Joining the lab

Like many scientists, I view our lab as a small business that creates income (grants) by doing work (conducting scientific research) to create products (dissertations/doctoral projects, posters, chapters, and papers). Note that the “business” goals of our lab coincide with the academic goal of a typical doctoral-level student, which is to learn the steps required to publish a scientific manuscript in a respectable peer-reviewed journal. 

Generally, this will require an extensive literature review to come up with some ideas, planning a solid experimental design, implementing the experiment and collecting data, analyzing and interpreting the results, and preparing a well-written and easy-to-understand defense presentation and manuscript.

Historically, students interested in the lab have excelled in Psychobiological Foundations, Psychopharmacology, Cognitive Foundations, and Research Methods (i.e., the "Hartman" classes), as well as the full statistics sequence (PSYC 501, 502, 503, and multilevel modeling). Struggling with (or disinterest in) these classes suggests that the student may fit better in a different lab.  Generally, clinical psychology students in the lab pursue the Neuroscience / Neuropsychology concentration with career goals of becoming neuroscientists / neuropsychologists in clinical, academic, government, and/or private settings.

First-year students who are interested in the lab should read through this manual, and then download this folder containing most of the papers that we have published. Read all the abstracts and dig deeper into any papers of particular interest. Students still interested are encouraged to speak to me and current lab members about the projects in the lab. Interested students usually start by shadowing / helping out current lab members with their ongoing projects. This process will involve learning the basic lab procedures, techniques, and models.

Students that are still interested in joining the lab at this point should request an invite to the lab’s LLU Microsoft Teams group and sign up on the lab's electronic lab notebook. Starting in the lab within the 1st or 2nd quarters of the first year will often (should?) result in co-authorship on 1 or more abstracts for the next Society for Neuroscience conference (which are usually due in May for the November conference).

During this period, students should be thinking about how these techniques and models might be applied to a project of their own. Additionally, a literature review may (should?) reveal other techniques and/or models that could be incorporated into our lab’s repertoire. Take heed of the old adage that a day in the library saves 6 months in the lab. Note that the best and most feasible projects are those that tie into and advance the lab’s overall research trajectory (see About the Hartman BNL for an overview). 

Students are considered to be in a “probationary” period until the proposal is passed (usually right after Research Methods is passed in the Fall quarter of the 2nd year). By that time, students will have spent over 1 year researching, collecting data, and preparing for a project of their own.

Again, lack of progress on this front suggests that the student would ultimately do better in a different lab. At about the 2 year point, clinical duties often start to monopolize students’ time, so those students interested in publishing multiple papers should try to get involved with as many projects as possible ASAP.

Joining the lab will usually entail signing up for research units. Note that the signup request should include a description of some general idea / proposed study (which can be pretty broad at this point) in addition to the following language: ”Successful completion of this course will require daily updates to laboratory notebooks, weekly attendance and presentations at laboratory meetings, and quarterly update of a portfolio, in addition to collection, analysis, and writeup of data for publication.”

Lab members should strive to maintain the schedule outlined in the following section, which will assure completion of the required research product before leaving for external practicum and internship. This trajectory should result in at least 3 Society for Neuroscience poster presentations and/or talks (and multiple co-authorships on other students’ posters) and 2 published papers in peer-reviewed journals. Motivated lab members can typically expect more.

There are 6 basic lab-related tasks to accomplish within the program:

1. Research and successfully propose a project to a committee
2. Collect data (usually PhD only)
3. Write up the results of the project
   
4. Defend the project to the committee
5. Present the results at a national / international conference
6. Publish the project (hopefully at least 1 review and 1 empirical paper)

To ensure that lab members stay on track, we will have regularly-scheduled 1:1 meetings. Furthermore, lab members are expected to stay on top of their Teams Planner tasks, which will include program milestones in addition to recurring weekly reminders (e.g., post at least 1 scientific paper to the Teams Papers page, update lab notebook, etc.) and quarterly reminders (e.g., prepare a portfolio of research and academic progress). The most important thing to do in preparation for the regular meetings is to make sure that all Planner tasks are completed and marked off as "done".

In addition to these general requirements, lab members will likely have opportunities to get involved in collaborative experiments with other labs, teach class lectures, help with the peer-review process, etc. These are all excellent ways to gain new skills and publications.

Students will also generally need to complete the following before graduation:

1. Pass the EPPP
2. Build clinical hours
3. Generate integrated assessment reports
4. Finish internship / practicums