Entering graduate school, for many of us, heralds a time of rapid change and maturing as professionals. But a lot of that maturing comes about through painful lessons about how to be good scientists. Sometimes much of this wisdom has already been written about and can be given to graduate students at the start of their degree to help them see the pitfalls many of us fall into as we develop into professionals.
What literature (papers, unpublished work, blog posts, books even) do you consider to be fundamental to new graduate students in the sciences? What wisdom or resources do you have now that you wish you had when you were starting? I'd like to focus on broad stuff- not necessarily fundamental papers specific to a field, though those also have value.
Three pieces that were helpful to me were:
Forscher 1963. Chaos in the brickyard. Science.
Stearns. Some modest advice for graduate students. http://stearnslab.yale.edu/some-modest-advice-graduate-students
Huey. Reply to Stearns: Some acynical advice for graduate students. http://faculty.washington.edu/hueyrb/pdfs/reply.pdf
I'm a little surprised you haven't received any answers to what I think is a very interesting question. I entered graduate school 50 years ago, and to put it mildly a lot has changed. I think it is very important to keep up with what is happening in your field and related fields, and the internet is an incredible boon. (We didn't even have computers back then.) And I don't mean Wikipedia. Sign up for newsletters such as phys.org (set up an account at https://sciencex.com/ and select topics) and use Google scholar a lot. One great feature of Google scholar is the alerts tab--enter a lots of key words, and you'll be amazed at how many great papers you'll hear about via e-mail. You can quickly weed through a lot of stuff in a very short time and end up with very useful papers.
Dear Rob,
Indeed, this is an interesting subject.
I started grad school 6 years ago and recently completed my PhD.
Fortunately, I got off on a fairly good start because I had a mentor in my Research Supervisor. Some pertinent pieces of advice / resources are;
- getting knowledge about research methods and current research in your field of expertise
- maximizing the resources available on the internet. For example, subscribing to AuthorAID, researcher profiling websites such as Orcid, Researchgate, content/article alerts from google scholar and top journals in your field of research (taking note of authors with similar research interests and their affiliations),...
- become a member of professional societies in your field of research and commit to attending conferences (both international and local) at least once a year. Fortunately, mostly of these societies provide travel grants to student members or young researchers.
- taking advantage of mentoring and networking opportunities in such societies or organisations.
- funding: this is one of the major challenges of research especially in developing countries. the key is to learn the art of writing proposals which comes with experience (mostly failed attempts).
- Get a mentor, who could be your scientific supervisor or some other established scientist in your research area. This person or persons will assist with peer-review of your research proposal, manuscripts, among others.
Hope this helps.
Rob
From the "tone" of your question, I am guessing that you were not "recruited" by a specific research faculty. I'll also assume that you did not come in with a fellowship or research assistantship. If so, the following may be helpful. It may also be helpful otherwise (i.e., if you came in with support!). Take a little time, the first semester or so and choose an adviser very carefully. It can make all of the difference in the world. Most important decision you'll make in graduate school! I'll assume also that you will take some "required" courses, at least in the field you applied for. Read as broadly as you can, go to seminars on campus, talk to other graduate students at length and numerous professors when the opportunity presents itself. Go to the library and become familiar with the data bases that are available to search subjects. There is so much more out there than Google. Get an idea of your comfort zones- field and or lab, macro or micro or both, etc.. etc. Role of chemistry/biology and math in your areas of interest. Become an applied statistician to the extent practical; absolutely critical. Take a course(es) early where you have to prepare seminars and digest a good deal of information. Learn how proposals are prepared, and participate in preparing them as soon as possible. You will probably participate in several during your graduate years including your own for research fellowships, small grants (to support your research). Publish a paper or two while you are still a student. There are a ton of other things to consider, but I'll leave that to you. But most of all have fun and enjoy the experience!
Mike Weinstein
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