Graduate Research

A Guide for Students in the Sciences

Robert V. Smith, Llewellyn D. Densmore, Edward F. Lener

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9780128037911
• Edition: 4
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Biology
• Index: Biological Sciences

Graduate Research is an all-in-one resource for prospective and matriculated graduate students in the sciences. The newly revised edition includes updates to every chapter. Graduate Research covers a range of topics including writing and preparation of research proposals, developing and refining teaching skills, and ethics and compliance areas such as research involving human subjects and animals.

Graduate Research helps readers navigate the multidimensional and interdisciplinary world of scientific research and it is an invaluable resource for graduate researchers as well as those in advising or mentoring roles.

• Discusses a broad range of topics including time management, library and literature work, and grant support
• Includes a new chapter on career planning and development with advice on careers in academia, government, and the private sector
• Contains chapters that promote the development of a varied set of communication skills
• Greatly expanded treatment of graduate study and research in international settings

Chapter 1

Getting Started

Robert V. Smith^*

Llewellyn D. Densmore^†

Edward F. Lener^**
* Collaborative Brain Trust University Consulting (CBT UC), Sacramento, CA, USA
^† Department of Biological Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA
^** University Libraries, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA

Abstract

Entering graduate school marks a turning point in many lives. Graduate education is designed for individual development and growth. With commitment, hard work, and some guidance, students become independent scholars and researchers. For many, the choice of attending graduate school begins with independent exploration as a baccalaureate student, including opportunities to engage in undergraduate research. Choosing a particular graduate program is also important and there is value in putting choices into a global perspective. Guidance is available for choosing graduate institutions and programs, including programs outside the United States. For illustrative purposes short biographical sketches have been included for three students who studied in doctoral programs in Australia and the United Kingdom. Assuming acceptance and enrollment into a program nationally or abroad, insight is provided on who’s who and what’s what in graduate research units and universities.

Keywords

choice

institution

location

program

settling-in

Outline

Choosing Graduate Study in the Sciences 2

Investigating Possibilities for Graduate Study in the Sciences 3

University Organization 15

The Players 17

Allegiances and Obligations 19

Exultation is the going
Of an inland soul to sea,
Past the houses – past the headlands –
Into deep Eternity –

Bred as we, among the mountains,
Can the sailor understand
The divine intoxication
Of the first league out from land?

– Emily Dickinson (1830–1886), American poet and writer Part Four: Time and Eternity VII, 1924

Entering graduate school marks a turning point in many lives. Graduate education is designed for individual development and growth. With commitment, hard work, and some guidance, students become independent scholars and researchers. For many, the choice of attending graduate school begins with independent exploration as a baccalaureate student, including opportunities to engage in undergraduate research. Choosing a particular graduate program is also important. After acceptance and enrollment, you will want to know who’s who and what’s what in a graduate research unit and university.

Choosing graduate study in the sciences

Undergraduate study in the sciences, particularly for science majors, should lead to an understanding that developing research expertise will become increasingly critical to twenty-first century professionals. For members of earlier generations, research was not considered an essential part of undergraduate curricula. This is not currently the case at many top-tier research universities as well as smaller institutions that have developed a variety of undergraduate research structures as part of recruitment, retention, and graduation strategies.

During the past two decades, many if not all US research universities have developed infrastructure and other resources to enhance undergraduate research opportunities across disciplines. Among the student benefits of these commitments are: (1) increased awareness, confidence, and understanding; (2) persistence and retention toward graduation; (3) enhanced educational experiences; (4) enlarged expectations of earning advanced degrees (especially PhDs), particularly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and social and economic sciences fields; (5) the development of general academic skills that are transferable across content areas; and (6) evidence that equivalent benefits exist across different genders and ethnic backgrounds [1,2]. In a practical sense, let’s explore briefly how undergraduate research plays out in a typical college or university.

The inspiration to consider pursuing undergraduate research may originate from a class or classes with an effective teacher. If he or she is active in research (as indicated by perusal of their website), you could ask if there might be an opportunity to join her or his group. The involvement will frequently be through an independent study or a formal undergraduate research course, or through an arrangement where you might receive a stipend for working a nominal number of hours per week. Before signing up you should seek out students (including graduate students) who may have worked previously with this professor. Determine if undergraduates are engaged meaningfully in the professor’s research and are integral parts of her or his research group.

Mark Batzer, a well established biological sciences professor at Louisiana State University, engages commonly undergraduates in his research group, as evidenced on his website [3]. When you hear him give a talk, he remarks pointedly about contributions of undergraduates to research pursued through his larger research group. Indeed, we have even heard him speak about how undergraduates have appeared as first authors on prominent publications. Professor Batzer is clearly the type of mentor that undergraduates should seek out.

Besides opportunities for research as a regular part of an undergraduate science curriculum, universities frequently have special summer undergraduate research programs, many of which may be funded through grants. The National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experience Undergraduate (REU) program, for example, is well known for offering opportunities to students not only at home institutions but also from around the country. Prospective undergraduate researchers in fields from astronomical sciences to physics to social, behavioral, and economic sciences can query a specific NSF site [4] to determine institutions and programs where they may apply for individual REU awards. Besides NSF, a number of other agencies – public and private (e.g., Howard Hughes Medical Institute) – support undergraduate research, and interested students can find out more about such awards from their institution’s sponsored research office.

Investigating possibilities for graduate study in the sciences

Whatever efforts may have influenced your choice to pursue graduate study in the sciences, it will be helpful to have a plan for identifying the best options for application and possible matriculation. This plan can be built on the following principles, resources, and actions:

• Many of North America’s best research universities belong to the Association of American Universities (AAU), including 62 private and public institutions, and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), with its 234 member institutions in 50 states, the District of Columbia, and US territories.

• Since graduate education is stressed markedly at research universities, a perusal of the AAU [5] and APLU [6] institutional lists will provide a first estimation of potential possibilities.

• Great research universities also stress doctoral education, and the National Research Council (NRC) survey of doctoral programs [7] can be used to determine those programs that are ranked topmost among the 5000 programs evaluated within 62 fields spread across 221 institutions.

• Additional information on graduate program qualities, including master’s programs, is available through a graduate school guide offered by phds.org [8].

• With a further refined list of program possibilities in hand, seek advice from favorite professors and their department chairs or heads. You can anticipate that some advisors may steer you to their alma maters, but most will provide open-minded advice on the best choices in disciplinary and interdisciplinary programs.

• All the while, you can be doing Internet work on your own. Great graduate programs are noted for excellent faculty, competitive support for students (tuition and benefits, stipends and supportive resources such as travel), coherent and robust curricula, and reputations for outstanding research. It is important to stress at this juncture that graduate students, particularly doctoral students, infrequently pay full tuition and fees, and often qualify for stipend and salary support through fellowships and assistantships, respectively. These facts set graduate education apart from postgraduate professional education (e.g., medical and dental schools) where tuition, fees, and stipend support are rarely part of an admission package. Here again, faculty advisors and other members of the faculty and administration associated with your study major...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Author Biographies
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Getting Started
• Chapter 2: Attitudes, Commitments, and Creativity
• Chapter 3: Making Choices
• Chapter 4: Time Management
• Chapter 5: Principles of Scientific Research
• Chapter 6: Ethics and the Scientist
• Chapter 7: Library and Literature Work
• Chapter 8: Writing and Speaking Skills
• Chapter 9: Preparing Theses and Dissertations
• Chapter 10: Presentation and Publication of Papers
• Chapter 11: Research Involving Human Subjects and Animals and Biohazards and Laboratory Safety
• Chapter 12: Getting Grant Support
• Chapter 13: The Graduate Researcher and Teaching
• Chapter 14: Getting a Job
• Chapter 15: Shaping a Career
• References
• Subject Index
• Sync with Jellybooks