Comprehensive Exam

Students in the entering class of 2007 are about to embark on what may be one of the most intense, stressful and, ultimately, rewarding experiences during their graduate studies: preparing for the comprehensive exam.  

To help them study, and to help the faculty evaluate the degree of difficulty of the exam over the past years, I've posted an archive (/Comprehesive_Exam_Archive.pdf) of all the exams between 2000 and 2007.  (I'll update the file to include the 2008 exams soon.) 

Interdisciplinary Training

There has been some discussion lately, particularly among the Education Coordinators and the Academic Programs Office, about raising the visibility of "interdisciplinary science" on our web sites.  Apparently, the possibility of "interdisciplinary" research is an important factor for many applicants to the Joint Program who are deciding between graduate schools. 

As someone with a Ph.D. in applied mathematics, working as a tenured scientist in a biology department, I always thought I had a pretty good understanding of "inter-", "cross-", "multi-", and even "trans-disciplinary" science.  And frankly, I've always been skeptical about the wisdom of formal training of graduate students in any area that needs a hyphen.  I've worried that students need to find jobs and that, except for at a few places like WHOI, interdisciplinary training puts them at a disadvantage.  

But, after reading this fun little editorial piece by Sean Eddy, I'm beginning to reconsider. Maybe we need to train students in "ante-disciplinary" science, "the science that precedes the organization of new disciplines, the Wild West frontier stage that comes before the law arrives." But how would we do that? Any ideas?

Journal Selection

Jim Yoder sent a message to all Joint Program students and WHOI Postdocs encouraging them to use the Agreement to Extend Author's Rights when signing copyright forms for journals. When signed, this document (on the MBL/WHOI website) gives "authors and their employing institutions non-exclusive rights to use, distribute, and reproduce material in electronic digital or print form in activities connected with the author's academic and professional activities."  I always use the form myself, and have never had the publisher disagree.

Of course, copyright policies are only one criterion upon which to base a decision about where to submit a manuscript.  (See, for example, Satyanarayana 2003 or Thompson 2007).  If my own experience is common, scientists struggle with the decision all the time.  Do I choose a prestigious journal, a journal with a short time to publication, a society-sponsored journal, or one with "open access?"   And, since rankings can change over time (see the cool movies at eigenfactor.org) how is one to choose? But, at last, the job has been automated!  Jane (the Journal/Author Name Estimator), can do it for you.  Enter your abstract and click the "find journals" button: up pops a list of best matching journals (from Medline) along with some measure of "confidence"  and "article influence." (I haven't figured out what these mean yet.)  

Better still, those of you who are on the editorial boards of journals know how hard it can be to find appropriate reviewers.  Jane can help with that too!  Cut and paste in the abstract, click on "find authors" and up pops a list along with email addresses.   Testing it out with a few of my own abstracts suggests that it works pretty darn well.

Give it a try---but be warned: it's addictive. [Thanks a lot, Hal Caswell, for pointing Jane out to me.]

Mentoring

In reponse to student feedback (and with funding from the Department Chair), I've set up an informal peer mentoring program. First and second year students have been matched up with post-generals students. They'll be reimbursed for a lunch meeting twice a year. I hope that this will provide new students with an additional resource to help them navigate the Joint Program, life in Cambridge and/or Woods Hole, etc. Special thanks to Colleen Petrik for making the matches and to the students who have volunteered to be mentors!

This made me think a little about the role of the Ph.D. advisor as a mentor. It seems to me that some of the most important information advisors convey to their students has nothing to do with the facts, theories and methods of their scientific disciplines.  Rather, it is the example we set as role models.  I know I still ask myself from time to time, "What would my adviser do?"

The handbook, Adviser, Teacher, Role Model, Friend: On Being a Mentor to Students in Science and Engineering (National Academies Press, 1997), puts it this way:

The sum of all those activities-of all your actions as a mentor-is what students take with them after graduation. The image of you as a person will last longer than your words or professional achievements. The power and value of the image will depend on the efforts you have made in building honesty, trust, and good communication throughout your mentoring relationship.

The handbook is a worthwhile read for both advisors and students.

2008-2009 Topics Courses

The topics courses currently scheduled for the 2008-2009 academic year are:

Autumn

• Tarrant, Pineda, Thorrold: Biology and Ecology of Coral Reefs
• Gast:  Oceans and Human Health

Spring

• Dyhrman: Algal Genomics

In addition to these courses, other courses that have been used as topics course substitutions being offered include:

Autumn

• Hahn, Kurtz: Science and Communication 

Spring

• Caswell, Neubert: Introduction to Mathematical Ecology

Times and meeting places for the autumn will be announced by the Academic Programs Office soon. 

There is still time (and room in the budget!) to try to persuade some faculty member to offer a topic course in the spring.  Is there some topic about which you are especially curious?  This is a great opportunity!  Ask and ye shall receive... probably.

Determining Authorship

I recently attended a workshop on ethical conduct in science for WHOI's summer student fellows. It made me think a little bit about authorship, and what guidelines are available for scientists to help them determine who should be included as an author. 

Many universities have official policies regarding authorship. The policies for the Harvard Medical School, Michigan State University and Washington University in St. Louis are typical and closely follow the guidelines adopted by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Finally, Kathy Barker published this guide aimed at young scientists in Science Careers.

Most of the guidelines require that each author significantly contributed to conducting the science and drafted or revised the manuscript and approved the final version.  The Journal of the American Medical Association requires all authors to fill out a checklist to certify that they qualify as an author. 

Do you think it would be helpful for WHOI to have an official policy?