Responsibilities & Research Record-Keeping Methods

1. SGS101 – Part 3 Responsibilities & Research Record-Keeping Methods Doug Welch Sep 23, 2008

2. Principles • Ownership • Responsibility • Organization • Standard of recording • Preservation of intermediate results • Routine backup of research information • Communication with supervisor

3. Ownership • Intellectual property (IP) issues aren’t as straightforward as you might think! • McMaster has a policy document entitled “Ownership of Student Work” http://www.mcmaster.ca/senate/academic/ownstwrk.htm • Bottom line: only your completed thesis is clearly owned by you!

4. Student Responsibilities “Students (Undergraduate and Graduate) 11. Students are responsible for being aware of and demonstrating behaviour that is honest and ethical in their academic work. Such behaviour includes: • following the expectations articulated by instructors for referencing sources of information and for group work, • asking for clarification of expectations as necessary, • identifying testing situations that may allow copying, • preventing their work from being used by others, e.g., protecting access to computer files, and • adhering to the principles of academic integrity when conducting and reporting research.” Academic Integrity Policy, McMaster University, approved Mar 13, 2002

5. Student Responsibilities “Students (Undergraduate and Graduate) 11. Students are responsible for being aware of and demonstrating behaviour that is honest and ethical in their academic work. Such behaviour includes: • following the expectations articulated by instructors for referencing sources of information and for group work, • asking for clarification of expectations as necessary, • identifying testing situations that may allow copying, • preventing their work from being used by others, e.g., protecting access to computer files, and • adhering to the principles of academic integrity when conducting and reporting research.” Academic Integrity Policy, McMaster University, approved Mar 13, 2002

6. Student Responsibilities “Students (Undergraduate and Graduate) 11. Students are responsible for being aware of and demonstrating behaviour that is honest and ethical in their academic work. Such behaviour includes: • following the expectations articulated by instructors for referencing sources of information and for group work, • asking for clarification of expectations as necessary, • identifying testing situations that may allow copying, • preventing their work from being used by others, e.g., protecting access to computer files, and • adhering to the principles of academic integrity when conducting and reporting research.” Academic Integrity Policy, McMaster University, approved Mar 13, 2002

7. Student Responsibilities “Students (Undergraduate and Graduate) 11. Students are responsible for being aware of and demonstrating behaviour that is honest and ethical in their academic work. Such behaviour includes: • following the expectations articulated by instructors for referencing sources of information and for group work, • asking for clarification of expectations as necessary, • identifying testing situations that may allow copying, • preventing their work from being used by others, e.g., protecting access to computer files, and • adhering to the principles of academic integrity when conducting and reporting research.” Academic Integrity Policy, McMaster University, approved Mar 13, 2002

8. Student Responsibilities “Students (Undergraduate and Graduate) 11. Students are responsible for being aware of and demonstrating behaviour that is honest and ethical in their academic work. Such behaviour includes: • following the expectations articulated by instructors for referencing sources of information and for group work, • asking for clarification of expectations as necessary, • identifying testing situations that may allow copying, • preventing their work from being used by others, e.g., protecting access to computer files, and • adhering to the principles of academic integrity when conducting and reporting research.” Academic Integrity Policy, McMaster University, approved Mar 13, 2002

9. Student Responsibilities “Students (Undergraduate and Graduate) 11. Students are responsible for being aware of and demonstrating behaviour that is honest and ethical in their academic work. Such behaviour includes: • following the expectations articulated by instructors for referencing sources of information and for group work, • asking for clarification of expectations as necessary, • identifying testing situations that may allow copying, • preventing their work from being used by others, e.g., protecting access to computer files, and • adhering to the principles of academic integrity when conducting and reporting research.” Academic Integrity Policy, McMaster University, approved Mar 13, 2002

10. Bottom Line • You are responsible for youractions • Research integrity is not an option • Your research affects not only you but also members of your research group, your supervisor, collaborators, and potentially a much wider public • You have an obligationto ask for clarifications when you are unsure.

11. Organization • Evaluate the ensemble of information which you must track and record • Determine a location (written/electronic) where this organizational info will be recorded • Adopt a consistent pattern of recording intermediate results and archiving important data … and stick to it!

12. Standard of Recording Example for Lab Science Work • Date and location of each entry in a numbered-page logbook • Paste printouts/plots into logbook • Record key information regarding electronic transactions in logbook • Similar advice applies to any sort of research record.

13. Intermediate Results • The greatest danger posed by the use of computers is the loss of intermediate results • CD-RW/DVD for binary records • Extracts/headers to logbook for large files • “What information would I need to repeat this or show that I did this?”

14. Routine Backups • Disk-to-disk (same machine) • Disk-to-disk (different room/building) • Work-to-home • Write to offline media Be very, very paranoid! • Setup automatic job • Test routinely (first thing Monday) • Label!

15. Communication with Supervisor • You have an obligation to communicate details of your research records to your supervisor • Your supervisor has an obligation to examine and test your research records • If this isn’t currently happening, make sure that it starts to happen! • Do “line-by-line traceback” of manuscripts

16. “Subversion” • Available for many operating systems • “Repository” – never go there! • Encourages/requires recording of intermediate versions of work • Allows you to “back out” to previous state • Allows documentation of each change • Manuscripts/program code/anything text

17. Benefits • You can “check out” all of the required files into a new directory and work on them without endangering the “originals” • Prevents collaborator “bottlenecks” • Allows multiple workers to interact with the same project asynchronously • Removal of e-mail or website as an intermediary

18. Where to find Subversion • http://subversion.tigris.org • Ask your supervisor/colleagues what record-keeping software or standards are appropriate for your field. • Be a leader, not a follower! You will likely be a supervisor yourself in the not too distant future!