Litt lab vision and policies                                                                                                                        Updated May 2023

Welcome to the lab!  I’m excited to have you as part of our team.  This is a working document to share the values and vision for our team, our expectations for each other, how/where to find information, and more.  I’ve pulled ideas from conversations with current and former students, other lab manuals, and information I try to convey when someone is new to the group.

I’m hoping you’ll share your thoughts about what might be missing here or what could be strengthened or changed based on your experiences – what did you wonder about when you started (or as you were progressing through) your degree?  Feedback helps us all improve!

Lab values and conduct

Our lab is a safe, friendly, respectful, supportive, welcoming, and accepting environment for sharing ideas, learning, and professional growth.  We are committed to fostering diversity and inclusivity and we encourage an environment of collaboration, open communication, and trust, which respects differences of opinions.  We recognize that we are reflections of the lab, the Ecology department, and MSU, so will maintain professionalism in our interactions with others – on campus and off.

We will not tolerate any verbal or physical harassment, intimidation, or discrimination.  We will hold each other to high ethical standards of personal and professional conduct and integrity.  We want everyone to feel empowered to call out discriminatory language or actions (even if unintentional).  If you aren’t sure how to begin this conversation, one option is to ask the person what they meant by their language or action when you hear or see something that seems inappropriate; approaching the situation with curiosity can be helpful.

If you feel you are being harassed or discriminated against, or notice someone else being harassed, please alert Andrea immediately. If Andrea is the cause of your concern, please reach out to the Ecology department head (Diane Debinski), Ecology ombudsperson (currently Wyatt Cross), or the Office of Institutional Equity.  Contact details for these resources are listed at the end of this document.

Philosophy/vision

Our lab studies a diversity of species, but the thread that holds much of our work together is a focus on habitat and how anthropogenic activities affect animal populations/communities, with research that helps to inform management or conservation actions.  We produce science in collaboration with and in support of agencies because that’s where we think we can be most effective.

Goals of this lab are to:

  • Create a supportive environment where we can all learn, grow, and be productive
  • Produce and share high-quality science that is relevant for management and conservation
  • Foster communication among all lab members, where we can be open and honest, as well as respectful of each other’s thoughts and needs

Expectations

What you can expect of me:  Mentoring really comes down to me to me continually asking the question: “How can I help you be your best”?  I view this lab as a team, where we are all helping each other to improve.  I work best in an environment of open and frequent communication, so you can expect that from me as well.  I’m here to share feedback, hear your suggestions and concerns, discuss ideas, provide guidance, among other things.  I won’t have the answers to all of your questions (I’m always learning too), but I’ll do my best to help you work through problems and brainstorm other people and resources that can help.

Members of this lab are my highest priority, so please come by the office, call, or email when you have things to talk about.  I typically keep my office door open, but I’ll let you know if there are certain times when we may need to reschedule or set up a meeting to talk.  I’m happy to schedule regular weekly meetings whenever that’s helpful for your progress.  You can expect timely feedback from me on your writing, presentations, etc.  Again, if I have other deadlines that might get in the way, I’ll be sure to let you know. 

I try to maintain some semblance of work/life boundaries, so I work hard to minimize how much I work in the evenings and on weekends (although there are times when deadlines make this less practical).  I’m trying not to look at email in the evenings or weekends, so please call if there’s something you need more urgently. This means I aim to be most efficient when working, as well as trying to reap the benefits of taking breaks and being away from work.  This is something I continue to work on.

What I expect of you:  As you read on, you’ll see that these expectations are very similar to what you can expect from me.  If you are ever unsure of my expectations, please ask.  To foster an environment of open and frequent communication, please keep me updated regularly on how you are doing – progress on your current projects, classes, your general well-being, etc. – regardless of what those updates contain.  If I don’t hear from you, I won’t be able to distinguish between a scenario where things are going really well (and you may not need my input) and one where you are really struggling.  If there’s something not working well between us, let’s be sure to talk about that so we can work to make things better.  I appreciate feedback.  Help me to better help you.

Your health and wellbeing are very important to me and essential for productive work.  Work will be part of your professional life for the rest of your career, so I’d like to help you figure out how to establish and maintain your own work/life boundaries, given your obligations.  Working longer hours doesn’t always mean that you are being more productive (sometimes quite the contrary).  I’m happy to share the strategies that I’ve found useful, but please know that I’m always working on this as well.  It’s important to figure out what times of day you are most productive and harness that time effectively.  I don’t expect you be working constantly (I really don’t!) and trust that you will manage your time efficiently and will find the schedule and environment that works best for you.  I expect that we all will work hard to meet deadlines, but I also expect that we need breaks.  Let me know when you plan to take extended time off, so we can make any needed plans.

Lab meetings and Departmental seminar:We typically have weekly lab meetings, often scheduled just before the Ecology department seminar.  Our lab culture is to regularly and actively participate in these activities; let Andrea know when you have a scheduling conflict. 

The goal of lab meetings is to check in and interact with each other and to talk about interesting and helpful topics.  We read and discuss (papers, books, book chapters, etc.), provide feedback (on talks, posters, defenses, ideas, graphics, etc.), and generally help each other with whatever we are working on and thinking about (e.g., preparing for qualifying exams, etc.).  These conversations were very important during my graduate program, building a foundation of ideas that I have carried through my career.  This also is a nice opportunity to just check in with each other and build camaraderie.

Although these meetings require additional time and preparation, they also provide us with important opportunities to learn from each other, explore topics and questions of interest, and develop community as a lab group.  Please come to these meetings prepared and ready to contribute to the discussion.  Do not be afraid to disagree during these conversations, but please do so respectfully and keep the focus on the science, not the person.

Seminars provide us with opportunities to learn about other’s science, even topics far outside our wheelhouse.  Sometimes we can glean useful insights and generate important ideas from these presentations (i.e., an interesting and new way to display your data).  Interacting with invited seminar speakers (regardless of their area of expertise) provide opportunities for networking and help you develop your communication skills.  When we invite seminar speakers, we try to make arrangements so they can attend lab meeting and create other opportunities to interact.

Goals/Aspirations and Feedback

Setting goals and aspirations can be helpful to provide direction – for you, as well as for me to help you get there.  Each semester, I encourage you to think about what you want to work towards and share these ideas with me, so we can work together to help you to achieve these markers.  Given the nature of our work, we often must make progress on or complete specific products (proposals, thesis chapters, manuscripts), but I also encourage you to think bigger about what you hope to work on (maybe some personal/professional skills, work/life practices, etc.).

Given that we are striving for an environment of open and frequent communication, I would like us to have a regular dialog of feedback for each other.  I encourage you to provide me with honest and open feedback about how we’re working together – both the good and the bad – and ideas for how/what we can improve.  I’ll aim to do the same.  Providing feedback is how we help each other grow and improve – keeping issues in the dark doesn’t help any of us.

MSU typically requires that I complete formal evaluations of you regularly (each semester for RAs and TA, and annually for all graduate students).  Although I hope we are providing each other with regular and candid feedback, these formal evaluations can provide us with a designated time to have useful conversations. 

Grants and Funding

I am committed to paying living wages for your research and teaching efforts. I use information gathered by Ecology graduate students to inform monthly pay rates. I also will cover tuition, fees, and insurance. I’m happy to share the details about the funds secured to support your work and talk about how the grant funds are allocated to accomplish various goals. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about your compensation; I welcome these important conversations.

I also encourage you to apply for additional grants and scholarships during your graduate career.  These are educational experiences that can help you in the future.  Let me know what grants/scholarships you are considering and how I can help (e.g., reading drafts, writing support letters, providing example grants, etc.).

Having additional grants or scholarships can provide us with more flexibility (e.g., to hire additional technicians in the lab or field, support training opportunities, etc.).

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

I and members of our lab will work hard to foster and support diversity because bringing more experiences and perspectives to the table strengthens and improves our work and our lives.

When hiring, we will pay fair wages, advertise opportunities broadly, consider non-traditional selection criteria, and create safe workplaces to lower the barriers to participation. We will invite seminar speakers that come from diverse backgrounds, career stages, and perspectives to promote underrepresented groups. We will continue to develop tools and strategies to recruit, support, and retain diverse people and perspectives, so more voices are heard.

MSU (https://www.montana.edu/diversity/) and TWS (https://wildlife.org/diversity-equity-inclusion/; https://wildlife.org/ideawg/) have developed some helpful resources related to fostering diversity. 

See also (included in the “Diversity Resources” folder on the Litt Lab SharePoint site:

CRU DEI Committee. 2022. Best practices for recruiting diverse students and post-docs.

Jensen et al. 2021. Attracting diverse students to field experiences requires adequate pay, flexibility, and inclusion. BioScience 71:757-770.

Professional Meetings

I encourage you to attend and present your work at ≥1 professional conference during your graduate degree.  We typically attend the Montana chapter of The Wildlife Society (in February, location varies), but I encourage you to find your professional society – where you want you and your work to be seen – and present at their conference (ideally national or even international, if that helps you to meet your career goals). 

I typically include funds in project budgets to cover costs for you to present at ≥1 domestic meeting (flight, hotel, registration). MSU (Graduate School, College of Letters and Science) and the professional societies have several travel grants available that can augment these funds.  In general, you must be presenting at the conference to be eligible for these grants.

Use of the AJMJ office space

We have shared office space (46 AJMJ) for all students associated with this lab.  This is your space to work and collaborate with others, which is a very important part of graduate school.  Please create the work environment that you prefer and let Andrea know what resources you might need.  Please also do your part to clean and maintain this space for all.

Use of the AJMJ lab space

We also have a shared lab space (230 AJMJ), including a common meeting area, lab storage, lab benches, etc. We store much of our lab’s field gear here (other items are in the basement storage cages).  You are welcome to use this space and the equipment within, but please again, do your part to keep things clean and orderly.  We occasionally organize work periods to clean our lab spaces and inventory/organize gear. 

Authorship

There are many different philosophies about who is listed as an author on a publication and in what order.  I have used a few different sources as my guide; I’ve included a few of these below.  As the graduate student, you will typically be the first author of papers that come from your research.  I’ll typically be second or last.  As Krausman and Cox (2017) note, it’s best to have conversations about the authorship arrangements as early as possible, but allow for re-evaluation as the project develops.  I typically err on the side of inclusion, but contributions must be more than gathering the data or garnering the funds.

If you leave the lab with unpublished work, let’s talk about your plans – do you intend to continue working to get the research published?  We can come up with a plan for getting the work done and re-evaluate authorship as needed.

Some perspectives on authorship:

Krausman, P. R., and A. S. Cox. 2017. A Primer for Writing for the Journal of Wildlife Management, Journal of Wildlife Management 81:4–6, https://wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/jwmg.21177:

“Unfortunately, many do not consider authorship until the end of the study, which can foster awkward situations. Being an author or coauthor is an important responsibility and needs to be taken seriously. As with titles, there are no hard and fast rules, but authorship is weakened if not considered ethically and professionally (Merrill 2015b). I like the guidelines provided by Dickson et al. (1978) who consider a contributor to a paper a valid coauthor if they have contributed to some aspect of the manuscript preparation plus 1 of the other 4 components of an investigation: conception of the idea, study design, data collection, and data analysis. Whenever you are involved with research you should be transparent in how you view authorship for yourself and those that work with you (Merrill 2015b) at the beginning of and throughout the study.”

APA (https://www.apa.org/research/responsible/publication/):

"Authorship credit should reflect the individual's contribution to the study. An author is considered anyone involved with initial research design, data collection and analysis, manuscript drafting, or final approval. However, the following do not necessarily qualify for authorship: providing funding or resources, mentorship, or contributing research but not helping with the publication itself. The primary author assumes responsibility for the publication, making sure that the data are accurate, that all deserving authors have been credited, that all authors have given their approval to the final draft; and handles responses to inquiries after the manuscript is published."

Grossman and DeVreis (2019), Authorship decisions in ecology, evolution, organismal biology and natural resource management: who, why, and how, Animal Biodiversity and Conservation 42:337-346: This paper reviews several different guidelines (including for the American Fisheries Society and Ecological Society of America).

Data Management/Reproducibility

We aim for our science to be as transparent, reproducible, and rigorous as possible. Our research typically is supported by grant funding, such that we have an obligation to develop protocols for responsible data management and documentation.  Andrea and our collaborators, along with other interested researchers, should be able access and understand data files, R code, and other files created during each project.  That means we should document exactly how our data were collected and how we analyzed those data, so that someone else could reproduce the process, AND we should make all of this evidence accessible.  At a minimum, work with Andrea to create a Teams/Sharepoint site with needed files.  This also can be a helpful way to share relevant papers and to collaborate on writing and other projects in progress.

We have a Litt lab Sharepoint site, which includes example proposals, posters, and presentations; grant opportunities and examples; information about writing and submitting manuscripts; agency logos; some helpful papers; and lab meeting information. Feel free to add to these resources.

This section is a work in progress and will be updated.

Leaving MSU and the lab

At some point, you will leave the lab and move on to your next position – that’s the nature of academia (and my least favorite part).  Please communicate with me about your plans and desired timeline, so I can best support you.  I’m happy to provide thoughts about next steps, interviewing, application materials, etc.

 When you finish your degree and prepare to leave the lab and MSU, please be sure to:

  • Clean your office space and lab space
  • Create a plan for storing/disposing of any specimens or samples related to your research
  • Provide Andrea with an inventory and locations of supplies/equipment associated with your project
  • Return MSU keys
  • Provide Andrea with all files associated with your project (data, analysis, photos, writing, posters/presentations, etc.) – See Data Management
  • Create a plan and timeline with Andrea for publishing any remaining data from your research

Some readings/resources I’ve found useful:

  • Writing Science, Josh Schimel (I have many other books/papers on writing, but this is the one I’ve found most helpful)
  • Deep Work, Cal Newport
  • Made to Stick, Chip Heath and Dan Heath
  • Turbek et al. (2016) Scientific Writing Made Easy: A Step-by-Step Guide to Undergraduate Writing in the Biological Sciences, Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America
  • Sells et al. (2018) Increased Scientific Rigor Will Improve Reliability of Research and Effectiveness of Management, JWM 82:485-494
  • Schwartz (2008) The importance of stupidity in scientific research, Journal of Cell Science 12:1771.
  • Johnson et al. (2001) Statistics for wildlifers: how much and what kind? Wildlife Society Bulletin 29(4):1055-1060
  • Biometrics Working Group Resource Hub: https://sites.google.com/view/bwg-resource-hub/home

Send me your suggestions for others we should add…

Important Contacts/Resources

If you aren’t sure where to voice your concern, MSU created a website (https://www.montana.edu/freespeech/support.html) with some potential places to start.