funding. Then later in your graduate studies, when you become a dissertator, look at fellowship opportunities again. Although there are not as many options as there are at the beginning of your graduate studies, in many fields there are dissertator fellowships that you can apply to which will help speed up your degree completion.
2.6 UNDERSTANDING THE ORGANIZATION OF YOUR RESEARCH GROUP
After you have joined a research group (or even while you are in the process of determining if a research group is a good fit for you), it is important to understand how the group is organized.
There will be research projects underway—some ramping up, some ongoing, and others winding down. You will be involved in at least one in detail, but you should also understand the basic themes of the other topics that your colleagues within the research group are engaging with. Having the basic framework of the research topics will allow you to sort and process additional information that you pick up in research group meetings, conversations with other research group members, and interactions with your research mentor.
Student Perspective
“My research group … usually meets on a weekly basis to give updates on progress and get advice on how to proceed if we have a problem. I find this to be very beneficial because it helps me get a feel for what everyone else in my group is working on. Although it is hard to follow a lot of the time, it’s good to learn what their projects are…”
Initially these interactions, particularly in research group meetings, may seem like a waste of time because nearly everything that is discussed is going over your head. But it is important to persist and try to follow as much of the information being exchanged as possible. You can also connect with one of the other more experienced students afterward to ask then to help you fill in some of the gaps. With time, you will be able, not only to understand more of what is being discussed, but also help provide useful feedback and ideas to the group yourself. Just keep in mind that it takes time to come up to speed, but you will make progress if you set goals for yourself that sometimes feel like a stretch.
Student Perspective
“Where I used to attend group meetings with glazed over eyes, I am now able [to] see what the other people are actually doing. However, I am usually not able to contribute too much because I still lack a significant amount of knowledge. Therefore, my main goal in the coming year is to be able to talk more in group meetings and provide the other group members with some helpful comments.”
Student Perspective
“I think the most crucial element in my development during these meetings was that with every passing week, I felt more and more comfortable with the research, eventually to the point where I could try to suggest explanations and various solutions to problems in conjunction with the same inputs from the other members of the meeting. Having my ideas considered in a setting with three other people with considerably more experience in the field was very rewarding. The collaborative effort of people from different backgrounds to develop solutions to a problem or explanations for a phenomenon has become one of my favorite elements of research.”
You may be paid to do research (for instance as a research assistant or as hourly pay) or you may be doing research for credit. Either way, it is likely that there is some type of funding supporting your salary and/or the purchases of resources that you need to conduct the research. You should understand what the funding source is for the research you are pursuing. It may be a federal grant, an industry contract, institutional funds that your research mentor has at their disposal, or some other mechanism. There may be multiple funding mechanisms supporting the various projects and people involved in the research group.
As a member of a research group, you also need to get to know the others engaged in the research group aside from your research mentor. Research groups come in many different sizes, from the small tight-knit groups to large international collaborations. There may be undergraduate researchers, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, scientists, and faculty members. Your research group may also be collaborating with other research groups. These people may be working directly with you, using similar or complementary techniques, sharing research space with you, or they may be working at a different location or on a project that does not overlap with yours. Regardless, it is important to know who the research group members are and how they are connected to the work you are undertaking.
ASSIGNMENT 2-8:INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT – MAP THE ORGANIZATION OF YOUR RESEARCH GROUP
Create a visual depiction, or map, of the research you are currently working in (or planning to join). Talk with your research mentor and other lab members to understand what projects are underway, who are the people involved, and how the research is funded. You might depict one or more of the following.
• A diagram of the funded projects showing how they are interrelated, who is working on each, and what funding supports each person/project.
• For a highly collaborative group: this would include how the group collaborates with other individual researchers, research groups, and institutions across the ongoing projects.
• For an experimental group: the layout of physical lab space, how the experiments are organized, who utilizes on each piece of equipment, and how they projects/people are funded.
• For a computational group: the research projects that the group has going on and connections between the projects, people, and software being used/developed.
1National Academy of Engineering, “NAE Grand Challenges for Engineering,” http://www.engineeringchallenges.org.
2Seibert, S. E., Kraimer, M. L., and Crant, J. M., 2001. What do proactive people do? A longitudinal model linking proactive personality and career success. Personnel Psychology, 54(4), 845–874.
3Poorman, M., 2019. GradHacker, “Hacking Grad School,” Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/gradhacker/hacking-grad-school.
4Seibert, S. E., Kraimer, M. L., and Crant, J. M., 2001. What do proactive people do? A longitudinal model linking proactive personality and career success. Personnel Psychology, 54(4), 845–874.
5National Academies Press, Understanding the Educational and Career Pathways of Engineers, 2018. https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25284/understanding-the-educational-and-career-pathways-of-engineers.
6Council of Graduate Schools, “April 15 Resolution: Resolution Regarding Graduate Scholars, Fellows, Trainees, and Assistants,” http://cgsnet.org/april-15-resolution.
7Doubleday, J., 2013. Earnings Gap Narrows, but College Education Still Pays, Report Says, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 7.
8Council of Graduate Schools, 2013. “Open Doors with a Doctorate.”
9Council of Graduate Schools, 2013. “Why Should I Get a Master’s Degree.”
10Council of Graduate Schools, 2013. “Financing Graduate Education.”
CHAPTER 3
Becoming a Researcher
3.1 DEVELOPING
