Change lab?

[Fakesmile]

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I've done a summer research last year, and I volunteered there for five months. The lab wasn't that great. PI never came in to the lab but stayed inside his office the whole day every time, probably because he is an accomplished researcher with lots of experience in the field. The person who came in to the lab everyday and took charge of daily happenings in lab was a lab manager, also called research associate. He did his PhD in the lab long ago, in the 80s, and has a dry personality with no emotion, like a robot. The lab has about 4 grad students and 2 lab staffs.
I'll be taking an honors research course in a few semesters and I'm thinking of trying a different lab. But my goal is to get a publication and I'm thinking that it would be better to just stay in the same lab to do that. If I move to another lab, I'd need to start all over again from the bottom, trying to earn the lab's trust and mastering all the basics. I only have a year left (I'll be a senior this coming September).
Should I stay or move?

 

[Tryonetic]

Move if you are not happy or getting publication!

 

[DendWrite]

I've done a summer research last year, and I volunteered there for five months. The lab wasn't that great. PI never came in to the lab but stayed inside his office the whole day every time, probably because he is an accomplished researcher with lots of experience in the field. The person who came in to the lab everyday and took charge of daily happenings in lab was a lab manager, also called research associate. He did his PhD in the lab long ago, in the 80s, and has a dry personality with no emotion, like a robot. The lab has about 4 grad students and 2 lab staffs.
I'll be taking an honors research course in a few semesters and I'm thinking of trying a different lab. But my goal is to get a publication and I'm thinking that it would be better to just stay in the same lab to do that. If I move to another lab, I'd need to start all over again from the bottom, trying to earn the lab's trust and mastering all the basics. I only have a year left (I'll be a senior this coming September).
Should I stay or move?

See if you can work with a grad student or have one help you out. Do you have any ideas for a project proposal? I'd stay with your current lab since you've already built some rapport with them by working over the summer; talk to the PI and see if you can work on your own project. While it is sometimes nice to work directly with the PI in a small lab environment, in the labs I have worked in, this hasn't been the case. However, the PhD's, post-docs, and grad students have always been a wealth of information and are usually pretty helpful if you get stuck. If you have that support, I see no reason to leave (there's going to be a few people that are hard to deal with in almost every lab you go) so long as you are interested in the research and see the potential to run your own experiment.

 

[physcigirl27]

I kind of am in a similar situation . My lab's great but like and i'm learning a lot but there doesn't' seem to be a possibility of a publication anytime soon...I'm not sure what to do...

 

[orrghead16]

I've done a summer research last year, and I volunteered there for five months. The lab wasn't that great. PI never came in to the lab but stayed inside his office the whole day every time, probably because he is an accomplished researcher with lots of experience in the field. The person who came in to the lab everyday and took charge of daily happenings in lab was a lab manager, also called research associate. He did his PhD in the lab long ago, in the 80s, and has a dry personality with no emotion, like a robot. The lab has about 4 grad students and 2 lab staffs.
I'll be taking an honors research course in a few semesters and I'm thinking of trying a different lab. But my goal is to get a publication and I'm thinking that it would be better to just stay in the same lab to do that. If I move to another lab, I'd need to start all over again from the bottom, trying to earn the lab's trust and mastering all the basics. I only have a year left (I'll be a senior this coming September).
Should I stay or move?

The odds of switching labs and only being able to work in the new lab for a year (and only part time because of school) makes the odds of getting a publication before graduation about as slim as can be, unless you can luck out and get into a great lab. Most undergrads get their first publications following graduation: it takes quite a while to clean up a project, get it submitted & accepted, etc.

The obvious exception is to get into a project on the clean up end, but again, odds are low that a PI would put a new student on that.

My vote: move if you are unhappy. If not, stick it out and gun. Odds of achieving a publication with only a year of part time are slim anywhere.