On code and authorship

I have a grad student who wrote an algorithm, wrote the code and published a paper out of this. As a general policy in the lab, all code must go in public domain i.e. all code must be made open source.

Now I have another undergrad student who is developing an interface for this code. Provided that the code from the grad student above is available in the public domain. The undergrad can use the code and develop the interface for the said algorithm.

Now comes the writing paper part. Since the undergrad is developing the interface, the undergrad should be the first authors since the underlying algorithm code is in the public domain.

However, the grad student came into my office and ate my brain for half an hour for why he should be the first author on the interface paper. I want to pull my hairs out.

Paper published without my students name

In general I am very generous with my paper author list i.e. if some one contributed some idea, figure, anything else, I put their name in the authors list of the paper. This is to be fair and also to generate good will.

I have a student who used to work for another research group. He claims that he did around 50 to 60% of the work described in the paper (I believe him since he has no reason to lie). He also drew some of the figures in the paper.

However, when the paper got submitted (and published) his name was not in the authors list. He was not even in the acknowledgements.

He came to me and asked for advice on what he can do. He has already written to the senior author of the paper (who is yet to reply). Frankly, I didn't had any advice for him. I do not know what to do in these cases.

What would you do or can do? Is writing to the editors of the journal a fair play? How about writing to the funding agency? Has any one of you or student have been in this situation before?

How to deal with the administration (aka HOD)

HOD's have power and control over resources. This means that the HOD can determine if you get a support for a TA/RA/GA, you get space, travel money or other resources.

 I have in writing that the HOD has promised a certain type of support. However, now that it is time to give the support all I am getting is stall-game.

I don't know how to deal with this situation. Note that I am a TT guy who hasn't gotten tenure yet. So what I do has to be in this context.

How do you approach/deal with situation with the HOD so that you get what you need or want or as in this case promised.

(I really hope that I had training in this context as well when I was a postdoc. But my postdoc advisor was a very good person and was always there to support and keep his word)

the semester that does not end

This semester has been a roller coaster for me.

1) I had to do a new prep for a course which sucked a lot of time. But I did enjoy teaching the course and hopefully would not have to do the new prep again.
2) I had family/personal issues which again sucked a lot of time.
3) Had 2 grants rejected. Wrote 2 new grants and submitted. In preperation of submitting atleast 2 more during the summers
4)The semester does not seem to end. Since it has been a bit tiring for me it seems that the time is moving slower.

But now that the family issues are a bit mellowed out; hopefully I will get more done and at last the semester will end. And the summers will begin where I will enjoy the heat and work.

Imposter Syndrome

Height of imposter syndrome is when you win an college-wide new shiny award and think that they gave it to you by mistake.

and then stand on the stage and think why did they give it to me?

this is funny and sad at the same time.

NSF Pending Grants and Grey Area -2

So I ended up calling the PO. He told me that I did not get it and it didn't go well in the panel.

I am so relieved ! like I am feeling light. Yes, I didn't get the grant so will see what is in the reviews and resubmit.

But rejection is far better than anticipation and anxiety !

NSF Pending Grants and Grey Area

I have an NSF grant that is pending and it has been (almost) 6 months. This is a source of anxiety as well as some hope for me. From what I have read on other blogs it seems that the particular grant probably would have fallen in the "grey" area.

I know there is not much I can do except for wait but in a given day I pendulum from joy to anxiety and back like 9 times. Let me try to explain my emotional roller coaster to you.

1) Most of my peers have received a decline email by now. So this is probably a good news for me since the grant must have fallen in the grey area AND the PO wants to fund it (hopefully).

2) The particular program that I have submitted my grant has not given away any of the awards yet. At least this is what I have been able to get from google searches. This indicates that may be the particular program is lagging in its review process. This can go either way.

I am probably some where in the middle and would get/not get a grant based on the monies the particular PO has. This middle is where the hope is and there also hides the anxiety that I do not know what to do about.

I also feel kind of alone in this as well since I don't know who to talk to. My family is not academic and do not understand the underlying anxieties of being a scholar. I do not have any close academic friends here in this small city. I had very close 2 academic/personal friends but 1 of them has chosen to join industry (couldn't get a TT position) and another has joined a university abroad (so doesn't have similar funding situation as me). So I feel I am alone in this TT position (which I am very grateful for don't get me wrong) but I wish I had some one who I could talk to about my grants and the anxieties without worrying about being judged. We all know if I can talk to my colleagues they are gonna judge me.

I plan to send PO an email once 6 months are complete but that is still 2 weeks away.