horrible undergrad resrch experience - betrayed by PI

[Siverhideo1985]

Publications don't just come from graduate schools

And it isn't plagiarism to not include someone who does benchwork. Because then you start asking where you draw the line. Do you include the pre-med volunteer who changed the media in your cells that one summer for the cell-line you kept for that project?

It has to do with the results that are presented in the paper. Of course I don't put Fedex as the 16th author because they shipped my isolation kit.

If you produced the results reported in a publication (meaning: you ran the experiment, collected the data, analyzed it, and drew conclusions from it) then your name needs to be on the paper. This isn't rocket science.

If you are an undergrad who chances media for cell growth and a paper gets published on your awesome new technique of changing media, you bet that the undergrads name should be on that paper.

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[cfx]

Your PI most likely views all of the work done in his lab as a collaborative effort, as much of science is, not as a bunch of isolated experiments where one of them is YOURS and he's stealing it and giving it to someone else. They're really all actually his moreso, and everything that is going on in his lab is working to contribute to the ultimate goal. I'm sure he wants the project to continue until completion, so he's of course going to transfer it to whoever he knows has the time to work on it most and into the future. Don't get so caught up in your perceived ownership of it--it wasn't a betrayal, you made your contribution to the overall effort and others will, too.

 

[Gut Shot]

Although the title might sound a lil harsher than how others may judge from my story, I feel very disappointed and personally betrayed from this research experience.
I've been working in this lab at a prestigious research institution, where the PI is what ppl could call "a rising star" in his field, as an undergraduate researcher. Since I joined the lab, I was delegated an independent, multi-stage project for which I was the lead under the support of an experienced PhD student. The project has taken me 2nd half of my junior yr, one summer, and my senior year thus far and I'm currently stuck in a particular stage which is crucial to overcome for the success of the whole thing.
My PI has recently decided, after having me worked on the project for the past year and half, to hand it over to a postdoc who has recently joined the lab. Even though I could see the reasoning behind his decision, I sacrificed too much for this project to just easily let it go. Because of this project, I was distracted from my MCAT studying, caused conflicts with some of my teammates, ans sacrificed both my summer & winter working on expts. Now I don't know if everything that I've given up for it has been worthwhile. And the PI was simply using me as a research tool. When someone better comes along, ie the postdoc who has extensive experience working w/ similar systems to ours, he just ditched me w/o hesitance.
I'm sorry for the long post, but just need a place to vent. Come and discuss if u're interested.

Welcome to research. It's a dog eat dog world, and you're wearing Milk-Bone underwear.

NIH funding has been stagnant for years, and with the current production rate of PhDs, competition for jobs, grants and tenure has gotten beyond fierce. If your PI is truly a rising star, his priorities are money and publications. Your feelings come in a distant 80th.

If you're smart, you will make the best of the situation. Learn from the post-doc and find how to better your experimental approach. If he/she can move the project forward, absorb that information.