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Hi,
I'm a rising sophomore who has absolutely no previous research experience. I decided to work as a volunteer research assistant, starting this September. I plan to volunteer in this lab 15 hours per week, for at least two years.
I approached a prof whose research I was interested in, and he allowed me to volunteer in his lab. I asked him 1) whether there will be an opportunity for me to contribute toward a publishable paper, 2) how much I will be responsible for, and 3) whether I will get my own publishable project to work on. He said that it's hard to know for sure; it depends on your aptitudes and abilities. He will be in a much better position to answer those questions after I've worked with his lab team for a few weeks. In general, they can often find a project that will lead to a publication, but there is no way of predicting how much time it might eventually take.
The lab prof is an old guy who has 15+ years of experience in his field. He is the Canadian Research Chair in Genomics. Currently the lab has exactly 6 grad students and 6 staffs (research assistants?). It's planned that I'll be paired up with a staff and assist him. A lab staff told me that the lab previously had and currently has many volunteers who volunteered 2~4 hours per week. It surprised me that 2~4 hours seemed to be the norm in this lab for those volunteering.
Judging by the lab prof's answers to my questions and the lab's atmosphere, does this lab look like a good place where there's a high chance that, as an undergrad, you'll get the credit you deserve for all the time and hard work you sacrifice, receive your project and get published?
Thanks.
I'm a rising sophomore who has absolutely no previous research experience. I decided to work as a volunteer research assistant, starting this September. I plan to volunteer in this lab 15 hours per week, for at least two years.
I approached a prof whose research I was interested in, and he allowed me to volunteer in his lab. I asked him 1) whether there will be an opportunity for me to contribute toward a publishable paper, 2) how much I will be responsible for, and 3) whether I will get my own publishable project to work on. He said that it's hard to know for sure; it depends on your aptitudes and abilities. He will be in a much better position to answer those questions after I've worked with his lab team for a few weeks. In general, they can often find a project that will lead to a publication, but there is no way of predicting how much time it might eventually take.
The lab prof is an old guy who has 15+ years of experience in his field. He is the Canadian Research Chair in Genomics. Currently the lab has exactly 6 grad students and 6 staffs (research assistants?). It's planned that I'll be paired up with a staff and assist him. A lab staff told me that the lab previously had and currently has many volunteers who volunteered 2~4 hours per week. It surprised me that 2~4 hours seemed to be the norm in this lab for those volunteering.
Judging by the lab prof's answers to my questions and the lab's atmosphere, does this lab look like a good place where there's a high chance that, as an undergrad, you'll get the credit you deserve for all the time and hard work you sacrifice, receive your project and get published?
Thanks.
It usually takes time before you figure out the lab dynamics. you might ask some of the grad students about their last abstract/journal article. Did it take them a long time? Did they have help writing it? Who helped them? Did the have trouble setting up their experiments (getting supplies, etc)? Did the PI help them design their first few experiments?
