Smith Lab Manual

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Smith Lab Manual
David V. Smith
Department of Psychology
Temple University
December 27, 2018

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Contents
Contents

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1 Introduction

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2 General
2.1 Funding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2 Local Collaborators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3 Other Collaborators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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3 Being in the lab
3.1 Everyone . . . . . . . . .
Big picture . . . . . . . . .
Small picture . . . . . . .
3.2 The Boss . . . . . . . . . .
3.3 PhD students . . . . . . .
3.4 Employees . . . . . . . . .
Hours . . . . . . . . . . .
Timesheets . . . . . . . .
Employee resources . . .
3.5 Masters students . . . . .
3.6 Undergraduate students
All undergraduates . . . .
Independent Research . .
3.7 University policies . . . .
Employee guidelines . . .
Sexual harassment . . . .

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4 Communication
4.1 Communication within the lab
My door . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Lab meeting . . . . . . . . . . .
Individual Meetings . . . . . .
Trello and Slack . . . . . . . .
Lab Wiki . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Open Science Framework . . .

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Email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Calendars . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.2 Communication outside the lab
Phone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Manuscripts . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.3 Abstracts . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Talks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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5 Science
5.1 Scienti ic integrity . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.2 Open, accurate, and reproducible science
Open science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Accurate science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Checklist for scienti ic publications . . . .
5.3 Participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.4 Subject payment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.5 Testing locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.6 Lab notebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.7 Computers and data . . . . . . . . . . . . .
General guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Backing up your iles and data . . . . . . .
5.8 Authorship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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6 Other Important Information
29
6.1 Recommendation letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
6.2 Staying on top of the literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
6.3 Learning to code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
7 Frequently asked questions

33

8 Glossary

35

1

Introduction

My overarching goal is to foster an environment of scienti ic excellence and
personal development for all lab members. We should continually strive to
learn and improve—and we should also try to have fun doing great science.
This Lab Manual1 is meant to be the irst resource for the lab as we seek to
achieve these goals. You can also ind the lab elsewhere:
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•
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Website: https://sites.temple.edu/neuroeconlab/
GitHub: https://github.com/DVS-Lab
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DVSneuro
Mendeley: https://www.mendeley.com/community/smith-lab-meetings/
OSF: https://osf.io/5zq6h/

There are also a couple of sites accessible only by lab members:
•
•
•
•

Trello: https://trello.com/neuroeconomicslaboratory
Slack: https://neuroeconomicslab.slack.com
Public Wiki: https://smithlabwiki.cla.temple.edu [in prep]
Internal Wiki: https://smithlabinternal.cla.temple.edu

In general, irm policies are in the lab manual, whereas ways of implementing those policies (i.e., getting stuff done) should be on the Wiki so
that they can be updated by anyone in the lab. Trello organizes tasks that
need to be done (and relevant discussions, with the help of Slack) for speci ic
projects, rather than general principles. Any information that is potentially
private or sensitive should go in a protected location. (You can read more
about various lab resources in §4.1 on page 12.)
I assume the Lab Manual and Wiki are accurate and clear. This means that
you should follow all of the policies and protocols contained in the manual and Wiki. If you notice something that seems to be wrong (or missing),
please let me know (for the lab manual) or change it yourself (for the wiki).
If there is something in the lab manual or wiki that you notice people aren’t
doing, please bring this up at lab meeting, or to me, privately—don’t assume
this is okay (it’s not).
1

Much of this document is derived from or copied directly from Dr. Jonathan Peelle’s
excellent Lab Manual.

1

2

General

2.1

Funding

Grant funding supplies the much of resources needed to conduct our research, including salary for personnel, RA-ships for PhD students, equipment, subject payments, and so on. It is important that we run the lab in
a way that shows we use our research funding carefully.
Our current grant funding includes:
• Targeted Small Grant Award from OVPR at Temple University titled
“Modulating Individual Differences in Reward Sensitivity with Transcranial Current Stimulation” (active: 2018-01-01 to 2019-12-31). This
project examines how transcranial current stimulation impacts reward
processing and decision making.
• R21-MH113917 from NIMH titled “Remote Modulation of Reward Circuits with Noninvasive Brain Stimulation” (active: 2017-07-05 to 201904-30). This project is focused on how transcranial alternating current
stimulation modulates neural and behavioral responses to reward.
• Pilot Grant from SRNDNA titled “Social Reward and Aging: Identifying
the Neural Underpinnings of Peer In luences” (active: 2017-10-01 to
2018-12-31). This project is focused on how the relationship between
trust and social closeness changes across the lifespan.
Funding from NIH means that work in the lab is supported by the taxpaying public—and we should strive to produce products that show we are
using the money wisely. Startup funds should be viewed similarly.

2.2

Local Collaborators

Our local collaborators (i.e., those at Temple) are in involved in active or
pending grants. Although the work on some of these projects has not yet
begun, I include pending projects that are likely to materialize in some form
or another soon (e.g., funded grant or additional pilot data collection).

2

CHAPTER 2. GENERAL
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2.3

Lauren Alloy
Jason Chein
Eunice Chen
Tania Giovanetti
Johanna Jarcho
Vishnu (Deepu) Murty

3
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Michael McCloskey
Ingrid Olson
Crystal Reeck
Jamie Reilly
Vinod Venkatraman

Other Collaborators

We also have a number of collaborators who have a home outside of Temple.
These individuals are also involved in active/pending grants or manuscripts
that are in preparation.
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Pamela Butler (Nathan Kline Institute and New York University)
John Clithero (University of Oregon)
Mauricio Delgado (Rutgers University — Newark)
Dominic Fareri (Adelphi University)
Bart Krekelberg (Rutgers University — Newark)
Chris Rorden (University of South Carolina)

3

Being in the lab

3.1

Everyone

Big picture
We expect each other to:
• Push the envelope of scienti ic discovery and personal excellence.
• Do work we are proud of individually and as a group.
• Double-check our work, and be at least a little obsessive.
• Be supportive—we’re all in this together.
• Be independent when possible, ask for help when necessary.
• Communicate honestly, even when it’s dif icult.
• Share your knowledge. Mentorship takes many forms, but frequently
involves looking out for those more junior.
• Be engaged in the community. Everyone should be able to get help and
give help on mailing lists and discussion boards, such as NeuroStars.
• Work towards pro iciency in Unix, BASH, Matlab, R, and Python (bonus
points for Javascript and LATEX).
• Be patient with everyone, including with your PI (he will forget things
you just talked about and be busier than he would like).
• Advocate for our own needs, including personal and career goals.
• Respect each other’s strengths, weaknesses, differences, and beliefs.
• Adhere to ethical principles described by American Psychological Association (APA) and Society for Neuroscience (SFN) and follow the Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) more generally.

4

CHAPTER 3. BEING IN THE LAB

5

We should also expect everyone to have a professional and accurate online presence. If you have an online pro ile somewhere (e.g., LinkedIn, NeuroStars, ResearchGate, Twitter, Google Scholar, etc.), keep it up to date and
professional. Remember, we all represent the lab and the lab represents us.
Let’s make sure we have an excellent online presence.

Small picture
We’re sharing a relatively small space, so please be thoughtful of others, including (but not limited to):
• With few exceptions, do not come to the lab if you are sick. It’s better
to keep everyone healthy. If you are sick, email the lab manager or me
to let me know you won’t be coming in, and update your lab calendar
to re lect the change.
• Do not leave food, drinks, or crumbs out in the lab. Please put food
trash in another trash can (not in the lab), especially late in the day or
on Friday (so that food doesn’t stay in the lab overnight).
• Avoid wearing strong perfumes/colognes/etc. in the lab (for the sake
of your coworkers and our participants).
• Keep the lab neat—especially in the entryway area. Items left unattended may be cleaned, reclaimed, or recycled.
• Turn off or minimize noti ications on your devices. Although it is important to be available for emergencies, you might ind yourself sifting
through countless noti ications and attending to nonstop alerts if the
noti ication settings on your devices aren’t constrained.

3.2

The Boss

You can expect me to:
• Have a vision of where the lab is going.
• Care about your happiness.
• Obtain the funding to support the science, and the people, in the lab.

CHAPTER 3. BEING IN THE LAB

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• Support you in your career development, including writing letters of
recommendation, introductions to other scientists, conference travel,
and promoting your work as often as possible.
• Support you in your personal growth by giving you lexibility in working hours and environment, and encouraging you to do things other
than science.
• Make the time to meet with you regularly, read through your manuscripts,
and talk about science.
• Obsess over running the right analyses, writing clearly, and making
beautiful igures.

3.3

PhD students

I expect PhD students to:
• Attend classes, colloquium talks, and area meetings.
• Be familiar with the policies in the Department of Psychology Graduate
Handbook, particularly program requirements and ethics.
• Know the literature related to their topic like the back of their hand.
For more information about staying on top of the literature, see §6.2
on page 29.
• Be excited about the research questions they are asking and eager to
ind the answers. (If I am more eager to know the answer(s) to your
research questions, we need to rethink your research questions.)
• Seek out and apply for fellowships and awards, including external and
internal travel awards and training workshops.
• Realize there are times for pulling all nighters, and times for leaving
early to go to the park and enjoy the sunshine.
By the time you’re done, you will have developed a full spectrum of skills
needed to become a great scientist—from hard skills (e.g., technical and analytical) to soft skills (e.g., communication and teamwork)1 . For example,
1

https://loop.nigms.nih.gov/2015/11/catalyzing-the-modernization-of-graduate-education/

CHAPTER 3. BEING IN THE LAB

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you will develop a program of research that speaks to a signi icant problem
or open question in the ield. In service of this, you will conduct carefullyexecuted experiments and communicate your results clearly, both in written
and verbal formats.
In addition, you will also know how to do statistics and plots in R, Matlab,
and/or Python, share your work with me using GitHub/OSF, Rmarkdown,
and/or Jupyter Notebooks, write Matlab and BASH scripts for data analyses,
know enough Python to navigate presentation in PsychoPy and do simple
scripting, and make igures and posters using Adobe Illustrator or a similar vector-based graphics program (e.g., Inkscape). You will also preregister
your experiments when appropriate (which it almost certainly will be) and
share your data and analysis scripts publicly. These skills are essential ingredients for success in cognitive neuroscience and industry (for more information, see §6.3 on page 31).
The learning curve can be a little steep on all of these learning objectives—
but it’s well worth it. If these objectives aren’t compatible with your goals
or interests, then my lab is probably not a good it for you!

3.4

Employees

I expect paid employees to use their time ef iciently to support the projects
to which they are assigned. Paid employees will typically have the most interaction with other staff, and with research participants, and in these contexts especially should be a model of professionalism.

Hours
Work hours in the lab are 8:00–5:00 (or 9:00–6:00), with 60 minutes for
lunch by default. If you are testing participants outside of this time, we will
adjust accordingly for those weeks. You are responsible for keeping your
hours at the agreed amount (8 hours per day, 40 hours per week for fulltime employees). To maintain full-time bene its eligibility your hours cannot
drop (much) below 35; if on a given week you work substantially less than 30
hours, vacation time may be used to make up the difference (per HR policy).
The workweek at Temple is from Saturday to Friday. So, if you don’t log
your full 40 hours between Monday and Friday, the extra (make-up) hours
you might log over the weekend would apply to your next timesheet.

CHAPTER 3. BEING IN THE LAB

8

Time off should be requested at least 2 weeks in advance, via email. Once
approved (via email) please add to the lab calendar. You are responsible
for making sure you have suf icient vacation hours to cover any time off;
otherwise, you will not be paid.
Sick time should also be requested over email. Per HR policy, full-time
employees are earned sick days at the rate of 1 day/month up to 10 days up
(these sick days carry over to the next iscal year).
(Note that graduate students, postdocs, and staff scientists are generally
given more lexibility in their hours, provided they make suf icient progress
on their projects. This lexibility does not generally extend to other paid positions because we need to maintain a consistent lab presence for scheduling, supporting undergrads, interacting with other staff, and so on. Nevertheless, individuals with paid full-time or part-time positions can, on occasion, log up to a half day, or 4 hours, remotely each week, provided this is
cleared with me irst and does not result in overtime.)
Even if you speak with me in person, it is important to document these requests (and my approval) over email so that we have a record. It is your
responsibility to make sure this happens.

Timesheets
• Hours entered on your timesheet should re lect hours actually at work.
• Monitor your time carefully and do not forgot to clock in/out in the
lobby. If you forget to clock out or your hours appear anomalous, it
creates extra work for someone else to ix.
• Clock out for breaks 60 minutes or longer (this is your default lunch,
unless we’ve changed it in Kronos to 30 minutes).
• If you’re not using the clock-in/clock-out system in the lobby (e.g., testing off campus), submit your timesheet before the due date.

Employee resources
There are many resources and bene its available through human resources.
These policies are spelled out to some degree on the HR website and in the

CHAPTER 3. BEING IN THE LAB

9

Employee Manual, and I can also put you in touch with people in the department or HR who can offer guidance.

3.5

Masters students

I expect masters students will be organized and independent, and manage
their research time and classroom responsibilities so that they complete
a project by the end of their second year, which requires being somewhat
strategic in the topic we pick. The written report is typically due at the end
of April, with an oral presentation in early May. In some cases, I will encourage you to pursue a Registered Report, which focuses your time and energy
on reviewing the literature, developing your questions and hypotheses, and
designing the experiment to evaluate your hypotheses. You should aim to
have an “in principle acceptance” of your registered report by the middle of
the Fall semester of your second year so that you can complete some of the
data collection and analyses before the end of your program.
If a Registered Report is not appropriate for your project, timeline, or
goals (e.g., you want to spend more time on data collection or analysis), then
we need to adjust our plan and collect data sooner. To collect a reasonable
amount of data, it is almost always necessary to start collecting data during
the Fall semester, which is challenging because of classroom responsibilities.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you!
At the outset of your masters project, please create a card on Trello and
make a check list with planned due dates (e.g., see Table 3.1), and keep this
updated throughout the year.

3.6

Undergraduate students

Undergraduates can be involved in the lab in a number of ways, including
independent study projects and internships, Senior Honors Theses, work
study, and volunteer. Usually, an undergraduate will start off as a volunteer
to ensure there’s a good it in the lab before moving on to another role.

All undergraduates
I expect undergraduates to be utterly reliable and willing to help with whatever projects need it. At a bare minimum, reliability includes showing up on

CHAPTER 3. BEING IN THE LAB

10

time, maintaining your hours on the lab calendar, and making sure that all
of your work is accurate (double-check everything). In most cases, undergraduates will work with a graduate student and/or research assistant. If
you ind yourself without a speci ic project:
• Ask around to see if you can help with anything.
• Look on the wiki under “Essential lab skills” and spend some time
learning something new.
• Look on Trello for either a wiki page that needs creating/updating, or
other miscellaneous lab tasks that need to be done.
There is enough to do that you should not be bored! Your irst semester
in the lab is an opportunity to see whether continuing in the lab is a good it.
After you’ve been in the lab for a semester, set up a time to meet with me to
discuss your progress and plans for continuing in the lab.

Independent Research
There are two primary pathways for doing independent research in the lab.
First, you can receive course credit for your time in lab by doing an independent study in lab. Second, if you’re in the Honors Program, you can do
a Senior Honors Thesis. In both cases, you will be paired with a graduate
student who can assist you and help oversee your work.
Students who have already demonstrated themselves to be careful and
independent workers for a minimum of 3 months may apply to do an honors project in the lab. The overall project should be discussed in the Spring
for completion the following year. Due dates and requirements differ across
programs; check with your individual program for application requirements.
I expect that we will start working on this over the summer before the project
year, whether that involves you working in the lab over the summer, or working from home. At the outset of your project, make a check list with planned
due dates (e.g., see Table 3.1), and keep this updated throughout the year.
Because honors and independent study projects necessarily rely on lab
resources, they need to it within the overall scope of lab research. The wiki
maintains list of possible projects that it within our ongoing research which
we can use as a starting point for our discussions.

CHAPTER 3. BEING IN THE LAB

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Table 3.1: Deadlines for short-term research projects
Senior honors

Masters

Topic picked
Spring of prior year
Stimulus materials inalized
September 1
IRB approval inalized
September 15
Data collection begun
October 1
15 minute lab talk on background
Fall semester
Draft of introduction and methods
December 20
Complete written draft
March 1
April 1
Practice talk
April 1
April 15
Final written draft
End of April
End of April
Oral presentation
After Spring break Early May
If you’re doing an Honors thesis or receiving course credit for an independent study project, please be sure to present in lab meeting and set up
regular individual meetings to discuss progress.

3.7

University policies

Employee guidelines
Important guidance on bene its and policies (including time off policies and
the Employee Handbook) are available on the human resources website. It
is important that these policies are followed at all times. You are responsible
for reviewing the policies and bene its; human resources is a good resource
and they can help you if you have any questions.

Sexual harassment
University policy requires that if any faculty member (such as me) becomes
aware of sexual harassment or abuse involving students or employees we
must report it to the Title IX Sexual Harassment Response Coordinator. Counselors and other medical professionals on campus who discuss these issues
in their professional capacity can keep patient con identiality.

4

Communication

4.1

Communication within the lab

I am usually busier than I’d like to be, and as a result have less time for talking
to folks than I’d like. However, you (lab members) are one of the most important parts of my job, and I need your help to stay organized and involved
in the things I need to be involved in. Some general guidance:
1. Be proactive—tell me what you need. This includes coming to knock
on my door even if it seems like you are interrupting, emailing me to
set up a time to meet, or catching me before or after lab meeting. In all
likelihood I will not check in with you as often as I’d like, so it is up to
you to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.
2. Write things down and remind me what we’ve talked about. I would
love to remember everything we decided when we met last, but this
doesn’t always happen. Don’t hesitate to bring me up to speed when
we meet. Even if I already remember what we are talking about, a
couple of introductory topic sentences will help get me in the right
frame of mind.
3. Read all of the lab documentation: this lab manual, the lab wiki, and
Trello. You are responsible for knowing what is in each of these places,
following the rules and guidelines we have set up, and notifying someone if you ind incorrect or unclear information (or if you have questions).
4. I can be the most helpful to everyone if you are a little bit strategic
in what you ask me. Please check the lab wiki, other people in the lab,
and a Google search before shooting me off a question (see Figure 4.1).

My door
Metaphorically my door is always open, but sometimes my door is, physically, closed (or perhaps slightly cracked open). If this is the case:
• If we have a meeting scheduled, then please knock. Hopefully I am
around.
12

CHAPTER 4. COMMUNICATION

13

Have a question?
Is it in the lab manual?

yes

you’re done!

no

Is it on the wiki?

yes

you’re done!

no

Does google know?

yes

update wiki

you’re done!

update wiki

you’re done!

update wiki

you’re done!

update wiki

you’re done!

update wiki

you’re done!

no

Does an undergraduate know?

yes

no

Does a research assistant know?

yes

no

Does a postdoc know?

yes

no

Does your PI know?

yes

no

either you have discovered something super important,
or it probably doesn’t matter that much.

Figure 4.1: Lab decision tree. Answers to all your questions should be in the
lab wiki!

CHAPTER 4. COMMUNICATION

14

• If we don’t have a meeting scheduled, a closed door generally means I
am trying to do some writing and should not be interrupted. Of course,
if it’s an emergency, please knock anyway. Otherwise, please send me
a Slack direct message or try another time.

Lab meeting
Except in very busy semesters, we generally meet once each week to talk
about science together, and to make sure we have a chance to touch base
on administrative and practical issues. There may even be a snack. Regular
attendance and participation is expected (unless you have a class or clinical
responsibilities during that time).
Our lab meetings are generally 1-1.5 hours. During that time, we normally have one or two presenters: 1) one person leads a journal club on
a recent empirical paper that is relevant to the lab; and 2) another person
presents their work, a project proposal, a tutorial, or a general-interest topic
that is worth a group discussion. Example general-interest topics might include a recent in luential review paper, responsible conduct of research, professional development, or innovative research practices.

Individual Meetings
In addition to Lab Meetings, it is also helpful for me to have regular individual
meetings with lab members who are playing a big role in a project and/or
leading their own projects. These meetings are short (30 minutes max) and
might be weekly or biweekly, depending on the person and the status of their
project. The goal of these meetings is to provide updates on your project, get
feedback, and plan ahead. In most situations, it will be a good idea to bring
a laptop for taking notes and sharing data/results.

Trello and Slack
Trello and Slack are the main tools for lab communication and are preferred
to email in almost every situation. Please help me by keeping these up to
date! A few thoughts and tips:
• If you’re leading a project in the lab or expecting to stay in the laboratory for more than a year or so, please create a list on the Uber

CHAPTER 4. COMMUNICATION

15

Lab Board. This list should be titled with your name and should contain cards for your current individual meeting notes, projects, longterm goals (and research questions), and your individual development
plan.1
• Avoid direct messages for project-related discussions or questions. Instead, use (or create) a Slack channel for your general topic, which will
naturally overlap with other aims/directions of the lab. Creating (or
using) a general channel that includes others allows you to get feedback and perspectives other folks in lab, potentially forming new collaborations. In addition, using the threads feature on Slack can also
help keep conversations organized.
• Use the to-do lists and due dates, both for yourself and others (including me). It helps me see what is coming up, and what things you are
thinking about. If you need to adjust, that’s ine, but please discuss
with me. Take the time to assign a person responsible when possible
(including yourself, or me).
• When you post a comment or start a conversation on a Trello card, you
can optionally have it emailed to people on the project. One of the nice
things about Trello and Slack is that it can reduce the amount of email
we have to read. If you need a response, or it’s critical I know what
you’ve added, then by all means have Trello email me. But if you are
just taking notes or updating an ongoing discussion, uncheck the box
and it will save me a few minutes.

Lab Wiki
The lab wiki is our shared collection of knowledge about how to get things
done in the lab. The lab manual you are reading now is “top down”, in that I
am writing the whole thing myself. By contrast, the wiki is a shared resource
to which everyone can—and should—contribute. A good rule of thumb is
that if you need to igure out how to do something, someone else in the lab
1

After a couple of iterations with Trello, I am hopeful a Uber Lab Board—which has
everything in one place—will help everyone stay on top of things. Of course, the current
“person-list” approach might not be optimal, so I’m open to improvement here as long as
we can keep it easy to use for everyone and clear!

CHAPTER 4. COMMUNICATION

16

may someday need to do the same thing. Whenever possible please document what you igure out on the wiki, including updating old sections which
may no longer be relevant. Please encourage each other (and those working
with you) to do the same!
For now, we have two wikis. First, we have an Internal Wiki2 that everyone in lab can access and edit. Since it’s for internal use only, we also
have our lab meeting schedule and project information up there. However,
you can currently only edit the internal wiki from on campus, which makes it
harder to use on a regular basis. Second, we have a Public Wiki3 that mirrors
much of the same content as the Internal Wiki, but it is public facing and can
be edited from anywhere (only a subset of lab members can edit this wiki).
Please remember that it is important to never put private or sensitive information on either wiki because neither wiki is fully protected.

Open Science Framework
We also use the Open Science Framework (OSF) for organizing (and sharing) materials and documentation related to our projects. Your OSF project
pages can serve as a lab notebook and centralized storage area for sharing
things related to your project (e.g., posters and preprints). When making
your project page, please follow the guidelines on the main Project page:
https://osf.io/myxet/wiki/home/. If someone contacts me for additional
information about one of our projects, my hope is that I can easily ind the
correct OSF page and send them a shareable link.

Email
When contacting me, please use Trello/Slack whenever possible. I will try
to reply to emails when I can but please don’t use it for anything urgent if
you can avoid it. If you need to reach me urgently you can call/text my cell
phone, or call the lab (where someone can get in touch with me).
I would like to use Trello/Slack as much as possible for lab communication, but sometimes I will need to email you. I expect you will read all email
sent to you and respond (if a response is needed) within one business day.
If you’re not going to be checking email for more than a few days (for whatever reason), please consider using a vacation message so that others know
2
3

https://smithlabinternal.cla.temple.edu
https://smithlabwiki.cla.temple.edu

CHAPTER 4. COMMUNICATION

17

you’re not on email (this suggestion also applies to holidays). The same
guidelines apply to me: if I don’t respond to one of your messages within
one business day, please feel free to follow up; and if I’m not checking email
at all, I will put up a vacation message.

Calendars
Accurate calendars are extremely important in managing lab space and resources. We have a Lab Attendance calendar (for attendance) and a Lab Resources calendar (for resources like laptops and testing rooms). It is crucial
that everyone use the calendars regularly and ensure they are accurate. Use
the lab calendars and follow the instructions described on the wiki.

4.2

Communication outside the lab

Communicating to people outside the lab is extremely important: your actions re lect not only on yourself, but on the lab, the lab director, the department, and the university. This is true both for participants (who volunteer for our studies) and scienti ic colleagues (whose opinions have a direct
impact on our success and opportunity—they are the ones reviewing our
grants and papers!). It is important that every time one of us represents the
lab it is to a high level of quality. The less experience you have, the more
preparation is required. Don’t skimp!

Phone
• If the phone rings in the lab, answer it: identify the lab and your name.
Most calls will be from potential (or current) research participants, so
it’s important they view us as professional and competent. “Smith Lab.
This is [your name here]. How may I help you?” is a great start.
• Check voicemail messages daily to make sure nothing important slips
through.
• If someone calls the lab and leaves a message, call them back within
one business day to con irm that we received the call. If they would
like to participate in a study but we can’t schedule them, thank them
for their interest and ask if we can contact them in the future should

CHAPTER 4. COMMUNICATION

18

one come up (if you actually will). If you are not going to contact them
(or they do not qualify), tell them that we are done recruiting for that
study and do not have anything else available, but thank them for their
interest. Refer to §5.3 (page 24) and the lab wiki for detailed instructions on scheduling participants and general phone etiquette.

Manuscripts
General
We have an obligation to communicate our indings clearly and unambiguously. However, clear and unambiguous communication can be challenging, especially when writing a manuscript. Before you sit down to write a
manuscript, I expect you to be familiar with what George Gopen calls “Reader
Expectations”. I also expect you to be familiar with what Steven Pinker calls
the “Curse of Knowledge”. You have to put yourself in the reader’s shoes and
imagine that s/he does not know what you know. In my view, understanding
how to work with “Reader Expectations” and avoid the “Curse of Knowledge”
will help you communicate your indings clearly and unambiguously4
With these principles in mind, here are some additional guidelines for
drafting a manuscript in the Smith Lab:
• Always start with paragraph-level outlines of each section that include
the key citations and points you intend to make.
• Obsess over low, context, and structure.
• Remember that the reader does not know what you know.
• Always show a manuscript (or revision) to all authors before submitting it, giving them the opportunity to comment.
• Go over page proofs carefully, including the references. There is almost
always a mistake (ours, or introduced by the publisher).
• Always give the senior author the opportunity to look at page proofs.
Formatting
When you are out in the big world on your own, you are free to format your
manuscripts however you like. While you’re in the Smith Lab, when sending
me a draft of a manuscript, please do the following:
4

Both Pinker and Gopen have books that are in lab, so take a look at them if you want
more information.

CHAPTER 4. COMMUNICATION

19

• Include a title, or multiple options for a title, if you are unsure.
• Include page numbers.
• Include the full author list starting from the irst draft, which helps
clarify any authorship issues or concerns early on.
• Include placeholders for all sections (e.g., introduction, methods, results, discussion.) even if they are empty, so that we can ill them in
as we go. Having placeholders also helps clarify the organization from
the beginning.
• Use styles, especially for headings. This will help organization of the
manuscript and make it easy to change font and formatting if need be.
(To make a heading, don’t simply select the text and make it bold; select the text and then a heading style, such as “Heading 1”.)
• While we are sending drafts back and forth, keep the text single-spaced.
If the journal requires double spacing, we can add this at the end.
• Embed igures and tables in the body of the manuscript rather than
putting at the end, or in separate iles. Again, we can change this to
match journal guidelines before submitting if need be.
Some of these are good practice; others are simply my own preferences.
However, if you humor me in these, it will decrease my distraction when
reading your writing, and ultimately enable me to be more useful. I’m happy
to send you a blank draft manuscript to get you started.
Your papers should be free of spelling and grammatical errors. There is
no shame in asking for help with this; your fellow labmates, classmates, or
the writing center (http://www.temple.edu/writingctr/) are available
to help. The best proofreaders will explain to you why things need to be
changed so that you learn how to be a better writer, rather than simply correcting your writing.
When naming iles, please include your name and a version number. If you
send me a ile called “Research_Statement.docx”, it is likely to get lost—try
“Baldrick_research_statement_v01.docx” (assuming your name is Baldrick
and this is the irst version you are sending me). Renaming iles with initials when making comments is generally helpful; I would send this ile back
to you named “…_dvs.docx”. After you incorporate any changes, you can
then create a new document named “Baldrick_research_statement_v02”. For
more on good practices in naming iles, please see this page.

CHAPTER 4. COMMUNICATION

20

Figures
If we are still trying to work out what a good igure looks like, I’m happy to
talk this through with you and look at rough drafts. However, if we have a
good idea of what we want in the igure, please send me something as inished and polished as you can make it—this makes it easy for me to give the
most helpful feedback. If you give me something that isn’t your best work, I
will probably just tell you things you already know.
Most igures should be vector art (saved as PDF or EPS iles). Vectorbased iles don’t suffer the artifacts and poor quality that raster-based images show when magni ied. Use a graphing program (such as R, Matlab, or
JASP) to export to an EPS ile, and then modify that ile in Adobe Illustrator
or other vector-based image-editing program (e.g., Inkscape).
Don’t use Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Powerpoint for your igures! They are
never the best option. If you must organize your data in Excel, that’s ine, but
then do plotting in a better plotting program (e.g., R, Matlab, or Python).

Corresponding authorship
On average, I am around the longest and have the best chance of having access to data, etc. To keep the rules the same for everyone I am always corresponding author for research conducted in the lab.

4.3

Abstracts

I encourage everyone in lab to seek out conferences and meetings that would
be a good venue for your work (a list of possibilities can be found on the
wiki). Anyone submitting an abstract for a conference, symposium, etc. should
clear this with me irst, and circulate to all authors at least one week before
the submission deadline.

Talks
Anyone giving a talk to a non-lab audience is required to give a practice talk
to the lab at least one week before the real talk. If this is your irst public talk
on a lab project, plan on at least two practice talks (starting at least 2 weeks

CHAPTER 4. COMMUNICATION

21

before the real talk). Practice talks should be mostly inished ( inal slides,
practiced, and the right length) so that our comments will be as helpful as
possible. Schedule one or more meetings with me ahead of time to plan or
go over your slides, especially if you haven’t given many talks before. You
should never have to stay up late inishing a talk.

Posters
Anyone presenting a poster should circulate an initial version to all authors
at least one week before the printing deadline—which can be up to a week
before you plan to leave for the conference (plan accordingly). If it’s your
irst poster, plan to present it to the lab before you print.
Make sure to double check the poster size and orientation for the conference, and the size of the paper or canvas it will be printed on.
For many conferences, you may want to bring a sign-up sheet where people can request an emailed PDF. However, these sign-up sheets can be dificult to read, so you could also print a QR code on your poster that links to
your poster and/or include an OSF link to your poster.

5

Science

5.1

Scienti ic integrity

You have a responsibility to me, the institutions that support our work, and
the broader scienti ic community to uphold the highest standards of scienti ic accuracy and integrity. By being in the lab you agree to adhere to professional ethical standards. There is never an excuse for fabricating or misrepresenting data. If you have any questions, or in the unlikely event that
you have concerns about a research practice you have seen in the lab, please
talk to me immediately.
It is also important that you prioritize the accuracy of your work while
in the lab. Unintentional errors due to inattentiveness or rushing can be
extremely damaging and produce results that turn out to be incorrect. Although there is always a pressure for a high quantity of research, it is critical that everything we do is of the highest quality. Mistakes will happen, so
please double-check your work frequently. In many cases, multiple people
will double-check a data set or work low to ensure no mistakes have crept
in along the way.

5.2

Open, accurate, and reproducible science

For lab manuscripts, we go through a paper checklist created by Jonathan
Peelle1 that includes sections on open science and statistics to encourage us
to continually keep these issues in mind.

Open science
We are working towards putting all stimuli, data, and analyses online and
linked to each research publication. The idea is not to simply tick a box of
“open science”, but to make these resources readable and useable for reviewers and other researchers. In service of this:
• All iles should be named and organized according to the Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS) standard.
1

https://github.com/jpeelle/paperchecklist

22

CHAPTER 5. SCIENCE

23

• Items need to be documented and described. At a minimum, each collection should have a README ile2 at the top level that provides details about the item in question (such as a set of stimuli or an analysis).
• GitHub pages should have a README.md ile that describes what is
in the repository. You can also use the GitHub wiki (and link to your
project OSF). In all cases, make sure your documentation provides enough
information for an outside reviewer/collaborator to reproduce what
you did without consulting you.
• Code should be tested, bug-free, and (helpfully) commented. For tips
on documenting code, check out this recent “10 Simple Rules” paper
by Benjamin Lee.
• Links should be permanent, ideally a DOI—which we can obtain through
the OSF, FigShare, or Zenodo.
In pursuit of this high level of organization and documentation, lab members will frequently be asked to review and error-check lab materials (including text lists of stimuli, code input/output, etc.). Lab members creating stimuli or conducting research projects should organize them from the
outset in a way that is conducive to eventual sharing (GitHub, OSF, Jupyter
notebooks, etc.).

Accurate science
A key part of accuracy is anticipating and avoiding “adverse events” (including near misses), and creating structures in the lab that facilitate a high level
of reliability.
Inspired by a blog post on reliability in the lab3 we have a page on the
lab wiki for documenting adverse events. Such events will irst be posted to
the #adverse-events channel in Slack and then be discussed at lab meeting to
make sure none slip through the cracks. Examples of adverse events include:
• Any of the lab computers malfunctioning
2
3

html

http://jonathanpeelle.net/making-a-readme-file
http://jeffrouder.blogspot.com/2015/03/is-your-lab-highly-reliable.

CHAPTER 5. SCIENCE

24

• Any data analysis/transfer procedure not working correctly (e.g., downloading imaging data from XNAT)
• Not being able to ind the installation disc for a software program
• Nearly running out of money to pay participants (this counts as a “near
miss” which we also need to discuss)
As a lab member it is your responsibility to be aware of times when things
don’t go as planned and bring these to the attention of the rest of the group.
Even better, let’s all work together to ind ways of preventing such occurrences in the future.

Checklist for scienti ic publications
Anyone writing a manuscript (including an honors project) should consult
the Peelle Lab Paper Checklist 4 and discuss with me before submitting your
manuscript (ideally, early on in your project!).

5.3

Participants

Our research is made possible by the goodwill and generosity of our research
participants. We not only need people to participate in our studies, but to try
hard to do their best, and potentially return for a future study. Caring for our
participants is one of the most important parts of the lab and something in
which every member plays a role.
The most important thing is that participants must always be con ident
that we are professional and treating them with respect. All of the speci ic
advice supports these goals. In general, it is helpful to model our interactions
off of other professional situations, such as a doctor’s of ice.
For all participants:
• Dress professionally: No jeans, t-shirts, sweatshirts, sneakers, or sandals. When in doubt, ask! This is true for both young and older adults—
dressing professionally will help undergraduate participants to take
the experiment seriously.
4

https://github.com/jpeelle/paperchecklist/blob/master/checklist.pdf

CHAPTER 5. SCIENCE

25

Table 5.1: Terms associated with research studies
Instead of saying: Say this:
experiment
subject
test

study, research study
volunteer, participant
task or screening or game

• Answer the phone, and return all phone calls (and emails) promptly.
Tell participants who you are, and where you are calling from: “Hello,
this is [name] calling from the Smith Lab at Temple University. I am
returning your call from yesterday regarding a research study.”
• Task instructions must be extremely clear. Ensure that the participant
understands that their choices have real consequences for the money
they take home (i.e., their decisions must be incentive compatible).
• Be prepared to answer questions. If you don’t know the answer, it is
completely ine to ask the participant if someone else can call them
back. You are then responsible for making sure this happens quickly.
• Arrive at least 30 minutes prior to testing time to make sure equipment and paperwork are all set, and to be around in the event the participant shows up early. Everything should be set up before the participant arrives. For people coming from off campus, you should be at
the designated meeting spot 15 minutes before the agreed upon time.
For non-students, and especially older adults, always use a title (Dr./Ms./Mr.)
and a participant’s last name when addressing them. If you aren’t sure how
to pronounce their name, ask them.
We can also help participants feel more at ease by being thoughtful about
the language we use. For example, participating in a “research study” is more
friendly than being a “subject” in an “experiment” (e.g., see Table 5.1).
Refer to the lab wiki for speci ic information on recruiting, scheduling,
and testing participants.

CHAPTER 5. SCIENCE

5.4

26

Subject payment

We pay our subjects in pre- illed Visa debit cards. One of the lab members
checks out the possible cards, and then people testing participants will take
out what they need to pay the subjects. Each subject signs a payment sheet
and receipt booklet to document that they got paid. Naturally, it is very important that we keep track of this money.

5.5

Testing locations

• Some of our shared testing locations are shared with other researchers,
so it is very important that we are good citizens when it comes to using these spaces. Being a good citizen includes scheduling the time as
required, not using more than our allotted time, and leaving the room
as clean as we found it (or preferably cleaner).
• No Smith Lab equipment should be left in shared testing rooms—this
includes laptop, stimulation device, etc. (It all lives in the lab.)
• No one should test a subject without signing out the testing room.

5.6

Lab notebook

Anyone conducting an independent research project should have a lab notebook for keeping track of discussions, experiments, and taking notes. You
should use an electronic lab notebook (ELN) as your primary lab notebook.
This ELN should be a wiki page under the “Notes and Documentation” component on your OSF Project page (this wiki page can be private and can be
set up as diary with date entries5 ).

5.7

Computers and data

General guidelines
• Testing laptops should never leave the lab except for testing. Always
sign out the computer and any other equipment on the calendar.
5

http://help.osf.io/m/collaborating/l/524109-using-the-wiki

CHAPTER 5. SCIENCE

27

• Do not install extraneous software or store personal iles on the computers.

Backing up your iles and data
Always assume that as soon as you turn your back the computer on which
you have been working will explode.Thinking such dire thoughts will make
it easier to follow these guidelines:
• If you save iles to the shared lab drive (the S drive), backup will automatically happen. When working on a lab computer save all of your
iles to the shared drive. If you are working on lab projects on your
own computer, transfer these iles to the shared lab drive regularly to
make sure they are in one place, and backed up.
• Data from participants is irreplaceable and should be removed from
testing computers immediately following testing and onto the lab server
in the “outputs” folder for the appropriate study (found in the “projects”
folder). (MRI data is an exception as it should already backed up at
TUBRIC and/or the Cloud, after de-identi ication, of course.)
• Be sure to constantly push changes to scripts up to GitHub. Your
scripts and code are almost as valuable as participant data. There is no
excuse for losing scripts or code, so please use GitHub for everything.
• When working on manuscripts, be sure to use Dropbox, Google Drive,
or Box so that your iles are backed up and accessible anywhere.

5.8

Authorship

Many professional associations and journals have published authorship guidelines, which are worth looking at (for example: ICMJE). Many of these guidelines call for a sustained intellectual contribution; and in my view, there are
two key requirements to being an author:
1. Contribute to the intellectual scienti ic content of the manuscript in a
meaningful way.
2. Contribute to the writing of the manuscript in a meaningful way.

CHAPTER 5. SCIENCE

28

Note that “collect data”, “analyze data”, or “fund the study” aren’t on the
list. Those are very important parts of a paper, but do not (on their own)
warrant authorship. Being an author means understanding the content and
being willing to take public responsibility for the work: a large part of this
concerns the theoretical motivation and implications of the research. In
practice, theoretical contributions are most often made through helping with
the study design, data interpretation, and discussion about a topic.
Also note that being an author on a poster (or abstract) at a scienti ic
meeting does not automatically make you an author on the paper. The thresholds for authorship on a poster vs. a paper are very different, and I will often
be much more inclusive when it comes to posters coming out of the lab.
This doesn’t mean that as an undergraduate student or research assistant you can’t be an author on a paper. Of course, if the study goes well and
you are involved, you might be. However, you will need to know enough (or
learn enough) about the subject to understand what we’ve done, and to signi icantly contribute to the writing. I won’t add you to a paper just because I
like you and want to help you out; I will consider giving you the opportunity
to be involved to a degree that you have earned authorship, if you are willing
to take on the challenge.
Typically one person will take on the main responsibility for writing the
paper, and this person will be the irst author. However, as noted above, I
expect all authors to contribute to the writing of the manuscript. This contribution could take the form of helping structuring arguments, identifying
key citations, and developing paragraph-level outlines. Once we have clear,
paragraph-level outlines, it is easier to split some of the writing responsibility (e.g., a minor author might be more able to write a speci ic paragraph in
the Discussion, if it is more within his/her expertise).
I assume that, unless we have talked about it, I will be an author on papers coming out of the lab. This does not mean that you should add me on to
papers as a courtesy; it means that I expect you to include me in the process
of discussion and writing in a way that merits authorship. In other words,
the same approach I take with you.
It is worth pointing out that there are many views regarding authorship,
and within any view there are always borderline cases. When collaborating with other people, I tend to defer to their own lab culture. However, it’s
important that within our own lab, we are clear on the expectations for authorship and transparent about authorship discussions and decisions. If you
ever have any questions, please come speak to me.

6

Other Important Information

6.1

Recommendation letters

It is part of my job (and, thankfully, quite often a pleasure) to write letters
of recommendation for people in the lab. Please give me as much notice as
possible, and make sure I know the deadline, format (electronic? printed?),
of icial name of the organization, what you are applying for, and so on. Please
also send along a current CV.
If you are an undergraduate, I will write your letters on my own. For
more senior lab members, I will also write your letters on my own, but please
send me a draft of the letter (which I will extensively modify). The irst few
times you do this it will probably feel awkward. However, keep in mind that
your goal is to make it as easy as possible for a letter writer (in this case, me)
to complete the task by the deadline and without error. Even if I re-word a
lot of the letter—which I probably will—it will still have the name of what
you are applying for and details regarding how long I have known you, the
projects you have worked on, and so on. This is extremely helpful in jogging
my memory and will give me more time to focus on saying good things about
you. Don’t worry about being too “braggy”; I have no problem toning things
down if need be.
Like everything else, communication is key, and when in doubt, ask!

6.2

Staying on top of the literature

It is essential that all members of the laboratory stay on top of the literature.
Dozens of relevant papers come out each month, so it becomes challenging
to read everything—let alone synthesize the welter of information! At Temple and in the Smith Lab, we have regular discussions of journal articles.
These discussions happen through our weekly lab meeting, the Neuroeconomics Journal Club, the Neuroimaging Methods Journal Club, and the Maladaptive Motivated Behaviors Brown Bag series. Please attend these meetings and contribute to the discussions. When you’re reading papers (or even
just skimming abstracts), think about the following questions:
• Which papers are “good” and “bad” (and why)? This question will be
hard to answer at irst. That’s ok. You will get better with practice.
29

CHAPTER 6. OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION

30

In fact, you can now target this critical thinking skill by reading journals that publish the reviewer reports alongside the paper (e.g., eLife,
European Journal of Neuroscience, Nature Communications) and/or by
checking out reviewed preprints on AcademicKarma.
• How exactly do the papers relate to our lab in general and to your
projects speci ically?
• How do different papers agree/disagree with each other?
• How do the papers contribute to big-picture questions in the ield?
• What questions do the papers create?
There are many different strategies for staying on top of the literature.
For years, I’ve received Table of Content (TOC) emails from various journals
each time there’s a new issue of the journal. Although this strategy works
well for tracking new content and coming across articles you might not normally read, it is easy to neglect these TOC emails and fall behind, especially if
you’re overzealous and sign up for too many journals. Recently, I’ve started
getting a lot of information from Twitter and from Google Scholar alerts for
speci ic authors. You can also set up Google Scholar alerts for speci ic search
terms, much like the PubCrawler application that can send daily updates
about what’s new and interesting on PubMed (in this case, you de ine what
is “new and interesting”). How can you manage all of this information? Here
are my recommendations:
• Stay calm, and read on! Budget time for reading papers and synthesizing information, especially when you are in the early days of exploring a new topic or question.
• Set up alerts for some journal TOC emails and use PubCrawler and
Google Scholar for term- or topic-speci ic alerts. Also follow folks on
Twitter. There are lots of smart people on Twitter who act as ilters
and disseminate articles (and other information) that you may ind
useful.
• Use reference managing software, such as Mendeley or Zotero (both
are free). These programs will help you collect references, add notes,
and organize them however you like. You can (and should) also integrate programs like Mendeley and Zotero with your OSF project page.

CHAPTER 6. OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION

31

• Add papers you want to discuss at lab meeting to our lab Mendeley
page.
• Set aside time each week to review what you’ve added to Mendeley or
Zotero and think about how those papers it together.
• Force yourself to write a cohesive paragraph each month that connects
the dots on some of your favorite recent papers. You should be able
to use this paragraph in a future class or paper; but even if you can’t
immediately, you will have at least spent some time practicing your
writing and getting your head around multiple papers.
The bottom line is simple: You need to read a lot and be able to synthesize
different pieces of information. In science, everything is connected; but in
order to see those connections—or design the experiments that will create
the connections—you must know the literature like the back of your hand.

6.3

Learning to code

Computer programming (i.e., coding) is an essential skill that all students
within psychology and neuroscience should develop1 . Being comfortable
with computer programming—especially Python and Matlab—will enable
you to develop your own task scripts and wrangle data.
Yet, learning computer programming is a challenging task and the learning curve can be rather steep. In most situations, you will not learn how
to code from psychology/neuroscience classes at Temple. Instead, you will
learn from online training materials, software manuals/tutorials, other trainees,
and your own experiences. Having a speci ic problem or goal in mind (e.g.,
program a new task or analyze a new dataset) helps considerably.
While you’re learning to code, keep the following points in mind:
• Be patient and persistent. No one “gets it” immediately, and you may
have to work through several errors before arriving at a solution.
1

html

http://www.russpoldrack.org/2016/05/advice-for-learning-to-code-from-scratch.

CHAPTER 6. OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION

32

• Be careful and obsessive. Most coding mishaps occur because of a tiny
typo. If you’re careful and thorough, you will catch these mistakes and
save yourself time and frustration.
• Understand input and output for all scripts you use.
• Have a basic sense of how each line of code relates to other lines of
code in your script. Everything is connected.
• Paths errors are common. Avoid them by shoring up your understanding directory structures. Every input and output ile lives in a speci ic
location that you control.
• Avoid staring at the same error for more than 30 minutes. If you haven’t
solved it in 30 minutes, switch to some other work or take a walk outside.
• Don’t be shy about asking for help. Other students/trainees and internet forums (e.g., NeuroStars) are great places to ind help.
Although learning to code can be a daunting and frustrating task, it is well
worth the investment. Coding is a skill that will generalize well beyond the
laboratory, particularly industry positions involving data science.

7

Frequently asked questions

Why do we have so many options for communication and documentation?
We use email, Slack, Trello, a lab wiki, and OSF. Each one has a distinct
role and function in lab. I also encourage everyone to read (and engage with) multiple neuroimaging analysis forums (e.g., NeuroStars,
FSL mailing list, etc.). This may seem like a lot, but I think it’s the bare
minimum until there’s one package/platform that does everything eficiently (suggestions are welcome!). Indeed, I long for the day when
there’s one lab/project management tool that combines the best of everything into one tidy package, much like FMRIPREP1 when it comes
to preprocessing in neuroimaging!
How are PhD students supported in Psychology?
Students in our program have 9-month stipends. These stipends are
supported in three different ways: 1) TA-ships (20 hrs/week); 2) RAships (20 hrs/week); and 3) fellowships (e.g., NSF, NRSA, University).
Similar mechanisms exist to support students for some or all of the
summer. In some cases, students in our lab could be assigned to an
RA position in a different lab due to funding, need, and/or interest. Of
course, I hope everyone can win fellowships and/or be supported on
RA-ships tied to our lab (i.e., our grants/resources) because these are
the only mechanisms that give students extra time to do their research.
Can I be successful if I don’t like to code?
Everyone can be successful in my lab. But learning to code—and being comfortable with troubleshooting technical issues—will create opportunities and help you have more fun than those who do not become
comfortable with coding.
What if I want to leave academia?
There’s absolutely no shame in leaving academia2,3 . I am more than
happy to connect you with friends who have left academia for other
pursuits (e.g., data science) at various points in their career (e.g., predoc and tenure-track job).
1

Estaban et al., (2018). FMRIPrep: a robust preprocessing pipeline for functional MRI.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05838-y
3
https://sasconfidential.com/2016/02/11/its-ok-to-quit-your-phd/
2

33

CHAPTER 7. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

34

If you are looking at a printed version, please write additional questions here:

8

Glossary

IRB (Institutional Review Board)
The IRB oversees human subjects research and makes sure that research is conducted in a way that protects subjects’ safety and privacy. Our lab submits protocols to the IRB which describe the research
we want to do; the approved protocol is linked to a particular consent
form that subjects sign when they participate, informing them about
the study.
PI (principal investigator)
In the context of a grant, the PI is the person responsible for making
sure the proposed research gets done. More broadly it refers to a researcher who has their own research group or lab (i.e., someone who
would be in a position to be a PI on a grant, regardless of whether or
not they are currently funded).
study
In our lab, a “study” refers to an experiment (such as “Deception.01’)
that falls under an umbrella IRB project1 . This term might be used
interchangeably with the term “project”.

If you are looking at a printed version, please make a list
of terms you’d like de ined (feel free to include a suggested
de inition):

1

Note that we currently have one umbrella IRB that covers everything the lab could
possibly do—and I would like to keep it that way.

35

Reading test
Lab members: If you are looking at a printed version, please write your name
below to indicate you have read the current version of the manual and agree
to follow these policies. Note that the latest version of the lab manual is
always printed and disseminated to the lab whenever there are meaningful
updates and/or at the beginning of each term (Fall, Spring, Summer)2 and
summaries of key points can always be added to the lab wiki.

Date

2

Printed name

Signature

The full version history of the lab manual is viewable on GitHub.

36



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