This document is meant to provide high school and undergraduate researchers interested in conducting research in the Pop lab with a clearer idea of how research is defined, the type of research conducted in the Pop lab, as well as the general expectations for participants in research projects in the Pop lab.

What is research?

The Council on Undergraduate Research defines research as:

A mentored investigation or creative inquiry conducted by undergraduates that seeks to make a scholarly or artistic contribution to knowledge.

The Belmont Report – one of the foundations for the ethical conduct of human subject research – defines research in Part A as:

… an activity designed to test an hypothesis, permit conclusions to be drawn, and thereby to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge (expressed, for example, in theories, principles, and statements of relationships)

and states that:

Research is usually described in a formal protocol that sets forth an objective and a set of procedures designed to reach that objective.

The Belmont report distinguishes research from practice by noting that practice “refers to interventions that are designed solely to enhance the well-being of an individual patient or client and that have a reasonable expectation of success“, and that the fact “that a procedure is “experimental,” in the sense of new, untested or different, does not automatically place it in the category of research“.

The key point to retain from these definitions is that research is intended to be a contribution to knowledge and particularly to generalizable knowledge.

Thus, some of the research students conduct during their early education, such as putting your hand on a Petri dish to see what will grow on it, or making a potato clock, is not actual research since we already know what the likely outcome will be. Such activities are, however, useful in helping to teach and develop research skills.

In contrast, the research that students are expected to conduct in the Pop lab is aligned with the definitions provided above. The problems students will work on are problems for which we don’t actually have an answer, and we are seeking answers that would be of interest to others beyond the immediate needs of the lab.

Aligning expectations

Students seeking research experiences in the Pop lab should first reflect on both their motivation for conducting research in the Pop lab and for conducting research more generally. Some students mistakenly assume that “padding” one’s résumé with a diverse set of research experiences makes them more competitive for graduate school or job applications.

That is entirely false.

What makes one competitive for graduate school or job applications are meaningful research experiences, i.e., research experiences that lead to a stronger relationship with members of the Pop lab, and that lead to meaningful progress towards advancing current knowledge in the field. Being co-author on one or more scientific publications is an independent validation that the research experience has had a tangible impact.

In short, the quantity and breadth of research experiences is less important than their quality.

A student who only worked on one research project but is able demonstrate significant progress (e.g., through published papers) and who receives strong letters of recommendation from senior scientists is better positioned than a student who has had many research internships at many institutions (even prestigious ones) yet none of the research mentors provide any letter or they provide generic letters that do not speak about the specific contributions the student made to the project.

Note that there is nothing wrong for a student to want to explore different fields, learn different ways of thinking, or different skills or techniques. However, that’s what courses are for. A meaningful research internship must benefit both the student and their mentor’s lab.

Thus, if you wish to conduct research in the Pop lab, make sure that you are interested in the type of research that we do (see more on the lab’s research page), and commit to treating your internship as a collaborative project rather than simply a learning opportunity.