very useful to be open with trusted collaborators
about the source of the delay. “Office politics”
and over-reaching administrators exist all over the
world, and understanding the situation may help
keep your potential collaborator from giving up in
frustration.
THE INGREDIENTS
OF A SUCCESSFUL
COLLABORATION
Once your agreement is in place and your expectations are clear, you and your collaborator can
focus on keeping your lines of communication open
and maintaining attitudes of mutual consideration
and respect.
Keeping the Lines
of Communication Open
An open, trusting relationship is essential if you
want to be able to discuss problems candidly
and give and receive critical feedback. In a good
collaboration, participants stay in close touch and
are accessible to one another. Make it a practice
to return your collaborator’s calls and emails as
quickly as you can, even if only to set a more
convenient time for a conversation. Make fulfilling
your promises to collaborators a significant priority.
Having a student from one lab go spend time in
the other may help build connections between the
two research groups and get the work flowing.
When you are involved in a high-stakes collaboration, you may need to consider what you will do
with your time if your collaborative work and
your regular responsibilities make simultaneous
demands. If you put off your collaborators’ interests, you may be seen as unreliable, unserious,
or not good at following through. If you put off
local issues, though, you may be seen as selfabsorbed, untrue to your roots, or as a careless
power-seeker. Whichever way you divide your
energies, there are risks. Being direct and honest
about what is delaying you, why it must be
attended to first, and how you plan to fulfill your
obligations is often the best way to negotiate
this difficult balance. If you are unable to offer
explanations, however, delegating some part of
the work to a reliable helper may help you get
through an immediate time crunch. But be sure to
follow up with personal attention, whether to your
local colleagues or those at other sites, as soon as
you get a chance.
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Meetings. Set up systems to ensure that regular
communication takes place. A fixed schedule of
face-to-face meetings or conference calls or times
when you will be available by email can be very
useful for staying on track. Also consider setting
up occasional videoconferences if your institution
and your collaborator’s have that capability and
enough internet bandwidth. No matter what type
of interaction you choose, plan the matters to
be covered ahead of time. Send out agendas by
email, take notes during the discussions, and
send out email summaries of the meetings to all
participants afterwards. Include in the summaries
“action items” for each collaborator. It is not a lot
of work to follow up in these small ways, and it
will help prevent misunderstandings later.
Keeping Up. Once the project is underway, stay
with it. Do not be the “rate-limiting step” that
holds things up. When unavoidable conflicts
emerge and you cannot meet a deadline, let that
fact be known right away so that the deadline can
be reset. Remember that obstacles and interruptions come up for everyone. Do not hide from your
collaborators if your work goes off track, and do
not be quick to abandon a partnership if circumstances change and you have trouble keeping up
with the originally intended pace of the work. Try
to negotiate a new strategy with your partners for
accomplishing the collaboration’s goals, and look
for better ways to get the planned work done,
even if the time frame or scope of the work must
be changed.
Dealing with Authorship
and Intellectual
Property Issues
Expectations for Authorship. Because credit for
your work, expressed as authorship of publications,
is crucial to your scientific career, you need to
pay attention to how credit will be distributed in
a collaboration. It is best to discuss expectations
for authorship before a collaboration begins,
including who will be first author and last author
(or other author positions that may indicate relative
importance in some fields) on major publications
and how authorship and ownership of new work
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In simple terms, the collaboration must help
your scientific career and not be a burden. It
is better for starting scientist to publish three
JBC papers as last (corresponding) author than
ten papers in Science, Nature or Cell, being in
all of them the fifth of the ten authors.
Alberto Kornblihtt, Argentina
”
developed along the way will be shared. As you
advance your own career, it becomes more important not only to look out for your own authorship
interests, but to also bear in mind the interests of
the people you will train in your laboratory.
Trainees—graduate students and postdocs—often
feel possessive of work they have been involved
in, and may not see their role in proper perspective.
Part of your role in training them is to keep them
from over-reaching or under-reaching when it
comes to getting credit for their work. Often the
person who writes the first draft of a paper will
become firmly attached to the idea that the paper
is “his.” This can create hard feelings and misunderstandings, especially in cases where a student
with especially good writing skills helpfully
becomes involved in writing up another student’s
data. There are cases where a writer who synthesizes others’ work deserves credit for a significant
intellectual contribution, but it is generally out of
bounds to claim priority for the writer over the
researcher who drove the intellectual development
of the data.
You and other senior people involved in the collaboration should openly discuss the practical needs
of all of the trainees involved in the work, across
all of the involved laboratories. Graduate students
and postdocs need first author papers, and as
good trainers you and your colleagues should help
them work toward publication, progress on their
degrees, and scientific independence, not just
toward achieving the project’s goals.
This is especially important for any trainees in
your laboratory whose career progress depends
on producing work that gives them clearly high
priority among a paper’s authors. However, agree
to revisit authorship as publication nears. The
relative contributions of different participants often
changes from what was originally envisioned.
Once you have a sense of whether the data from
your experiments can be published, discuss plans
for publication immediately; do not wait until a
manuscript draft is prepared.
Pursuing Patents. If patents are sought, applications should be filed before the work is presented
publicly or published; otherwise, rights will be lost.
Do not jeopardize your own or the other party’s
intellectual property rights by disclosing your
results prematurely.
If your collaboration produces patentable discoveries, you will undoubtedly need to deal with the
legal concept of “joint intellectual property.”
Joint intellectual property is that created jointly by
collaborating researchers. Generally, you will have
to assign your ownership in intellectual property
to your institution or employer, and your collaborator must do the same at his or her institution.
Each party in the collaboration will retain its own
“background” intellectual property, that is, the
intellectual property it owned before undertaking
the project. Each party will also retain the intellectual property rights to discoveries created solely
by its own researchers in the course of the project.
The collaborators’ institutions may file a joint patent application that names inventors from both
institutions, and the institutions will hold the
patent jointly. Often, the institutions will need to
reach an agreement on management and licensing
of the intellectual property, so that any royalties
can be shared according to an agreed-upon formula.
If you think a joint patent application is a likely
outcome of your collaboration, ask yourself these
questions before you begin the collaboration:
n
What aspects of the proposed project are so
interactive that any potential discoveries will be
owned jointly?
n
What aspects of shared work are the property
of one laboratory?
n
When and how will you discuss patents and
publications with workers in your laboratories?
n
Who will take responsibility for and incur the
expense of filing joint patent applications?
n
Who will maintain the patents once received?
See chapter 12 for more information about the
patent process, including the effect disclosures
can have on the ability to obtain patent rights.
Personal Qualities
of a Good Collaborator
Fairness
n Be sure to give credit where it is due.
Honesty
n Disclose anything that might affect
someone’s decision to collaborate.
n Once the collaboration is underway, be willing to “cut through the nonsense”
and offer constructive criticism.
n Be clear and open about other relation ships, which may include some with people who are in conflict with one
another.
Effort
n Put your full effort into the project.
n Carry your fair share of the labor and financial outlays.
Openness
n Stay in touch with your collaborator throughout the project, especially
when there are problems or delays.
n Try to resolve problems with your
collaborator directly.
Reliability
n Deliver what you have promised,
on time.
Respect
n Appreciate your collaborator’s
contributions.
n Never assume that your contributions
are more important than those of your collaborator.
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SPECIAL CHALLENGES
FOR THE BEGINNING
INVESTIGATOR
n
The larger the collaborator’s lab and the more
complex the collaboration, the harder it will be to
negotiate first or last authorship. Smaller projects
may offer a better chance of getting credit.
In the early stages of your career, collaboration
can present particular challenges. You are under
pressure to get your own research program up
and running. You cannot afford to let your advancement be impeded by collaborations that do not
yield good results and appropriate credit. You need
to keep the following facts of scientific life firmly
in mind as you decide about specific collaborations:
n
If you have special technical expertise or access to
a limited resource that is in demand, you may be
inundated by requests to collaborate from nearby
researchers and people around the world. Do not
allow your time to become so fragmented that
your central research projects are neglected. Learn
to say no gracefully and, if necessary, ask those
above you to offer you some protection for your
time. Even if you are the head of the institute, it
can be easier to turn things down by saying “I am
sorry, the Minister of Health has asked me to
reserve my time for another project” than by saying
“I do not have time to work with you.”
n
n
If you collaborate with established, well-known
scientists, researchers not familiar with your work
may undervalue your role in the effort and view
you as being under the wing of your more famous
colleague, rather than as an emerging scientific
force in your own right. People may assume that
you played a minor role, even if you are first author
on a paper. There are benefits and drawbacks to
this—if others see you as your colleague’s protégé,
they may open doors for you. On the other hand,
they may conclude you are subservient and never
think to open doors for you! Understanding how
the two sides of the coin may be seen, especially
by colleagues at your own institution, is important.
Collaborating with someone close to your own
career level avoids this problem, but your local
colleagues may not view your collaboration as
important compared to a collaboration with someone more famous.
If you do collaborate with established scientists
or with researchers involved in your own training,
make sure you arrange the collaboration so that
the relative contributions of each scientist are
made clear in publications and other communications. It will not always be the case that a collaborator will be interested in advancing your career,
especially your career at home. If you collaborate
with a senior scientist and he does not propose
that you speak for the team at international meetings or take the lead on some publications, for
example, you should not be shy about pressing for
these opportunities, which are important to moving
your career forward and gaining international
visibility for you.
I would classify collaborations in two groups:
those established with scientists in the North
(well-known or not-so-well-known scientists)
and those established with scientists in your
own country or region or other scientifically
lagging regions. In the first case, one has to be
very careful in order to make clear to your local
colleagues and evaluators that it is a real collaboration. For example, if your name is diluted
in the middle of the author’s list of the publications resulting from the collaboration, the local
evaluator will certainly realize that your role is
completely secondary.
I would tend to establish collaborations with
“big shots” in the North only if I am really interested in the subject, and if I can contribute with
original ideas and work that guarantee that I will
be the corresponding author of at least 50% of
the papers resulting from the collaboration. On
the other hand, I can establish collaborations
with people in the North on subjects that are
not my main subject, that will not end in the
only publications I will have in the period, whose
efforts and work do not put at risk the success
of the main subject in my group. In that case I
would not mind appearing in the middle of the
author’s list. In simple terms, the collaboration
must help your scientific career and not to be a
burden.
Alberto Kornblihtt, Argentina
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e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
”
n
If you engage in multiple collaborations, the probability increases that you will find yourself with a
conflict of interest at some point in your career.
Especially in these early years, it is better to keep
things simple so that you know all of the actors
and can identify potential conflicts. Often people
or institutions in conflict with one another may
approach you to collaborate. Both are surely aware
that your work is of interest to the other. Again,
proceed carefully and honestly. Keep in mind that
just as you can have friends who do not get along,
you can also have collaborators whose interests
collide. Just think carefully before getting between
them.
WHEN A COLLABORATION
IS NOT WORKING
Collaborations can fail for various reasons.
Possible scenarios include:
n
One party loses interest or develops other priorities,
and intentionally or inadvertently puts the project
on the back burner. There is no intent to renege,
but deadlines are allowed to slip.
n
Illness or family problems hinder someone’s
progress.
n
Key personnel move on or become uninvolved.
n
Scientific results are not forthcoming, and the
project simply stalls.
n
Honest disagreements arise about the plan,
finances, or authorship.
n
One or both parties behave badly (e.g., they do not
honor some aspect of the agreement, steal credit,
or disparage the other collaborator to others).
n
Geopolitics throws up new roadblocks, or existing
roadblocks prove more problematic than anticipated.
When Your Trainees Collaborate
Your graduate students and postdocs need to
learn to collaborate, as well. You can start them
off by assigning them joint projects within your
lab and by guiding them in establishing their
expectations of each other and in monitoring the
fulfillment of promises. However, you should be
prepared to referee, especially when it is necessary to contain the ambitions of inappropriately
aggressive members of your group.
It is quite another matter when your students and
postdocs approach scientists outside your lab or
are themselves approached as potential collaborators. They may have no idea of the politics involved
or the extent of the commitments they are making.
Encourage your trainees to look broadly for help
and resources, but insist on your prerogative to
approve all trainees’ outside commitments in
advance.
Some strong collaborators may use a junior
scientist to involve your institute in a collaboration and get them to sign a Memorandum Of
Understanding (MOU). It is thus important to
impress upon junior scientists that they need
to make sure that this MOU benefits both
collaborators in terms of capacity strengthening
(human and institutional), funding, authorship
and other aspects of the collaboration.
Susan Mutambu, Zimbabwe
”
When such situations arise, you will have to
decide how to protect yourself. The worst thing
you can do is to allow a bad situation to fester. If
you decide that your colleague is failing to fulfill
the original agreements, get on the phone and
have a straightforward discussion. Phoning or
meeting face to face is better than emailing in
such cases, since it is very easy to misread the
tone of an email, especially if one correspondent
is expecting a fight and the other does not realize
that anything is wrong at all.
It is worth your while to try to fix a situation
that looks like it could derail your collaboration,
especially if you have invested significant time
and resources in the project. If, however, the
other party has lost all interest or you really do
not get along, the best thing might be to back
out. Although you may be tempted to let your
colleagues know about the failure, remember that
such a retaliation can harm your own reputation
as much as that of your collaborator. Do not burn
bridges, and especially if you are just beginning
your career. Do what you can to leave your former
collaborator thinking well of you—he or she may
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155
be an important connection to future collaborators.
It is better to leave a collaboration with all parties
thinking that it was the situation—not the people
involved—that was “not right.”
If a collaboration does not succeed, try not to
become discouraged. Although collaborations
can be a lot of work and at times frustrating, you
will gain much from working with others. Your
research can take unexpected turns and expand
into new and exciting areas. You will form professional relationships with scientists outside your
department who may be willing to write letters
of recommendation when it is time to apply for
tenure. Your collaborators can help increase your
visibility by inviting you to give seminars at their
institutes, and they might send graduate students
or postdocs to work in your lab.
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RESOURCES
Online
Adams, Michael J. “Mutual Benefit: Building a Successful
Collaboration.” ScienceCareers.org (October 6, 2000),
http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_development/
previous_issues/articles/0630/mutual_benefit_building_a_
successful_collaboration.
Dee, Phil. “Yours Transferably: Going Global 2—Making
Contact.” ScienceCareers.org (February 16, 2001),
http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_development/
previous_issues/articles/0840/yours_transferably_going_
global_2_making_contact.
De Pass, Anthony. “Underrepresented Minorities in
Science: Collaborations -- Critical to Research Success
at Minority Institutions.” ScienceCareers.org (March 2,
2001), http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_
development/previous_issues/articles/0840/
underrepresented_minorities_in_science_collaborations_
critical_to_research_success_at_minority_institutions.
chapter 12
intellectual property
“Las
g ra n d e s i d e a s s o n aq u e lla s d e la s q u e l o ú n i c o q u e n o s s o r p r e n d e
e s q u e n o s e n o s h a y a n o c u rr i d o a n t e s .
”
N o e l C l a r a s ó S e r r a t
understanding
Intellectual
Property Rights
Intellectual property rights protect the interests of
creators by giving them property rights over their
creations, whether those creations are the result
of a Eureka! moment in the bath, the traditional
knowledge of a community, or the collective
efforts of hundreds of scientists in a university,
government or company.
Intellectual property (IP) rights include patents
and copyrights (which protect authored works,
including scientific papers, novels, music, art, and
other things), trade secrets (things only the maker
of a product knows—information not available to
the public), trademarks and brands (unique identifiers of products and services), industrial design
(the visual designs of objects with aesthetic or
commercial value), and geographical indication
(marking products with their place of origin, for
example, “Made in Brazil”).
Because discovering and developing new things
is more difficult and expensive than copying
others’ work, profit and the right to determine
how inventions are used are major driving forces
behind commercialization of ideas and products
created by scientists. Without protection, imitators
can quickly erode the profit available to the inventor,
and investors will be discouraged from spending
the money needed for more research and
development.
A patent is a right given to inventors of intellectual
property, allowing them to protect their ownership of an invention by excluding other people,
companies, governments, etc., from commercially
exploiting (making, using or selling) their innovation for a set period of time, usually 20 years,
within the country where the patent is granted.
Inventions are, in essence, ideas. The protection
of an invention under patent law does not require
that it be a physical thing. But it is customary to
distinguish between inventions that are products
and those that are processes. The creation of a
new cell line is an example of a product invention.
The quote above: Serrat says that big ideas are the ones where the only thing that surprises us about them is that no one has thought of them before.
i n t e ll e c t u al p r o p e r t y
157
The invention of a new method or process of
making the cell line is a process invention.
Patents are based on a trade-off between the
rights granted to inventors to exclude others from
making, using or selling their invention and rules
that require them to reveal the method behind
the invention so others may understand and learn
from it. They must also explain why this particular
invention is different from others like it. That is
not so for trade secrets—for example, Coca-Cola
jealously guards the recipes for its soft drinks.
In order to receive a patent, an inventor must go
through a long application process, and patent
protection does not start until the patent is actually
issued. Patent applications are prepared by patent
lawyers, but require input from the inventor.
Jurisdictions vary in the rules for an application,
but in general the patent application document, or
specification, will include:
1. Title and abstract. For ease in cataloguing and
searching in databases.
2. A brief description of the area to which the invention pertains, also called the field of the invention.
3. A thorough disclosure and description of past work
done by others in the field, and what prompted the
invention. This description is commonly called prior
art. Sources of prior art can include publications,
conference abstracts, issued patents or other
printed materials.
4. A progression of steps leading to the invention,
along with the shortcomings of the prior art. The
differences between prior art and the invention
highlight its advantages. Required descriptions of
the ways the invention is practiced or implemented, called embodiments, must be detailed enough
to allow someone skilled in the art to reconstruct
and use the invention.
5. Clearly labeled graphs, tables, figures, pictures and
drawings to aid the descriptions.
6. The claims draw the boundaries of the invention
using legal terms. The claims describe the essence
of an invention, first as broadly as possible, and
later, more narrowly. Claims are essential for
patent protection—making or using the invention
or its equivalent under its claims and without the
inventor’s permission is considered infringement.
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It is also extremely important to know the
policies governing intellectual, biological and cultural property rights. Decisions about patenting
must be based on local laws and policies. Issues
relating to informed consent and intellectual
property rights can easily result in controversy.
Moses Bockarie, Papua New Guinea
The Patent Examination
”
At its core, a patent examination is an orderly
argument between an inventor and a country’s
patent examiners, the officials who determine
whether the invention is truly something new and
deserving of protection. Patent examiners are
subject matter experts who rule on how broad or
narrow the inventor’s claims to property rights will
be. In order to be patentable, examiners put the
application through a battery of tests.
1. Novelty. The invention must be the inventor’s
own work. Novelty also has much to do with
timing. If an invention was known before the date
a patent application was filed or the priority date
claimed on the patent application (see “Timing
is Everything” on page 159), then it cannot be
claimed as new.
2. Non-obviousness and Inventive Step. These
terms reflect the “Aha!” of an invention and the
surprise of an unexpected result. A non-obvious
invention will identify a problem and provide a
solution. If others tried and failed to develop the
invention, or if it is not apparent to someone
skilled in the art, then non-obviousness prevails.
3. Utility and Industrial Application. In the US,
the patent application must express some credible
usefulness or benefit. In contrast, European patent
law asks if the invention shows an industrial
application.
The examination process, which is called prosecution, may take months or years to complete.
Often some of the application’s claims, or individual written statements about the invention that
are presented one after another in the application,
will be rejected. A patent application will usually
timing is everything
In some countries, once an idea or invention is made public, by being published in the scientific
literature for example, it cannot be patented. In others, including the US, there is a grace period during
which an inventor can file a patent application.
In countries without this grace period, an inventor is out of luck if the invention was known publicly or
published in a journal even one day before the filing date. To complicate matters, patent law defines
the word “publication” very broadly. Even an abstract, oral presentation or poster session can qualify
as publication, and advertising brochures, grant applications, catalogues and magazine articles are fair
game too. Each situation is different, and anyone planning to file a domestic or foreign patent must be
aware of the kinds of information generated by their organization. Finally, be aware that publication of
the application by the patent office for all to see will occur some months after the filing—irrespective
of whether the patent is ever issued.
Patent laws that grant rights to the first inventor to file a patent use a simple, objective measure to
determine priority, but critics say it favors big corporations who can pay for each filing. On the other
hand, laws that grant rights to the first to make an invention favor the individual with few resources.
Once a patent has been awarded in one country, an international Patent Cooperation Treaty gives the
inventor up to 18 months to file for patents in other individual countries beyond his or her own.
begin by making very broad claims, and then will
narrow successive claims until it is extremely
specific. So an application relating to, for example,
a new bicycle gearing system, might have some
very broad claims related to the general function
of gears rejected, while other claims, such as
the narrower claim describing the new gearing
system itself, may be accepted. The applicant may
respond to the objections by arguing in support of
or making amendments to any rejected claims. If
the examiner’s objections cannot be overcome,
the application may eventually be abandoned.
Benefiting from
Intellectual Property
Intellectual property, including patents, trade secrets
or other “intangible assets,” can be converted
into monetary value—hence the term “intellectual
capital.” Intellectual capital is quite worthless
unless there is someone, somewhere, willing to
buy it. Therefore, a patent is merely the starting
point for a financial arrangement between parties.
The trick becomes how to efficiently transfer the
technology from the inventor to the marketplace.
Who benefits from these arrangements? An
invention that you make as part of your scientific
work may belong to your institution, or to the
funder of the work, or to the government, or to
you, depending on the policies and customs of
the place where you are working. Whether your
thoughts and the work you do with your hands
belong to you or someone else varies considerably
from institution to institution, funder to funder,
and country to country. Asking others at your
institution or in your area who have patented work
will help you understand what will become of any
intellectual property associated with your work.
If you believe that you will generate patentable
inventions, talk with your institution, your major
funders, or your government early so that you can
understand the ideas behind the process before
any real invention is at stake.
Once an invention is patented, you do not have to
be the one who uses your rights to it. A license,
a legally binding contract that allows someone
else to make, use and/or sell an invention, can be
sold or lent to someone else, often in return for
fees and royalties, which are returns on future
profits. An “exclusive license” is given to only one
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licensee, who can charge others for use of the
licensed technology, generating more fees and
more royalties. A non-exclusive license can be
granted to more than one entity. When know-how
—the idea of how to do something—is patented
by scientists, it is usually made non-exclusive so
that those in the know may freely talk about the
idea with other scientists.
nations are in different stages of economic
and scientific development, each has a unique
approach to IP law.
The effort to speed the transfer of intellectual
property across borders has led to a profusion of
organizations, treaties and laws through which to
navigate. Described below are the important ones,
how they came to be, and how they figure in the
global scheme of things.
A license also can be granted exclusively to one
licensee for a specific application, or “field of
use,” maintaining the owner’s option to issue
licenses for other fields of use.
The World Intellectual
Property Organization (WIPO)
Established in Stockholm and launched in 1970,
WIPO is an agency of the United Nations. Its
mission is “To promote through international
cooperation the creation, dissemination, use
and protection of works of the human mind for
the economic, cultural and social progress of all
mankind…to contribute to a balance between the
stimulation of creativity worldwide, by sufficiently
protecting the moral and material interests of
creators on the one hand, and providing access to
the socio-economic and cultural benefits of such
creativity worldwide on the other.”
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN
A GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT
Nations protect intellectual property (IP) through
their laws. IP law enables individuals and organizations to harvest the rewards of inventiveness.
Yet these assets are products of the communities
who make them. There is a tension between the
protection of individual interests and the need to
provide broad access to the societies who need
them. As scientists in more and more countries
generate more IP and become more collaborative,
their nations must sort out the best ways to
handle their new inventions. Because different
WIPO creates and manages multilateral treaties
among nations, including:
the lifecycle of an Idea
Royalties Back to
Inventor and Institution
Idea
Grant or
Contract Proposal
Sales
$$ to Scientist
Product
Scientific Discovery
Commercial
Development
License Agreement
with Company
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e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
Invention Disclosure to
Technology Transfer Office
Publication
Grant of
Patent
Patent
Application
n
n
The Paris Convention. Signed in 1883, every
member country must grant to nationals of other
countries the same IP protection it grants to its own
citizens. More practically, it allows inventors in one
nation to use the patent filing date in that nation as
the effective date in another nation, provided that
they apply within 12 months of the first filing.
Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). Filing a patent
in all countries would be extremely costly. The
PCT coordinates the filing of international patent
applications among nearly 140 countries. A PCT
filing contains the nuts and bolts for an examination, such as a search of prior art and a description
of claims. A preliminary examination rules on its
patentability. Finally, each contracting national or
regional patent office (see the European Patent
Office (EPO), below) is free to carry out a formal
examination and decide whether to issue a patent.
Aside from the unified procedure, the advantages
to filing a PCT are streamlining and buying time
before the national examinations commence. But
local jurisdictions charge fees for filing, issuing and
maintaining the patent.
The Big Three
Among the world’s patent offices, the biggest are
the European Patent Office (EPO), the United States
Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the Japan
Patent Office (JPO). Together, the USPTO and the
EPO review the largest number of the world’s
patent applications, but Japan’s patent office
activities are growing fast.
China is also fast becoming a world leader in
intellectual property, and Western countries are
scrambling to establish trade agreements to
harmonize patent information (see “The World’s
Most Active Patent Offices”). The differences
among the big three are first-to-invent and first-tofile, and that the U.S. permits patents on software
and business methods. While the EPO grants only
one patent for any given inventive system, the
same invention in Japan could constitute up to 10
different patents, with every aspect of the invention filed separately.
Like WIPO, the EPO does not issue patents, but
carries out formal examinations on behalf of 37
European countries, along with examining oppositions to patents already granted.
The World’s Most Active Patent Offices
Country/Region
# of Examiners
# of Applications
United States
(USPTO)
3,400
400,000
Europe (EPO)
3,500
208,000
Japan (JPO)
1,358
400,000
China (SIPO)
2,000
175,000
South Korea
(KIPO)
728
160,000
India
135
14,500
Data assembled from national sources between 2004 and 2006.
Building a more unified system
At the end of the General Agreement on Tariffs
and Trade (GATT) treaty, which created the World
Trade Organization (WTO), the discussion turns to
the wide variation of protection and enforcement
of intellectual property rights. As IP rights became
more important in global trade, these differences
became a source of tension in international
relations. New trade rules were seen as a way to
introduce more order and predictability, and for
disputes to be settled more systematically. At the
turn of the century, “harmonization” became the
catchword. In mid-2000, the big three signed the
Patent Law Treaty, which charts a path towards
international normalization by 2010.
The WTO oversees the Agreement on Trade-Related
Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), a
1995 agreement that attempts to “narrow the gaps
in the way that these [intellectual property] rights
are treated around the world, and to bring them
under common international rules.” The TRIPS
Agreement is expected to do a number of things,
including increasing royalty and license fees to
developing nations and increasing foreign direct
investment in the developing world.
Ratification of the TRIPS Agreement became a
mandatory requirement for membership in the WTO.
The agreement attempts to gather and normalize
all aspects of IP rights and their enforcement,
including protecting trade secrets, establishing
transparency, and clarifying copyrights. The
agreement attempts to crack down on reverse
engineering of biotechnology products, and requires
companies in developing countries to adhere to
Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards.
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161
Most profound for developing countries were
changes related to patents. They include:
1. Broad definition of what can be patentable. This
requires many countries to extend protection to
areas such as chemical and pharmaceutical
products and processes, food products, microorganisms, microbiological processes and new
varieties of plants.
2. Harmonized patent length at 20 years from the
date of filing.
3. Mandated that intellectual property laws not offer
any benefits to local citizens that are not available
to citizens of other TRIPS states while they are in
that country (see Indigenous Knowledge, page 165).
4. Flexibility for developing countries to allow someone else to produce a product without the consent
of the patent owner. This “compulsory licensing”
can be used in circumstances of extreme “national
urgency” such as domestic health crises.
HIV/AIDS and the TRIPS Debate
The GATT treaty had a rough start and remains
controversial. The European Union, the United
States and large pharmaceutical companies played
a major role in adopting the TRIPS Agreement.
The fact that corporations with an interest in favorable international rules on intellectual property
were themselves part of developing policy was
a focus of intense debate. Developing countries
complained that they were left out of critical negotiations. The provision that requires poor countries
to extend patent rights on pharmaceutical products
made in the developing world has also provoked
criticism.
New patents promise benefits and incur costs
that differ by disease, and some diseases primarily
affect poor countries. For those disorders, patents
are not attractive to private investment because
the purchasing power of developing countries is
low. Widely available patent rights could increase
the benefits derived from greater public financing
of biomedical research for the underdeveloped
world.
The high profile of public health emergencies such
as the sub-Saharan Africa AIDS crisis spotlights
the tension between public health and global IP
protection. Developed nations want their inventions
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protected, but developing countries want wide
distribution of the health benefits of drugs and
agricultural advances at low or no cost to their
citizens. A sick or suffering working class does little
to put the country on a road to economic prosperity.
In 1997, a South African law called the Medicines
and Related Substances Control Act was put in
place to reduce the price of drugs, especially those
used against AIDS. The law encouraged use of
generic drugs and allowed the government to
purchase brand-name drugs abroad if it could get
them at a lower price. A consortium of 39 pharmaceutical companies sued to prevent the import of
cheap generic antiretrovirals into South Africa. The
move was a public relations fiasco for the industry,
Open Access
Another important issue regarding scientific
research is the availability of software for
data analysis. Given that I work with population health issues, part of my job is to analyze
large data sets. Statistical software—like SAS,
SPSS, JMP, etc.—might seem inexpensive for
large research projects in industrialized countries, but they tend to be quite expensive for
scientists in developing countries. Some software developers charge for every statistical
module and yearly license renewal, and these
practices make the software very expensive.
However, there is a new “movement” of
Open Access software developers. Open
Access software is free software developed
by a community of scientists, usually spread
all over the world. There is freeware for different tasks. The package or language called R is
the most widely used Open Access statistical
software in the world, and includes “cuttingedge” routines that very few statistical packages have. Open Access software appears to
become a very valuable tool for scientists in
developing countries that have very limited
money resources for purchasing equipment.
Gilbert Brenes Comacho, Costa Rica
”
The statistical analysis software R, instructions for use, and information
about working to improve it are available at www.r-project.org.
and the consortium settled the suit in 2001. Shortly
thereafter, Brazil and a group of African countries,
working with the NGOs, brought the problem of
drug access to the global stage at a meeting of the
world’s trade ministers in Doha, Qatar.
The declarations of the Doha group affirmed members’ right to protect public health and to promote
access to medicines for all. Most importantly, it
clarified the right to use compulsory licensing to
meet public health concerns, stating that “public
health crises, including those related to HIV/AIDS,
tuberculosis, malaria and other epidemics, can
represent a national emergency.”
Though the TRIPS Agreement is designed to level
the IP playing field and is necessary to spur development in developing countries, major challenges
remain. They include the cost of providing therapy
broadly across the world, the limited capacity of
most developing countries to make generic drugs,
the potential impact on countries such as Brazil
and India, which may be required to stop their own
manufacture of inexpensive generic drugs, and
the impact of requiring companies to license their
existing drugs on those companies’ future investments in drugs of benefit to low-income countries.
CASE STUDIES
Embryonic stem cells
An American scientist, James Thomson, was
awarded three patents by the USPTO for his pathbreaking work with human embryonic stem cells.
The patents, which cover cell lines, are unusual for
two reasons. First, they were issued based on
research using a morally controversial source of
material—leftover but viable two-day-old human
embryos obtained through in vitro fertilization
(IVF) clinics.
The second unusual feature is the patent claims
themselves. Not only do they assert a right to
charge anyone to use the cell lines Thomson
created, they also prevent anyone else from using
any human embryonic stem cell lines, made by
any method, in any laboratory, anywhere in the
US. These patent claims are among the broadest
ever granted in the life sciences.
Broad Claims:
Embryonic Stem Cell Patents
“We claim: 1. a purified preparation of
primate embryonic stem cells which
(i) is capable of proliferation in an in vitro
culture for over one year,
(ii) maintains a karyotype in which all the
chromosomes characteristic of the primate
species are present and not noticeably
altered through prolonged culture,
(iii) maintains the potential to differentiate
into derivatives of endoderm, mesoderm,
and ectoderm tissues throughout culture,
(iv) will not differentiate when cultured on
a fibroblast feeder layer.”
Since embryonic stem cells could eventually
lead to treatments or cures for maladies such as
heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, the patents
have generated a debate with ethical, social and
legal implications. Because of broad claims and
the aggressive negotiating position the institute
who owns the patents has taken with those
who want to use the lines, scholars fear that the
monopolistic practices could squelch innovation
and competition and result in treatments being
distributed only to those who can afford them. If
the keys to use the inventions are given to just
a few, there will be little incentive to develop
cheaper and better products.
The controversies have meant a rocky road for
both the patent holder and its exclusive licensees.
The European Patent Office (EPO) rejected the
patents on moral grounds. Because they involve
the use of “human embryos for industrial or
commercial purposes,” they consider them an
immoral violation of public order. Though the
decision can be appealed, a confirmatory ruling
would mean that no such patents would be issued
by the EPO. Yet a grant of a patent does not
automatically confer rights in EU (European Union
CEU) member states. Each country is free to
interpret the morality clause in its own fashion and
decide whether to issue a patent.
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Finally, the patents have been challenged on
technical grounds. In 2007, the USPTO ruled that
the patents failed the non-obviousness requirement. The challenge referenced multiple cases
of prior art (the teachings of two patents and four
articles published prior to the filing of Thomson’s
first patent in 1996), assuming that a “person
having ordinary skill in the art” would be able to
accomplish what Thomson and his laboratory did.
Both the challengers and the research institute
will battle back and forth for years before the issue
is finally resolved. During that time, the patents
remain fully in force.
Everybody into the Pool
The development of new drugs, devices and tools
comes at an astonishing price. A Tufts University
study estimates the 2006 cost of bringing a drug
to market at $1.2 billion. Those costs are passed
on to patients and health care systems. The higher
the development cost, the more difficult it is to
bring new biomedical products to underserved
markets.
One of the problems associated with the increased
time and cost are “patent thickets,” when companies need to license many bits and pieces of a
complex chain of technology in order to successfully implement their own intellectual property.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in vaccine
development, where separate licenses may be
required for specific genes, animal models, bioprocessing, and delivery systems. “Stacking” royalty
payments in this fashion becomes very expensive.
One of the mechanisms put forward to deal with
patent thickets is patent pools. A “patent pool”
is an agreement between two or more patent
owners to license patents to one another or to
outsiders. Most are voluntary, devised when companies or organizations find their ability to innovate
stifled by key technical patents owned by others.
Members of the pool share royalties paid by third
parties. Proponents argue that such arrangements
can help stimulate innovation.
In response to the SARS outbreak, the WHO
funded a network of laboratories to develop a
vaccine. Several of the researchers filed patent
applications on inventions related to the viral
genomic sequence. Further research by large
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group of public and private sector entities led to
additional patent applications. The agency proposed
a patent pool strategy that would avoid potential
SARS-related intellectual property conflicts
and speed the development of vaccines. If the
negotiations among the parties succeed, the first
pool will be set up in the U.S., followed by other
jurisdictions.
Patent pools attempt to speed development by
sharing risk and reward, but one intriguing model
abandons the concept of intellectual property
altogether. For example, a non-governmental
organization, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases
initiative (DNDi), and the French pharmaceutical
company Sanofi-Aventis have developed a new
anti-malarial therapy—fixed-dose combination
(FDC) of artesunate and amodiaquine (AS/AQ),
which will be available in Sub-Saharan Africa and
elsewhere for less than $1 per dose. Because
there are no patents, other companies are free to
make cheaper versions of the therapy, also called
generics. The patent-free model could become
one way to treat the world’s neglected diseases.
shared resources
At the prompting of Icelandic corporation deCODE
genetics, Iceland’s parliament passed the Health
Sector Database Act in 1998. It authorized a
12-year, exclusive license to deCODE to create
a database of the medical records of all Icelandic
citizens. Iceland’s advantage was its small, isolated
population and its fastidious practice of medical
record-keeping. The country has kept medical and
genealogical data on all of its citizens for more than
a century. The act stated that while the government
has access to the database, deCode could use it
for commercial purposes, such as diagnostics or
drug discovery.
The Icelandic government has concluded that
genetic information is a national resource, and
that citizens have no individual rights to it. Others
worried whether the government and deCODE
could be relied on to properly protect genetic
information. Though confidentiality was promised,
improper release of information could have devastating consequences, such as denial of health
insurance or employment discrimination. Granting
a proprietary right to one’s own genetic information,
some said, would help individuals control its use.
Others responded that the information belonged
to all Icelanders, and as such decisions about its
use should have come from the community.
Another worry concerned the delay of publications.
Kari Stephansson, deCODE’s CEO, wrote in the
New England Journal of Medicine, “The primary
goal is to use medical discoveries to develop better
methods to diagnose, prevent, and cure diseases.
Today, this often requires that an intellectual
property be secured, which may delay publication
of a discovery. The choice between early publication and the development of a product for the
benefit of patients with a particular disease is, in
our minds, an easy one.” The biotech industry
argued that without exclusive rights there would
be no incentive to invest, and granting individual
ownership might cause hundreds or thousands of
people to demand royalties from companies using
the data to develop products.
The textbook example of genetic property rights is
found in the case of Moore v. Regents of California
(the Regents of California is the governing body
of the University of California at all of its multiple
campuses.) Moore claimed that his property rights
had been violated when inventors did not share
the commercial gains made from the commercial
use of his cancerous spleen cells. The court
concluded—as the Icelandic Government did with
its citizens—that Moore did not have a valid
ownership claim, and that giving him one would
hinder biomedical research.
What lies ahead for Iceland? Some call for better
balance between financial incentives and greater
access to the information, such as compulsory
licensing to certified genetic researchers. Private
sector advocates say that any future financial return
negotiated on behalf of the country’s 280,000
citizens will be vanishingly small. As the debate
continues, scientists at deCODE have recently
discovered genes associated with cancer, sleep
disorders and heart disease.
Indigenous Knowledge
A team of Western researchers learns of an herbal
remedy used by a remote tribe of Amazon villagers.
The group travels to Ecuador, where they work
with local shamans and elders to identify the right
plant cultivars. The herbs are brought back to the
laboratory, where the active ingredient is isolated
and purified. The company receives a patent on
the product and manufactures it to industrial scale,
making a blockbuster drug with a billion dollar profit.
Some critics say abuse of traditional systems of
IP rights devalues indigenous cultures, reduces
biodiversity and steals the “pharmacy from
the poor.” Called biopiracy, the practice uses
intellectual property to legitimize the ownership
and control of biological resources used by
developing countries. The 1992 Rio Convention on
Biodiversity (CBD), ratified by 187 countries and
the European Union, recognized that indigenous
cultures have long contributed to global wealth
generated by the commercialization of their native
plants and animals.
Under the rules of the CBD and other international
guidelines:
1. New intellectual policies and laws must involve
community participation.
2. Access to traditional knowledge and resources
(especially genetic resources) may only be
obtained by informed consent.
3. Communities have the right to share the benefits
of commercialization, and use by others can only
proceed on the basis of mutually agreeable terms.
It hasn’t always worked that way. The textbook
case is neem, a common Indian tree whose seeds
have been long used for medicines, cosmetics
and pesticides. Because agricultural products are
not patentable in India, a foreign company patented
a neem extract and began manufacturing a pesticide
in India in the late 1980s. The company’s demand
for seeds drove the price beyond the reach of
ordinary Indians, including farmers who enjoyed
free access to stocks. Thus there were social,
economic and ethical factors driving an EPO action
in 2000, which revoked the patent based on lack
of novelty, inventive step and theft of prior art.
The neem case has been characterized as plunder
by many, but others say nothing prevented Indian
companies from manufacturing the pesticide and
exporting it, and there was little evidence that the
transnational conglomerate had asserted its rights
in India to prevent local companies from competing.
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And, India benefited as a supplier of seed and local
technical talent.
How best to protect traditional knowledge?
Preventing others from patenting is one strategy.
Recording and storing knowledge establishes it as
prior art and makes it more difficult to appropriate.
The downside of this “defensive” approach is that
it makes public community knowledge that may
be held by custom to be private and sacrosanct.
Positive measures could use laws to enact special
unique-to-the-situation (sui generis) rights to
protect traditional knowledge. Under sui generis,
indigenous peoples can argue that controlling use
of their knowledge is a self-determining right,
and that modern laws can never overrule ancient
systems of beliefs and traditions.
RESOURCES
Development Working Paper Number 5, April 2002.
Lesser, W. “The effects of TRIPs-mandated intellectual
property rights on economic activities in developing
countries.” 2001 monograph.
Lee, Martha Isabel Gomez: Las patentes sobre biodiversidad
en el TLC:negocio inconsulto. Oasis 11:103-133, 2005.
Making the Right Moves: A practical guide to scientific
management for postdocs and new faculty. HHMIBurroughs Wellcome guide, second edition, 2006.
Maskus, Keith. Intellectual Property Rights in the Global
Economy. Washington DC, Institute for International
Economics, 2000.
Mayne, Ruth. “Regionalism, Bilateralism and ‘Trip-Plus’
Agreements: The threat to developing countries.” United
Nations Human Development Report 2005.
McCalman, Phillip. “The Doha Agenda and intellectual
property rights.” Working paper cite TBA 2002.
Attaran, Amir. “How do patents and economic policies affect
access to essential medicines in developing countries?”
Human Affairs 23(3):155-168, 2004.
Moschini, GianCarlo. “Intellectual property rights and the
World Trade Organization: Retrospect and Prospect.” Working paper published by the Center for Agricultural and Rural
Development, Iowa State University, 2003.
Dasgupta P. & P. David. “Toward a New Economics of
Science” Research Policy 23: 487-521, 1994.
Shiva, Vandana. Protect or Plunder: Understanding
Intellectual Property Rights. Zed Books, 2002.
Daza, German Sanchez. Los derechos de propiedad
intelectual en el alca. Aportes 8:35-54, 2003.
Online
Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) Intellectual
Property Primer: http://www.bio.org/ip/primer/
Drahos, Peter and Mayne, Ruth, eds. Global Intellectual
Property Rights: Knowledge, Access and Development.
Palgrave McMillian, 2002.
Eisenberg, Rebecca S., Heller, Michael A. Can Patents
Deter Innovation? The Anticommons in Biomedical
Research Science 280 (5364), 698 (1 May 1998).
Garabedian, Todd. “Nontraditional publications and their
effect on patentable inventions.” Nature Biotechnology,
(20) April 2002, 401-402.
Finger, M and Schuler, P. eds. Poor People’s Knowledge:
Promoting Intellectual Property in Developing Countries.
World Bank Trade and Development Series, 2004.
Fink, Carsten and Maskus, Keith eds. Intellectual Property
and Development: Lessons from Recent Economic
Research. World Bank Trade and Development Series, 2005.
Krattiger, Anatole. “Financing the bioindustry and facilitating
biotechnology transfer.” IP Strategy Today, 8-2004.
Lanjouw, Jean. “Intellectual property and the availability
of pharmaceuticals in poor countries.” Center for Global
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Dirección de Vinculación Tecnológica from CONICET lays
out some of the principles for linking technologies to
applications http://www.conicet.gov.ar/VINCULACION/
principal.php
European Patent Office (EPO): http://www.epo.org
WIPO Intellectual Property Handbook: http://www.wipo.int/
about-ip/en/iprm/index.html
WIPO Guide to Intellectual Property Worldwide:
http://www.wipo.int/about-ip/en/ipworldwide/
World Trade Organization (WTO): http://www.wto.org
WIPO What Is Intellectual Property?: http://www.wipo.int/
about-ip/en/
chapter 13
MOVING MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT
“ Pa t i e n c e
a n d p e r s e v e ra n c e h a v e a m a g i c al e f f e c t b e f o r e w h i c h
d i f f i c u l t i e s d i s a p p e ar a n d o b s t a c l e s v a n i s h .
”
John Quincy Adams
Transferring research-related materials internationally
presents challenges, particularly if the shipments
are to or from the developing world. Depending
on your exact area of research, you may need to
receive (or send) materials including large, multi-use
equipment; laboratory glassware and disposables;
books; reagents; infectious agents and vectors
of infectious agents; human products; biological
specimens; and/or a variety of living organisms.
Different rules and regulations come into play
depending on the type of material being shipped.
Such regulations have been designed for a number
of important reasons, including the need to ensure
the safety of those handling the materials, to
reduce biosecurity risks, to safeguard national
security and to protect the wellbeing of a country’s
citizens, to protect commercial interests, and to
provide for the health and comfort of animals. But
they can also, at times, result in long shipping
delays or be incorrectly interpreted, resulting in
problems at customs or elsewhere.
Furthermore, in some countries the import
regulations are not only complex, but intrinsically
ambiguous, to the extent that many of the officials
who deal directly with importing goods may not
understand the rules themselves. There may
also be corruption at certain stages of the import
process, further complicating matters. Finally,
purely practical problems such as the need to keep
certain temperature-sensitive materials cold, or
living material alive, can make shipping materials
long distances difficult. This chapter gives an
overview of the types of regulatory and practical
issues you might face when shipping materials
internationally, and provides suggestions for how
best to navigate those challenges.
The material in this chapter was derived from a
variety of sources. Information came from reference books and governmental and regulatory
agency Web sites, as well as interviews with
international shipping specialists (specifically,
those who focus on shipping pharmaceuticals and
biological reagents), individuals at international
m o v i n g m a t e r i al s a n d e q u i p m e n t
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paperwork involved in purchasing
1.Pro forma invoice/price quote: a quotation on the price (FOB, CIF, or in place) for a product or a
series of products. Normally it is valid for a limited time. This document does not certify any real
transaction, but for a time period it establishes the value of a trade.
2.Invoice: the document that reflects that the real transaction has been formally arranged and will
certainly occur or has occurred.
3.Receipt: the document certifying that the payment for the transaction stated in the invoice has been
done. A receipt has no value without the invoice. On the contrary, certain kinds of invoices have value
without the corresponding receipts. Granting agencies may require the original invoices of your
purchases as proof that the transactions have taken place. In some cases, they might also request
the receipts or other proofs of payment, such as credit card balances, copies of wire transfers, etc.
4.Packing slip/remito: the document that is signed when the delivery is received at the purchaser’s lab.
bioresource centers and at biotechnology companies that support science in the developing world,
and scientists who work in developing countries.
Perhaps the most important single piece of advice
is that there is no fixed set of rules to learn that
will allow you to handle shipping yourself—instead,
you should identify experts with local knowledge
and experience and enlist those people to handle
such matters. That being said, it will be useful to
have some background knowledge about relevant
regulations and organizations. Additional practical
advice will be covered in later sections of the chapter.
Regulations and
Relevant Organizations
The regulations that govern international shipping
are complicated and in flux, affected by politics
and world events. A complete description of all
applicable organizations and laws affecting the
transfer of materials is well beyond the scope
of this chapter. The material presented here is
intended to be a general overview.
harmonious regulations on transporting hazardous
materials. These regulations are developed by
committees made up of representatives from
many countries. They address a wide variety of
hazards, including toxicity, radioactivity, infectious
substance hazards, flammability, explosiveness,
and corrosiveness.
UN identification numbers are given to specific
materials ranging from infectious substances
that affect humans to genetically modified
microorganisms to dry ice. The Model Regulations
prescribe standards for packaging, labeling, and
marking for each category of material in transit.
They describe the documentation and emergency
contact information required for each shipment.
The use of consistent regulations internationally
has obvious benefits, among them obviating the
need to reclassify, re-label, or repackage materials
during transport.
Hazardous Materials
International Civil Aviation Organization
(ICAO). The ICAO (http://www.icao.int/), an agency
of the UN, publishes “Technical Instructions on the
Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air” (ICAO
TI) biannually. These instructions are in part based
on the UN Recommendations described above.
United Nations (UN) Model Regulations on the
Transport of Dangerous Goods. The UN Model
Regulations, although not legally binding, provide
a foundation for the development of globally
International Air Transport Association (IATA)
The IATA (http://www.iata.org) is a global trade
organization that was formed over 60 years
ago and now represents 250 airlines. The IATA
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publishes the “Dangerous Goods Regulations
Manual” (DGR Manual), which provides information
on classifying, marking, packing, labeling, and
documenting shipments containing dangerous
goods. IATA regulations cover materials carried
on board by passengers or checked in luggage as
well as those shipped commercially. IATA DGRs
are similar to the ICAO TI, but contain additional
requirements and are more restrictive.
International Maritime Organization (IMO).
IMO (http://www.imo.org) has developed a uniform
international dangerous goods (DG) code for
transporting materials by sea. The code covers
packing and stowage, and pays particular attention
to the separation of incompatible substances.
appropriate packaging
Packaging materials incorrectly can have severe
safety and legal consequences. For example, dry
ice placed in an airtight container will cause an
increase in pressure in the container, potentially
leading to an explosion. A lack of proper orientation markings on chemical packaging can lead to
leaks and chemical mixing, possibly causing fires
or explosions. Planes have crashed because safety
regulations on shipping dangerous goods were not
followed. Fines for not following dangerous goods
shipping regulations can be severe, even if no
harm results.
Transportation of Research
Animals and Plants
Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora
(CITES). Because most countries have specific
rules about importing animals, regulations in this
area are very complicated. CITES (also known as
the Washington Convention; http://www.cites.
org/), which represents an agreement among
governments to regulate the movement of endangered plants and animals and their derivatives
across international borders, is currently enforced
in 172 countries. These regulations cover both
commercial and noncommercial trade. Office International des Épizooties/World
Animal Health Organization. The goal of this
organization, also known as the Office International des Épizooties (OIE; http://www.oie.int), is
to prevent zoonoses, infectious diseases that can
be transmitted from animals to humans and vice
versa. It has developed the “Terrestrial Animal
Health Code” and the “Aquatic Animal Health
Code,” which provide recommendations for member countries as they set up or revise regulations
about importing animals and animal products.
IATA Live Animal Regulations (LAR). The IATA
LAR is a global standard for transporting animals
by air. These regulations cover animal containers
and methods to ensure the welfare of animals
being shipped by air, among other topics. Both
CITES and OIE recognize these regulations.
Labeling, Packaging, Paperwork,
Licenses, and Permits
Complying with regulations governing the
international transport of hazardous materials or
living organisms and their derivatives requires
the use of proper labels. These include labels
describing the substance (for example, “Infectious
Substance” or “Biological Substance, Category B”
or “Dry Ice”), as well as those stating the proper
shipping name, the UN identification number, and
the correct orientation of the shipping container.
Potentially hazardous biological substances,
including infectious substances and genetically modified microorganisms, must be triple
packaged, with a leak-proof primary container,
a secondary container that contains enough
absorbent material to absorb all of the liquid in the
sample, and an outer container large enough to
contain the required labels. The two outer packages must meet UN performance standards and
are available from commercial suppliers. Packaging
must meet additional requirements if ice, dry ice,
or liquid nitrogen is included in the shipment.
Shipments must be accompanied by a Declaration
for Dangerous Goods form if hazardous materials
are being sent. Other documents that might be
required include export permits and/or licenses,
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la b e l i n g m a t t e r s
A case in point: In Thailand, items labeled “plastic goods” can have an import tax of 40%, whereas
plastic laboratory ware labeled “laboratory equipment” has a tax of 10%. So knowledge of this particular
piece of information could save a substantial sum of money. A good agent from a Thai forwarding
company who is familiar with movement of scientific materials will be familiar with import taxes and
with proper labeling, and communicate such information to the original company if necessary. Such
an agent does not want a 40% tax if 10% is possible instead, because of the increased cost that will
be passed on to the scientist. As another example, anecdotal evidence suggests that in some regions
of the world, products labeled “research reagents” will be cleared through customs relatively easily,
whereas those labeled “medical products” will not be cleared; the reverse is reported to be true in
other regions of the world. Again, a good agent should be aware of these subtleties.
import permits and/or licenses, a shipper’s export
declarations, a commercial invoice, a certificate of
origin, a bill of lading, an insurance certificate, an
export packing list, a consular invoice, an airway
bill, and inspection certificates.
Important Issues
and Practical Advice
Expert Assistance
Because of the complexities of international shipping, one of the most important pieces of advice is
to identify experts who can handle the associated
issues for you. There are many advantages to
working with a trusted local distributor of reagents
and equipment (who represents one or more
well-known life sciences companies), a freight
forwarder, and/or a customs broker.
A forwarder is an agent who facilitates international
shipments. These agents are familiar with both
import and export regulations, as well as with
packing, labeling, insurance, documentation, and
shipping options and requirements. A customs
broker will undertake transactions associated with
customs on your behalf, such as classification and
valuation of products and payment of taxes and
duties. Such individuals should also have familiarity
with local customs and a track record of experience
in the country or region.
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You might wonder if hiring a knowledgeable
customs broker, for instance, is worth the cost.
Customs regulations are extremely complex—
they vary from country to country, and can be
influenced by changing politics. Because the rules
are so complicated and often unclear, identifying
and appointing a local agent to handle tasks such
as clearing equipment or goods through customs
can be far less expensive than attempting to
manage the task yourself. Because the particular
rules change frequently, and are often flexible
or ambiguous, it is not generally possible for
scientists to be aware of what rules are in place
at a given time. For example, proper labeling is
critically important for cost-effective and timely
passage through customs. Improper labeling,
even if accurate, can have severe or expensive
consequences.
In addition, in some circumstances, the scientist
has to take some time to train a local agent in
handling research material. Although this
appears to be outside your role, in the long run
it is time well invested. Otherwise, you will end
up wasting much more time in sorting out all
kinds of issues whenever you have to ship or
receive research materials.
Abdoulaye Djimdé, Mali
”
Identifying Distributors
and Agents
How does one go about identifying appropriate
distributors and agents? The aim is to single out
those with long track records, who have worked
in the region for a lengthy period of time and
have been found to be trustworthy, and, in the
case of distributors, to recognize those with local
agents that have legitimate connections with
well-known biotechnology companies. The best
way to discover which people and companies
meet those criteria is to ask established scientists
who have worked in the region for substantial
periods of time. To find a specialist for a particular
transaction, you might first search for another local
scientist who has previously hired a specialist for
that kind of transaction and had good results. You
might also contact well-known companies and ask
them if they have a local partner in your region,
and if so, how experienced that partner is.
Corruption
In some places, corruption is common and has
large effects on the importation of goods. Government officials can interpret rules as they wish in
certain countries, and several of the distributors
and exporters interviewed for this chapter said
that they assumed that money changes hands
“under the table” when goods move across
borders, particularly large pieces of equipment, but
also reagents, kits, and other supplies. Though it
is clearly illegal for the exporting company to be
involved in such transactions, once the shipment
is within the borders of another country, it may
be impossible to control what happens. Exporters
mentioned that they preferred not to know about
these operations, leaving them in the hands of
local distributors, agents, and importers. The
general advice for scientists is similar: Follow the
laws personally, and do not attempt to handle
transactions yourself.
The level of corruption varies by region. Whereas
in some cases the import “fees” clearly serve
only to supplement the income of certain officials,
many import fees in other countries are legitimate,
even if the rules describing them are ambiguous.
Furthermore, the line between corruption and
local traditions is sometimes hard to distinguish.
A good knowledge of local conventions and
practices can smooth the way for the efficient
passage of a shipment through customs. A
high-quality distributor or customs agent will know
these routines; buying an official lunch or bringing someone a special snack might be all that is
needed to bring a $100,000 piece of equipment
through customs. Such practices appear less
like bribery and more like politeness within the
context of a given culture.
Export Controls
Federal export control regulations in the country
where your materials originate can have large
effects on how quickly you receive a given
shipment. These regulations prohibit the export of
certain materials without an export license issued
by the government, and obtaining such a license
can take considerable time. Such requirements
were put into place many years ago for reasons
that included national security, but they have been
more strictly interpreted and enforced since the
terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001.
License requirements and restrictions also vary
depending on the destination of the goods. In the
United States, for example, some items can be
exported to Canada without a license, but require
a license for shipment elsewhere. Licenses
cannot be obtained in the United States for export
to embargoed countries (presently Cuba, Iran,
Myanmar (Burma), North Korea, Sudan, and Syria).
Penalties for breaking these regulations can be
severe—in the United States, noncompliance can
result in fees of up to $1,000,000 (or up to five times
the value of the export, whichever is greater) per
violation and imprisonment for up to 10 years.
Thus, there is a strong impetus for companies to
comply with export licensing requirements.
These regulations are meant to stop “dual-use”
equipment or technologies—that is, items that
could potentially be used for both basic research
and for military or terrorism purposes—from
getting into the hands of terrorists or unfriendly
governments. A large variety of equipment and
technologies can be covered by these regulations,
including computers and software, centrifuges,
autoclaves, fermenters, cross flow filtration
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171
equipment, freeze-drying equipment, and radiation
detectors, as well as a variety of chemicals,
radiochemicals, medical or biological reagents,
and toxins. Equipment or components used in
processing (such as large-scale purification) are
potentially problematic, because similar processing steps can be used both in legitimate scientific
experiments and in the production of biological or
chemical weapons. These items can include such
common equipment as pumps and valves.
In some cases, obtaining an export license can
add substantially to the time required to receive
your shipment. For example, filtration cartridges,
which have a legitimate use in protein purification,
can also be used in bioweapons manufacturing,
and in one recent instance, obtaining an export
license for these items took about seven months.
There is no way around the potentially long delays
in these instances; the best you can do is to try to
plan your orders well in advance of when you will
need the equipment or supplies. Most companies
will provide information to you about exactly what
types of equipment will require an export license.
Despite these warnings, it is important to note
that most standard laboratory equipment and
reagents do not require export licenses. Even
orders for radiochemicals, which could be imagined
to cause difficulties, generally do not result in long
delays. This is because research scale quantities
are small, and the types of radiochemicals used in
biological experiments are not those used in the
manufacture of weapons.
An experienced company representative will know
the difference between equipment and reagents
that could legitimately be used in laboratory
experiments and those that are not legitimate.
A local representative also gains a sense of the
types of work going on in individual laboratories.
Particularly since 2001, big companies without
local representatives have become less willing
to provide a quote for dual-use equipment or
reagents unless they know who the end user will
be. Instead, they will sometimes turn a request for
a quote over to a company with a local representative who does know the individuals in a particular
region. In this regard, scientists may come out
ahead in that they will receive a quote from a
company able to supply local support.
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Service and Maintenance
Just as there are upfront costs associated with
using a forwarding agent or customs broker that
can in the end save money, there can be costs
associated with using an established local distributor associated with well-known companies,
rather than a foreign distributor or an unknown
distributor without a track record, that ultimately
represent money well spent. Such a decision can
have consequences beyond simply having the
equipment arrive safely.
Both large and small pieces of equipment often
require technical support in the initial setup phase,
as well as ongoing service and maintenance. An
overseas company without a local agent might
well offer a given piece of equipment at a lower
cost than a company with a local presence. This
situation might arise because the quote from the
overseas company is based on the cost of support
in Europe or North America, for example, rather
than in the country where you are. If you were to
select the company based on the cheapest quote
in this situation, you would not have a local agent
to rely on if the equipment requires servicing.
In general, this is a problem in countries with a
low volume of scientific equipment sold. On a
per-unit basis, it is more expensive to support one
DNA sequencer or synthesizer in a country like
Laos than it is to support the far greater number
of these units in a country like France. In lowvolume countries, education levels are generally
lower, and local people must be sent overseas to
be trained or a service agent must be brought in
from another country, all contributing to the cost
of supplying service.
This issue is further complicated by the fact
that funding organizations sometimes require
scientists to obtain bids for large equipment and
to accept the lowest bid. As just described, that
requirement might well leave you without
equipment support.
What strategies could you use to avoid finding
yourself in this situation? One approach is to
work with a trusted local distributing agent from
an early stage, during the grant-writing process.
The agent can work with you to put the required
specifications for a piece of equipment and its
associated service and maintenance contract
into your grant proposal, so that companies that
will not ultimately provide support are eliminated
from consideration. Such specifications might
include conditions such as: “Company supplying
equipment must have a local engineer trained in
product,” “Company must have onsite technical
support,” or “Company must have skilled technical
support in the local time zone.”
Attention to this issue might also save you from
dealing with companies with no scientific credentials at all, as the following example illustrates.
A scientist working at the Pasteur Institute in
Cambodia received funding from the World Health
Organization (WHO) office in Manila, Philippines.
WHO required that the scientist obtain bids for the
requested equipment, which he did. One of the
bids came from an established local distributor.
The agent for that distributor received an email
from another company asking for a quote for the
piece of equipment with the exact specifications
originally given to him by the scientist. This
company was a local trading company and had no
experience with scientific equipment whatsoever.
After the details of this situation were sorted out,
it turned out that a person working in the WHO
office in Manila gave unauthorized information to
a cousin in Cambodia who worked for the local
trading company. That cousin then attempted to
undermine the tender of the established distributor
by underbidding slightly. The local trading company
might have supplied the equipment, but certainly
could do nothing further, and the scientist would
have been out of luck if any sort of local support
was needed. However, because this scientist had
provided very specific requirements about support
in the grant application, he was able to purchase
the equipment from the established distributor.
Local Conditions
Knowledgeable local distributors and service personnel will also be familiar with specific problems
in the local infrastructure that can affect equipment
performance. For example, in some regions, voltage fluctuations can be extremely large, meaning
that equipment needs to be supplied with the
correct grounding devices. Working with the right
local distributor can potentially prevent damage to
your equipment or experiments.
Installing fancy equipment in labs in the South
should be done with great caution, even in settings that appear suitable. Papua New Guinea
is a middle-income country with fewer energy
problems compared to many West African
countries. My present laboratory in PNG is
well-equipped with air conditioning and facilities
for performing DNA-based assays. I recently
bought a $60,000 Bioplex instrument for performing mosquito diagnostic assays and put it
in a lab with window air conditioning. A few
weeks later, this very expensive equipment malfunctioned because the window air conditioner
caused vibrations in the walls that made the
laser readers alter the alignment. We had to fly
in a technician from Australia to fix the problem.
Luckily for us we had a good service agreement.
Remember to budget for equipment service by
technicians from more developed countries.
Moses Bockarie, Papua New Guinea
”
Establishing a Laboratory
after training abroad
If you have done most of your training in a rich
country, the complications of materials transfer
faced by any scientist in that region may be
magnified for you because of a lack of recent
knowledge of local customs and specific conditions.
In this situation, it can be very useful to spend a
month or two at your new job before starting to
set up your laboratory. Ask your new colleagues
about issues related to the infrastructure that
might cause problems with your equipment or
experiments. For example, in some places, the
air conditioning is turned off at 6:00 PM. A period
of re-familiarizing yourself may also allow you to
re-adapt to differences in communications which
can be quite striking between different countries.
There are places, for example, where it is not
uncommon for a person saying that he or she will
do a certain task to have no intention of actually
doing that task. Learning or re-learning to
distinguish when “yes” means “yes” would
obviously be useful.
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Responsibility
for materials
If an order goes astray and never arrives, who is
responsible? Materials can be sent “FOB origin” or
“FOB destination.” “FOB” means “Free on Board”
or “Freight on Board” and is used to indicate when
responsibility for the shipment transfers to the
recipient. If an item is “FOB Miami,” the shipper
is responsible for getting it to Miami and the recipient is responsible for getting it from there to his or
her own country. When businesses send materials
“FOB destination,” the supplier is responsible until
the scientist receives and accepts the material by
signing off when a shipment arrives.
Most materials are under warranty, and reputable
companies will replace missing or broken items for
free if you can show that the damage happened
while the materials were the seller’s responsibility
or in the hands of the seller’s agent (for example,
the seller’s shipping contractor). Some variations
on this theme are possible, however, depending
on the terms agreed upon for shipping. If the
recipient has made arrangements for clearing
materials through customs, for example, he or she
might become responsible for the shipment when
it reaches customs. In this situation, materials
damaged because of delays in customs would not
be replaced by the shipper. This type of circumstance provides another reason to rely on experts
for handling passage through customs.
Animals and Plants
Importing animals or plants can present particular
challenges, because the regulations can vary a
great deal depending on the country. Information
about which treaties the country enforces and
the local laws can be obtained from the country’s
consulate or its Web site. Professional assistance
might be required if there are incompatibilities
between the laws of the country exporting the
animals and those of the country importing them.
Again, a broker familiar with these regulations can
provide invaluable assistance. There may be quarantine requirements depending on the species and
country involved. Some countries require Veterinary
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Certificates for animal-derived materials and Phytosanitary Certificates for plant-derived materials.
The requirements of the importing country may
vary depending on the identity of the exporting
country. For example, animal-derived products from
one country might be of greater concern than the
same products from another country.
Sending materials that are not properly packed,
because the regulations don’t exist in your
country, may result in them being impounded
in other ports where strict rules apply. Always
pack your samples following international
shipping rules.
Moses Bockarie, Papua New Guinea
”
Physical Challenges
to Shipping Materials
Long Distances
Temperature
Many biological materials and reagents, ranging
from frozen tissue culture cells to enzymes and
vaccines, need to be kept cold during shipment
to retain viability or performance. The American
Type Culture Collection (ATCC; http://www.atcc.
org/) is a bioresource center that ships biological
materials such as bacteria, fungi, protozoa, plant
seeds, cell lines, viruses, and antisera throughout
the world, except to countries restricted by the
United States government. If possible, techniques
for shipping that bypass the need to keep materials cold are used. Obviously, shipping delays are
not as deleterious, and shipping is less expensive,
if materials are stable at ambient temperatures.
Sometimes biological samples can be shipped
spotted on filter paper.
For example, the Malaria Research and Reference
Reagent Resource Center (MR4; www.malaria.
mr4.org), a central source of malaria-related
organisms and reagents managed by the ATCC,
ships monkey blood infected with Plasmodium
falciparum, one of the parasites that causes
malaria, in this manner. Diagnostic antigens and
small quantities of DNA can be extracted from
these samples. Freeze-drying is sometimes used
to stabilize certain microorganisms (bacteria and
fungi) and some products such as enzymes, but
cannot be used for other types of materials such
as tissue culture cells, which must be shipped
frozen. Additionally, freeze-drying is both expensive and time-consuming, and is not an alternative
that would necessarily be available to individual
scientists. If materials must be kept frozen, it is
essential that good “cold chain management” is
used (discussed in more detail below). To move
materials as quickly and efficiently as possible,
ATCC uses freight forwarders who accompany
materials through customs.
You may or may not be involved in cold chain
management if you are on the receiving end of a
shipment. If you are sending heat-sensitive items
to distant colleagues, it is important to consider
the issues carefully. An excellent article about this
topic is listed in this chapter’s Resources
section (page 176). It stresses that many failures
to maintain the desired temperature come about
because of insufficient planning. In brief, important
points to consider are (i) packaging, (ii) choice of
shipping company, (iii) communications with that
company, and (iv) necessary documentation.
Specialized couriers that deal with pharmaceutical
products and reagents for the life sciences can
provide door-to-door service to most countries, and
might represent a good choice for sending important,
heat-sensitive materials [see, for example, Quick
International Courier (http://www.quickintl.com/)
or World Courier (www.worldcourier.com). Some
airline networks have procedures to handle such
shipments, and such couriers will use those
airlines. That option is not inexpensive, however.
It is important to communicate with the courier
early to work through important steps of the
process. They should know, for example, who
the customs broker is, who to contact if there
is a delay, and the hours when packages can be
received by the recipient. Packaging must be
determined after you establish the extremes in
temperature the shipment will likely encounter
(considering, for example, the expected temperature at both the sending and receiving ends)
and the length of time the shipment should take.
“Qualified” (or tested) packaging systems are
available from packaging vendors with a focus on
the pharmaceutical and biotechnology communities. Finally, customs paperwork should be ready
before the item is shipped. You should establish
what documentation is needed for both import and
export before shipping. Furthermore, you should
know who will pay the duty and value-added tax
when an item is imported, and make sure that
funds will be on hand for payment of those taxes.
One important challenge that we have faced is
that once or twice shipment of reagents was
delayed en route to us, and this delay was not
communicated to us and shipment arrived at the
weekend or over the holidays. The cold chain
was broken, thus resulting in the loss of these
expensive reagents. It is very important to keep
track of the reagents during their transportation
to their destination so that appropriate arrangements can be made to collect them as soon as
possible after their arrival in an effort to avert
their loss.
Susan Mutambu, Zimbabwe
Viability
”
The requirements for keeping organisms viable
during shipping vary enormously depending on
the species. Microbial cultures are often sent as
stab cultures in microtubes (which are small and
hard to break) at ambient temperatures. MR4,
discussed above, transfers mosquito vectors of
human malaria as eggs on damp filter paper. The
Jackson Laboratory (http://www.jax.org/index.
html), which ships mouse strains for biomedical
research to countries throughout the world, uses
specialized plastic containers for shipping. Water
is provided for mice in prepackaged, sterile, gelatinized water packets (Napa Nectar TM) instead of
in bottles or through other moisture sources.
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Recent Improvements
in Materials Transfer
This chapter has emphasized some of the difficulties
associated with shipping laboratory equipment and
reagents to countries in the developing world. It
is important to realize, however, that the situation
has undergone dramatic improvement in the recent
past. The biggest change is in communications,
which are strikingly enhanced in Southeast Asia,
North Africa, Eastern Europe, and Latin America
as compared to the situation just ten years ago.
Cell phones are now almost ubiquitous among
scientists and those who work in materials
transfer. Broadband internet connections are very
good in many regions of the world now, allowing
easy communication by email. Skype (http://www.
skype.com), which routes voice conversations
over the Internet, is now available in a broad range
of countries; its use can dramatically reduce the
cost of direct international communications.
These changes mean that limitations to communications—both technical and financial—among
scientists, distributors, support staff, and other
key agents generally no longer represent a bottleneck in the materials transfer process.
Improved communications have also resulted in
much greater availability of product information for
scientists, with catalogs, product specifications,
and sometimes prices available online. Access
to such information allows scientists to compare
prices. This ability can lead to surprises or misunderstandings, because costs of equipment and
other materials can be significantly higher in developing versus developed regions of the world. One
key reason for these differences is the increased
support costs in the latter, as discussed above.
A number of international shippers are now very
well established in many locations, also leading to
improvements in materials transfer. For example,
Federal Express (FedEx; www.fedex.com) and
DHL (http://www.dhl.com) have local offices and
couriers in many locations, providing improved
infrastructure for shipping. World Courier
(http://www.worldcourier.com), another major
international courier company, is particularly good
with cold chain preservation and clinical materials.
Despite these improvements, barriers remain for
transfer of materials to and from the developing
world.
RESOURCES
D. Catizone, Planning for Your Cold Chain Shipment: The
Forgotten Science of Clinical Research and Development.
BioProcessing Journal, September/October 2005, pp. 2-4.
This article is available at the Quick International Courier
site: http://www.quickintl.com/.
For researchers collaborating with colleagues in the
United States, the application for the U.S. Public Health
Service permit to import or transport etiologic agents,
hosts, or vectors of human disease can be found at:
http://www.cdc.gov/od/eaipp/forms/Permit_to_Import_or_
Transport_Etiologic_Agents_Hosts_or_Vectors_of_Human_
Diseases_fillable1-17.pdf.
Guidelines for the Humane Transportation of Research
Animals (2006), Institute for Laboratory Animal Research,
is available from this site: http://books.nap.edu/openbook.
php?isbn=0309101107.
Sources for a number of publications about international
requirements for shipping dangerous goods, some of
which are discussed above, are described on this site:
http://www.phmsa.dot.gov/hazmat/regs/international#icao.
The IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations Manual is available
from this site: http://www.iata.org/ps/publications/dgr.htm.
Courier companies are familiar with the required
international guidelines for packaging biohazardous material and generally advise the researchers about the correct procedures. In addition,
they tend to assist us to obtain the necessary
export licenses.
Brian Eley, South Africa
176
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The IATA Live Animal Regulations manual is available from
this site: http://www.iata.org/ps/publications/lar.
appendix
quotations
In the course of putting this book together, we
asked researchers to submit quotes for potential
inclusion at the beginnings of chapters. Many of
them were wonderful, and we have included a
selection of those not used to head chapters here
so that readers may enjoy them.
“La science n’a pas de patrie. Elle est en effet le patrimoine commun de l’humanité. La connaissance
est une, par -delà les frontières, qui sont souvent
des cicatrices de l’histoire.” —Louis Pasteur
“One never notices what has been done; one can
only see what remains to be done.” —Marie Curie
“No hay riqueza tan segura como un amigo
seguro.” —Juan Luis Vives
“Ciencia es una manera de interpretar la realidad que
desecha dogmas, milagros y el principio de
autoridad.” —Marcelino Cereijido, about training
with Bernardo Houssay
“In nature there is nothing superfluous.” —Averroes
“There is no shortcut to any place worth going.”
“Success leaves clues, so does failure.”
“A great secret of success is to go through life as a
man who never gets used up.” —Albert Schweitzer
“A man of ability and desire to accomplish something
can do anything.” —Donald Kircher
“Action is the antidote to despair.” —Joan Baez
“All progress is precarious, and the solution of one
problem brings us face to face with another
problem.” —Martin Luther King, Jr.
“All the technology in the world will never replace a
positive attitude.” —Harvey Mackay
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so
much.” —Helen Keller
“An investment in knowledge always pays the best
interest.” —Benjamin Franklin
“Anger is never without reason, but seldom with a
good one.” —Benjamin Franklin
“Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to get
leisure.” —Benjamin Franklin
“Encouragement is oxygen to the soul.”
—Harvey Mackay
“If there is no wind, row.”
“Failure is just part of the culture of innovation.
Accept it and become stronger.” —Albert Yu
“You miss 100% of the shots you do not take.”
“He who is well prepared has half won the battle.”
“Positive attitudes…come in unlimited quantities.
Everybody can have one free.” —Harvey Mackay
“Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles.”
“When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.” —Dalai Lama
“A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a
prepared mind.” —Albert von Szent-Gyorgyi
—Portuguese proverb
—Confucius
“If you want happiness for a lifetime – help the next
generation.” —Chinese proverb
“It is better to build bridges than walls.”
—Swahili Proverb
Appendix
177
“Knowledge is power.” —Sir Francis Bacon
“Nothing succeeds like the appearance of success.”
—Christopher Lasch
“One sure-fire way to stay creative: force yourself to
learn something new.” —Harvey Mackay
“It is not the strongest of the species that survive,
nor the most intelligent, but the one most
responsive to change.” —Charles Darwin
”Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together
is progress. Working together is success.”
—Henry Ford
“Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man,
and writing an exact man.” —Sir Francis Bacon
“Management is doing things right; leadership is
doing the right things.” —Peter Drucker
“Real success is finding your lifework in the work that
you love.” —David McCullough
“Hire people who are better than you are, then leave
them to get on with it...Look for people who will
aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the
routine.” —David Ogilvy
“Success is the ability to go from one failure to
another with no loss of enthusiasm.”
—Sir Winston Churchill
“The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it
on. It is never any use to oneself.” —Oscar Wilde
“To know how to wonder is the first step of the mind
toward discovery.” —Louis Pasteur
“Understand that the right to choose your own path
is a sacred privilege. Use it. Dwell in possibility.”
—Oprah Winfrey
“You always pass failure on the way to success.”
—Mickey Rooney
“All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires
depends on the education of youth.” —Aristotle
“What you always do before you make a decision
is consult. The best public policy is made when
you are listening to people who are going to be
impacted. Then, once policy is determined, you
call on them to help you sell it.” —Elizabeth Dole
“Divide and rule, a sound motto. Unite and lead, a
better one.” —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Happiness belongs to the self-sufficient.” —Aristotle
“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is
the key to success. If you love what you are doing,
you will be successful.” —Albert Schweitzer
“Time is neutral and does not change things. With
courage and initiative, leaders change things.”
—Jesse Jackson
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“No hay riqueza tan seguar como un amigo seguro”
—Juan Luis Vives
“…the way in which scientific endeavors are pursued
around the world is marked by clear inequalities.
Developing countries, for example, generally
spend much less than 1 percent of their gross
domestic product on scientific research, whereas
rich countries devote between 2 and 3 percent.
The number of scientists in proportion to population in the developing countries is 10 to 30 times
smaller than in developed countries. Ninety-five
percent of the new science in the world is created
in the countries comprising only one-fifth of the
world’s population. And much of that science—in
the realm of health, for example—neglects the
problems that afflict most of the world’s people.”
—Kofi Annan
“Starting your own lab is a lot like getting your
driver’s license: it’s an exhilarating time. Now you
have the freedom to go where you want to go and
go as fast as you want to go. On the other hand,
you have to pay for the gas. You’re not just a
passenger anymore—you have responsibilities.”
—Tom Cech
acronyms
GLP
Good Laboratory Practice
AC/AQ
Artesunate/amodiaquine
GMP
Good Manufacturing Practice
ATCC
American Type Culture Collection
BIO
Biotechnology Industry Organization
GRIP
NIH Fogarty International Center Global Research Initiative Program
CAS
Chinese Academy of Science
HINARI
WHO Health InterNetwork Access to
Research Initiative
CBD
Convention on Biodiversity
IATA
International Air Transport Association
CIIT
Collaborative Institutional Training
Institute
IATA LAR Live Animal Regulations
CIOMS
Council for International Organizations
of Medical Sciences
CITES
Convention on International Trade
in Endangered Species of Wild
Fauna and Flora
CITI
Collaborative Institutional Training
Initiative
CONICET Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones
Científicas y Técnicas, the Argentinian national research agency
ICAO
International Civil Aviation Organization
ICAOTI
ICAO Technical Instructions
ICGEB
International Centre for Genetic
Engineering and Biotechnology
ICH
International Conference on
Harmonization of Technical
Requirements for Registration of
Pharmaceuticals for Human Use
ICMJE
International Committee of Medical
Journal Editors
CSR
NIH Center for Scientific Review
IEC
Independent Ethics Committee
CV
Curriculum vitae
IMO
International Maritime Organization
DG
Dangerous Goods
DHL
A German-owned international shipping company. The initials DHL originally stood for “Dalsey, Hillblom and Lynn”
but now stand alone
INSERM
Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale, the French
national agency dedicated to biological,
medical, and public health research
IP
Intellectual Property
DNDi
Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative
EPO
European Patent Office
IRB
Institutional Review Board (IRB) or
Independent Ethics Committee
FDC
Fixed dose combination
IRID
NIH International Research in Infectious
Diseases Program
FIC
NIH Fogarty International Center
IVF
In vitro fertilization
FIRCA
NIH Fogarty International Research
Collaboration Award
JPO
Japan Patent Office
GATT
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
KIPO
Korea Patent Office
GCP
Good Clinical Practice
LAR (IATA-LAR) Live Animal Regulations
of the IATA
GHRI
Global Health Research Institute
MIM
Multilateral Initiative on Malaria
appendix
179
MOU
Memorandum of Understanding
RFP
Request for Proposals
MR4
Malaria Research and Reference
Reagent Resource Center
RFA
Request for Applications
SIPO
China Patent Office
NGO
Non-governmental organization
SRA
NIH Scientific Review Administrator
NIAID
NIH National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases
TA
Teaching Assistant
NIH
U.S. National Institutes of Health
TDR (WHO-TDR) WHO Tropical Disease Research program
OIE
Office International des Épizooties
(World Organization for Animal Health)
TRIPs
Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property Rights
PA
Program Announcement
UNICEF
United Nations Children’s Fund
PCR
Polymerase Chain Reaction
PCT
Patent Cooperation Treaty
USPTO
United States Patent and Trademark
Office
PERT
Program (or Project) Evaluation and
Review Technique
WBS
Work Breakdown Structure
WHO
The World Health Organization
PI
Principal Investigator
WIPO
World Intellectual Property Organization
PPP
Public/Private Partnership
WMA
World Medical Association
WTO
World Trade Organization
QANGO Quasi-autonomous non-governmental
organization
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notes
notes
181
notes continued
182
e x c e ll e n c e e v e r y w h e r e
notes continued
notes
183
notes continued
184
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e x c e ll e n c e
e v e r y w h e r e
A R e s o u r c e f o r S c i e n t i s t s L a u n c h i n g R e s e ar c h Car e e r s i n E m e r g i n g S c i e n c e C e n t e r s
Science is an international endeavor. Wherever it is
done, it connects us to the scientists, scholars, and
philosophers of the past and the future. Our work as a
scientific community can make human lives better,
healthier, and longer, and can improve the economies of
nations, regions, and the world. To be a scientist is both
a privilege and a passion, but launching a career in
science is difficult. Success as a scientist will depend
on many things­—from intelligence and creativity to luck;
from being a good team player to being an independent
thinker and driver of your own work; from bringing out
the best in the people with whom you work to being
an accurate and respected authority whose fairness
and good ideas are known to other researchers,
organizations, and perhaps governments. We hope the
insights in this book will help you build a career where
you aim higher, reach farther, and perform better than
what you may have thought would be your best.
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