Deutsch One basic element of publication ethics requires that an author give proper credit to those who contributed to the research. There are two ways to violate this guideline: not giving enough credit and giving too much credit. Too little credit: Researchers are often accused of claiming more credit than they deserve for a notable research result. Claiming a breakthrough without acknowledging previous work leading up to it is quite common in the history of science and has led to some famous controversies over priority. In fact, Lavoisier may not have been the “Father of Chemistry” so much as the gifted pupil of several other researchers. He definitely built on earlier work in his field but had a way of writing his results that implied, without quite saying so, that he had come up with all the ideas on his own. If deliberate, this was unethical. Isaac Newton, though he modestly spoke of standing on the shoulders of giants, was not [...]
Building a Research Program: What Students Look for in a Professor
If a professor is the brains of a research group, his graduate and postdoctoral students are his hands. If he is the general, they are the soldiers, and the officers too, if they are good. Since the success of a research program depends to a large degree on the abilities of the graduate students, it is important to attract the best ones. What do graduate and post doctoral students look for in a prospective adviser? Interesting research projects: This is the most important factor. Students want a program that they can get excited about, one which will justify the long hours they will be working. A professor’s reputation in the field is not as important as might be imagined. Most graduate students don’t pick advisers based on their reputations; they pick an adviser who has a research idea that intrigues them. When I was a grad student at the University of Illinois a new faculty member arrived fresh from postdoctoral [...]
International Collaboration: Boon or Bane?
Concerning research collaboration there are two schools of thought. One is “two heads are better than one.” Different researchers working together on a project can produce more than twice their separate efforts if their skills and abilities compliment each other. Some of the biggest scientific achievements were achieved by collaborations. The deciphering of the DNA code by Watson and Crick is a famous example. Actually, it was the team of Watson, Crick, and Franklin, since without the superb X-ray crystallography and chemical insight of Rosaline Franklin, Watson and Crick would probably have been beaten by other groups in the race to discover the true structure. Linus Pauling was neck and neck in the race, and had plenty of insight, but lacking Franklin’s images, he was misled into proposing the wrong structure. Another school of thought on collaboration is “too many cooks spoil the broth.” Some researchers like working on their own. Sometimes this is simply due to personalities—some people aren’t [...]
Catch their Eye with Graphics
Remember the time when journal articles were black and white? Black and white print, black and white illustrations, with X’s and hollow O’s and solid O’s to show the different plots? No more. Newsprint has given way to glossy paper and sharp multicolor illustrations are not only the norm—they are required by some journals. Every submission to many major journals must be accompanied by a full color graphic to illustrate the major topic of the article. Some of these graphics are excellent; others are confusing and distracting. If you are to impress the editor and catch the reader’s eye, take a good hard look at the graphic and ask yourself the following questions: (1) Does it refer to the major theme of the paper? (2) Is it easy to understand at a glance? (3) Does it make the reader want to turn from the table of contents to the paper? The best way to illustrate these principals is to take [...]
Collaboration in Publication
Writing a review article or a book is a lot of work, which is why many writers will make it a team effort with one or more collaborators. Here are three ways to divide the task so as to not only reduce the work load but also produce a higher quality product. Writer/Editor: Here one party writes a section or a chapter and then hands it over to his partner for critique. Based on his comments the first author will re-write the text. This is a good plan when one party is willing to do the majority of the work but wants some additional insight from an expert in the field to make sure he has not made mistakes or left out any important subjects. Alternating chapters: This is a true 50/50 proposition where both parties agree on an outline of the content of a book or review article and write alternating chapters or sections. When both authors finish a [...]
