Kelly Lab Guidelines and Policies

Spring 2008 onwards

Please refer to these guidelines about common lab practices, including: Conferences, Travel Reimbursement, Reference Letters, Ordering, Reimbursements, Paper Submission, Co-Authorship Guidelines, and Misc. Items.

Let me know if there are any changes that should be made to this document. - Maggi

 

Graduate Student Conference Policy

Conferences

Conference presentations are important for professional development.
In the eighteen months before your graduation they are increasingly important.
You each should think about what conferences you want to attend and discuss these with me.
If there is more than one conference in a year, you will submit to me your ranking of all potential conferences, which we'll discuss.

Abstract submission
As you represent the lab when you deliver a paper, I would like to review the abstract before it is submitted.

Conference Expense Guidelines
Never assume all your conference fees will be covered by me or by a grant, unless you have written a grant that will cover this particular conference. I will endeavor to assist you in your conference costs. But in light of the fact that these are difficult financial times, here are the guidelines.

Priority
Priority in funding goes to those nearing graduation, and for those presenting a paper covering work completed or in progress, and for work done in my lab.

Department Travel Funds
You must apply for all departmental and conference financial aid. Money received from the department must be used for the conference for which you applied for the funding. Department travel grants are for travel, not for your personal gain – it must be applied to conference-related expenses. Any violations of this rule will result in you being barred from all future departmental travel money (department rule) and all future travel money from me. If these require letters from me, please be timely in getting your request in to me.

If you are planning on getting reimbursed by me for travel, please clear all travel plans with me prior to making your reservations so I can budget for the expense.

This is all dependent on available funding.

Updated February 28, 2008

Travel Reimbursement Policy

Once you have returned from the conference, and have expenses that I have agreed to cover, you must complete a travel reimbursement form, which can be found here.

• First, make sure that I have agreed to reimburse you for your expenses, and know the cost.
• Turn in to me a completely filled out “Travel Reimbursement Form”, with any relevant receipts attached to blank white pieces of paper with tape.
• Travel forms are turned into the purchasing department once I have signed them and added a grant number.
• Keep a copy of your travel form, and a copy of the receipts.
• Be patient.

Updated January 3, 2008

Reference Letter Policy

Letters of Reference
Letters of reference are very important for your career. I take letter writing on your behalf very seriously. If you plan on asking me for a letter of reference, please follow the following guidelines:

Please accompany your request with:

• If possible, a list of all letters (that you know about) I will have to write, and deadlines for each.
• Complete address and contact information for each letter recipient.
• Whether or not email is acceptable.
• A job description, or proposal description for each position/grant to which you are applying, or location to find such.
• Your current vitae.
• Any other information you want to make sure I include in the letter.
• One addressed, stamped envelope for each letter.

These practices will help me write the best letter for you that I can.

Updated December 20, 2004

Ordering Policy

Preparing Purchase Orders can be a pain, and you can help me help you by following these easy instructions. If you need to purchase something for your work and expect a grant to cover it:

• Make sure you clear it with me first, and present me with some options on pricing. Then follow the PO instructions below.

If you are requested to fill out a Purchase Order (PO) form by me, please make sure you follow these guidelines:

• Use the most current PO form, which can be found here.
• Type directly on form if at all possible, don’t write on the paper form.
• Fill the form out completely with the exception of the grant charged, and the PI signature, and include:
  • Vendor Name
  • Vendor Phone
  • Information about catalog #, or item #, or color: be specific
  • Attach any and all information from the vendor (quote, print out from website, etc.) that will make it easier for the purchasing agent to find what you want
• DO NOT assume I will fill all the details out, or that the purchasing agent knows about your field, or about your technology. They have to do hundreds of these a week, make it CLEAR for them.
• Turn the form into me via email, I will either submit it to purchasing, or give it to you to turn into purchasing.
• Please do not email me constantly about your purchase, or call purchasing to check on status of order; some vendors like TSW are helpful in tracking, many are not. Unfortunately, there is no way yet to track orders easily.

Updated January 2, 2008

Reimbursement Policy

Since the purchasing process can be cumbersome, anything you can purchase on your credit card can speed up the process.

• First, make sure I agree to reimburse you for the item, and know the cost.
• Buy the item, and keep all receipts.
• Turn in to me a completely filled out “Check Request Form”, which can be found here, with your receipt attached to a blank white piece of paper with tape.
• Turn your form into me, and I will add the correct grant number and sign it. You can submit the form to the Purchasing people.
• Keep a copy of your request form, and a copy of the receipt.
• Be patient.

Updated January 3, 2008

Paper Submission

This section largely relates to graduate students, but staff should review this as well. Your academic career depends on you publishing quality, innovative research papers that are reviewed by peers and published in respected journals. Under most circumstances, I will not sign your dissertation until 3 of your chapters are in review in quality journals. In most cases, I will be corresponding author on all research papers that results from grants that I serve as co-PI or PI, or on research papers for which I have significant oversight and contribution. This is to insure continuity, and to allow readers to contact someone about the research once you have graduated. These guidelines do not apply to research that originated outside of my lab (research that you bring in from a previous group for example; or if you have an affiliation with another group); in those cases I ask that you to keep me informed of those research endeavors, just out of courtesy.

Updated February 25, 2008

 

Co-Authorship Guidelines

Your grad handbook has some guidelines on co-authorship on journal articles. Another good one is here. I have modified them, and discussed these changes with the lab January 31, 2007, and again April 30, 2009. As of 2009, I am adopting the more biological model of authorship, where first author typically makes the greatest contribution and the last has a leadership role. The order of the other authors can be determined by a multiple criteria decision approach.

First, we decide on a set of items that comprise a manuscript, assess the relative importance if each item, and score each person's contribution to each item as a percentage.

Here are the revised guidelines.

		Contributions from co-authors
Research Activities	Total Contribution	Author1	Author2	…	…
Grant Funding/ Initial Proposal Writing
	10 points
Planning/ Research Design
	20 points
Data Collection
	10 points
Analyzing/ Interpreting
	25 points
Background Literature Review
	10 points
Writing
	25 points
Total	100	0	0	0	0

Contributions from each major area should add across authors to sum on left. Totals per author are used to determine authors, and order of authors. A threshold of 10-20% is used to determine authorship, but this is decided for each paper. For example, someone who helped with only data collection, or only with grant writing, is not automatically an author. In these cases, an acknowledgement might be appropriate.

When Acknowledgements might be appropriate:

1. Thanks for reviewing;
2. Provision of lab space or equipment;
3. Funding agencies (with grant number);
4. Data collection/entry;
5. Field assistance;
6. Help with communication with NGOs or other on-the-ground agencies;
7. Help with access;
8. Others….

For example: the contributions below would result in the author stream: Rumpole, Horace, Phyllida Trant and Hilda Rumpole. 2009. The Penge Bulgalow Murders. Penguin Books; with Claude getting an acknowledgement.

		Contributions from co-authors
Research Activities	Total Contribution	Hilda	Horace	Phyllida	Claude
Grant Funding/ Initial Proposal Writing
	10 points	8	2
Planning/ Research Design
	20 points	10	5	5
Data Collection
	10 points			5	5
Analyzing/ Interpreting
	25 points	5	15	5
Background Literature Review
	10 points	3	5		2
Writing
	25 points	15	5	5
Total	100	41	32	20	7

Updated April 21, 2009

Misc. Items

Don’t forget to:

1. send me pictures, especially from the field;
2. look out for funding opportunities;
3. keep outreach in mind; how does your work matter? To whom?
4. think about underserved groups; how can we interact?

Updated February 15, 2007