Making research more efficient and impactful

Making your research and
teaching more efficient,
transparent & impactful
2019 APS WORKSHOP:
@jayvanbavel

Advice is not “One-size-fits-all”. Ignore
anything that doesn’t seem relevant or
useful for your own goals and situation
ADVICE BUFFET

Pilot ideas
• Act like a scientist: If something seems useful, try it out,
collect some data, and then discard the idea or scale it up.

Overview
Section I: Take care of yourself
Section II: The big picture
Section III: Skills
Section IV: Relationships
Section V: Employment

SECTION I: Take care of yourself

Basic needs
Don’t burn yourself out: Nourish your mental and physical health
Fulfill you basic needs: sleep, exercise, eating, socializing, etc
I schedule these things (eg exercise in morning, kids in evening)

Marie Kondo Rule
• Does it give you joy (and meaning)?

Work smarter, not harder
• Crowd source
• Leverage technology

The true genius of this video, was the video

We tried this out yesterday…

Crowd source
• Share note taking: https://docs.google.com/document/d/
1W_F5yM19z5tB-F5eVBAuoK-WxMyh-KclloDaAQkTK9Y/edit?
usp=sharing
• I use this every time I start teaching a course. My Intro Psych
course took 80 pages of comprehensive notes!
• Crowdsource research questions or ideas
• Brainstorm: Go to the link and share any topics you want to
discuss today

Crowd source
• I crowd source notes in my lab meetings and classes I teach
• My last class had 80 single pages of notes
• Shares load, allows people to focus, and inclusive to people
who might miss a class or meeting

Crowd source
• You can crowd source research and professional questions. I
have asked for (and have received help) for everything from
tenure materials to research papers to open science advice

DIGESTION
• Talk to the person to your left and the person to your right
about strategies you use to keep work and life in balance
• Note any strategies, questions or topics you want to cover:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1W_F5yM19z5tB-
F5eVBAuoK-WxMyh-KclloDaAQkTK9Y/edit?usp=sharing
• After 5 minutes we will share with the group

Define your goals
The biggest mistake many students make is that they
do not know why they are in graduate school
What are YOUR goals?

Define your goals
Spend every day thinking about it and collecting information until you
figure it your purpose
• Ill-defined goals lead to uneven performance
Tell your advisor & collaborators—we are better when we know your
goals.

Define your goals
Study & teach what YOU care about (recall the Marie Kondo Rule)

The Tombstone Question
• What do you want written on your tombstone?

Define your goals
The primary purpose of grad school: Think deeply about your
question
Find something that fascinates or bugs you
• If you love your research, it will get you through many of the
rejections and setbacks in graduate school
• Find your intrinsic motivator
Pursue your research with passion
• Constantly try to make your research better and more original
• Think at 10,000 feet and 0 feet

Big questions
"Boldness is the single most important thing in
science, assuming you have basic talent and
intellect and creativity."
-Vilayanur Ramachandran
The scope of your research question is the
upper limit on your success
• So set your sights high
• Read, and read widely

Big questions
Peruse the top journals
• JPSP, PSPB, PSPR, JESP

Ask yourself: Who cares?
1) Make a theoretical contribution
2) Make a practical contribution

Analyze the value of your question

Analyze the value of your question
• What will the reader of this article learn about psychology that
he or she did not know (or could not have known) before?
• Why is that knowledge important for the field?
• How are the claims made in the article justified by the
methods used?

Gretzky Principle
“I skate to where the puck is going, not where is has been.” –
Wayne Gretzky

Blockbuster Science
•Big question
•Larger studies (power)
•More studies (replication)
•Better samples (WEIRD)
•More incisive methods
•Multi-level methods/theory
•Important behavior (e.g.,
voting)
•Real world data (e.g., apps)
•Social impact

Don’t get scooped
Make your research unique
• Research question
• Paradigm
• Methodology
• Sample
“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and follower”
–Steve Jobs

The Yin and Yang of Science
“If it ain’t broken, break it” - Meatloaf
Keep in mind that you are never (fully) right!
• Spend time thinking about why you are wrong.
• When (and why) would you expect the opposite?
• Could any existing perspective on the topic make that prediction?
• Perspectivism = flip an idea on its head.

Programmatic research
“Not all scientists pursue risky, paradigm-changing
ideas—or should. Many major discoveries were
made possible by frameworks laid down by the
careful, incremental advances of their peers.”
Get excited about lots of ideas, but eventually
focus enough on one issue that you can make
significant progress
• Can be based on a process or phenomenon
• You need enough for a good job talk

Quality > Quantity
Consider the implications of a tradeoff
• Yes 0 papers is bad, but…
• 10 mediocre papers proves mediocrity
• 2 excellent papers hints at excellence
• Quality of journal is not a clear index of quality/impact
Publish of perish is a misnomer
• Publishing for the sake of publishing is not the goal of science
• Publishing is necessary, but not sufficient to advance science and gain
employment in the field

Quality > Quantity
I generalized this philosophy to everything
• Mentoring (too many RAs is bad)
• Presentations (focus your efforts)
• Teaching (shorter, tighter lectures)
“It comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don’t get
on the wrong track or try to do too much…it’s only by saying no that
you can concentrate on the things that are really important.”
–Steve Jobs

Quality > Quantity
LEARN HOW TO SAY NO
• Ask for a few days to make any decisions about a new request
• Ask yourself: “Would I be willing to do this next week?” If not, say no.
• Think of opportunity costs of all new tasks: What are you willing to drop to
take this on?
• Be kind (and prompt) in saying no
• Recommend someone else who is qualified and might want opportunity
“It comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don’t get
on the wrong track or try to do too much…it’s only by saying no that
you can concentrate on the things that are really important.”
–Steve Jobs

Don’t spread yourself too thin!
I made the mistake of getting involved in too many “lines” of
research early in grad school
• I have at least six lines of research with working studies that may never be
published
• It is easier to opt in than opt out ☺
This is a particularly big issue for people who want to do
interdisciplinary work
• You need to learn the theory and methods from 2+ fields
• You run the risk of getting lost
• Or worse, doing bad science!

My opinion: Focus on one or two lines of research where you
are the lead and one or two lines where you are a junior
collaborator
• Ideally, multiple lines of research should cohere around a big question
(even if they are in different labs)
• Don’t expand until you have control of at least one line of research or
are ready to drop one (trade offs)

Managing risk
• Pursuing bold, high-risk ideas is important
• But, you should manage risk by developing a line of research
that is incremental and successful
My opinion: once you have more data than you time to write
up, most new studies should be high-risk, high-reward

Coherence
Top-down approach
• Start multiple lines of research on a single
organizing question or theme
• The field (and especially NYU) values theory
driven research
But be careful. You just might find
what you’re looking for!

Don’t turn your research into Motivated Perception:
where you see what you want to see

Coherence
Bottom-up approach
• As you start on multiple lines of research, think about these projects
at a broad level-of-analysis
• Helps avoid motivated perception and reasoning
• Allows for scientific revolutions (Kuhn, 1962)
"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new
discoveries, is not 'Eureka!', but 'That's funny....."
~Isaac Asimov

Coherence
A third way: I try to balance programmatic
theory-driven research with bigger, exploratory
studies
• Design open-ended (not confirmatory) studies
• Be guided by theory but listen to your data
• Be ready to let your theory, and even your research
question, evolve

Coherence
"Being analytical and critical is important as a baseline. But if
you focus too much on being critical, you never discover
anything." - Snyder
Be critical, but give it a break sometimes
• Don’t spend you career simply trying to take someone down
• Look for anomalies (Kuhn, not Hauser)
• Try to connect seemingly disparate ideas in a way that makes sense
and cohere

Coherence
As you start on multiple lines of research, think
about these projects at a broad level-of-analysis
• Imagine writing a statement about all your research
projects: do they cohere in a meaningful way?
• If you want an academic job, you need to write a
coherent research statement and give an impressive
job talk

Take the long view
Scientific audacity: being fearless in following research where
it leads without worrying about potential consequences such as
landing a job or tenure
If you conduct good ethical science, you will also get the
rewards

The 9 circles of scientific hell

Take the long view
• As a student, I used to care
about publications
• I cared more about the impact of
the journal than my own particular
paper
• But that has all changed over time
• As I get older, I get far more
satisfaction when
• I’m excited about a paper
• A colleague emails me to
compliment a paper
• Another lab replicates a paper
• Someone cites my work

Delayed Gratification
• Creative freedom
• You get to be your own boss
• Stability

DIGESTION
about skills you want to learn over the next year or two

A sense of urgency
Graduate school is a (long) race against time
• You have a limited period of time
• Follow the program guidelines and keep moving forward
• Have you own goals too!
• Sticking around for 7-8 years is not ideal
• If it’s going to take that long, do a postdoc

A sense of urgency
Graduate school is a (long) race against time
• You have a limited period of time
• Follow the program guidelines and keep moving forward
• Have you own goals too!
• Sticking around for 7-8 years is not ideal
• If it’s going to take that long, do a postdoc
Not a sprint, but a marathon.
• Or more like speed walking…

Time management
Don’t let this happen to you!

Time management
You only have 5-6 years to finish your PhD
• Outstanding work in grad school can set you up for life

Time management
Time is a limited resource:
• How many hours do you have each week to do research?
• You need to carefully manage that time

Time management
Look for synergies
• Kill 2 (or 3) birds with one stone (e.g., writing a review of your thesis
research for a term paper)
Delegate wisely
• Surrounded yourself with intelligent, creative people.
• Give them space to develop stimuli, comment on papers, analyze
data, etc (as a bonus, it gives them better training!)
• …but do it well! I screen carefully and build trust first.
Be as efficient as possible with busywork
• I work on busywork during “off” hours (email)
Minimize administrative work
• Submit a broad ethics protocol, write analysis scripts, etc.

FINISH YOUR PROJECTS
“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it
make a sound?”

make a sound?”
"If a study is completed in a lab and no one publishes a paper
about it, does it make an impact?

make a sound?”
"If you complete a study in a lab and do not publish a paper
about it, do you get any credit for it?

Priorities
Prioritizing is one of the most important skills you can have in
any profession
• Ask your advisor for help setting priorities

Manage your email!
• Google “Pause Inbox”, Filters and Boomerang
• I have DUE NEVER, DUE LATER, and DUE URGENTLY Filters
• Use #Slack for lab communications
• Tools like Sanebox
• Use vacation notifications

Manage your meetings
• I stack meetings
• Shorter meetings, longer when necessary
• Meetings upon valid request

Stay on track
• Create a calendar
• Generate a to do list, with
deadlines
• Get daily reminders of deadlines
• Use software tools to stay on
track

Stay on track
Find tools to avoid procrastination
• Block Facebook or other websites (SelfControl app)

Resource management
At the best of times, I allocated my time to maximize resources
based on what was available:
• Behavioral studies in fall/winter
• Neuroscience studies in summer
• Planning, analysis and writing in summer

Develop skills early
Early investments can produce long-term rewards.
• Learn to program, SPSS/SAS syntax, establishing an Endnote library,
MATLAB, etc.

Writing
Critical for success
• Write always. Every day.
• Sometimes getting over that first "hump" gets me excited
• Editing distinguishes good writing
• A process, so work at it…

Writing a paper in a day!
• Prepare the paper (e.g., all
main analyses are done)
• Book meeting with all co-
authors in the room
• Operates as a pre-commitment
device for everyone
• Efficient to have everyone in
the same room (troubleshoot)
• Minimizes endless emails and
confusion between authors
• Make process more
collaborative (and fun!)
• Sparks ideas for future research

Aim for an impact with your writing
• Don’t bury your academic writing (avoid chapters)!
• The main reason most people care about impact factor, is because it
correlates with the number of people who are likely to read and
cite your paper (otherwise, it should not be the goal)
• Share your pre-print (free and easy, you retain copyright)

• Build a website that links to all your writing and your CV
• Create a Google Scholar profile!
Make your writing easy to find!

Make your writing easy to find!
• Add hyperlinks to your CV—people can access your papers or
presentations in a single click

Dissemination
• Present lots!
• Give a damn talk
• Conferences (SPSP, EPA, APS, 4CC)
• Universities
• Organize a symposium, if necessary

Dissemination
Become a better presenter and build a reputation (internal and
external)
Use feedback to hone your research program
Build a job-talk
• Experiment with different frames/organization
Communicate an idea

The new dissemination
• Consider non-traditional outlets for dissemination

• But don’t confuse social media for real research

• Be mindful of Kardashian Index (social media is not science)

• Be mindful of your Kardashian Index!

Posters versus Blogs
• How many people visit your poster?
• How many people read a blog?

$$$
• Try diligently to obtain funding
• It will provide freedom to think and conduct original research,
rather than teach
• Provides experience writing grants
Much of my first year in graduate school was spent trying to set
the stage for a successful fellowship application

Courses as a means, not an end
• I audited 4-5 classes out of interest
• Good marks establish your reputation with other faculty
• Good marks help obtain grant funding
My opinion: I enjoyed diving into ideas in term papers, but
didn’t worry about reading every paper assigned each week or
studying too hard for every exam.

Managing relationships
• Open lines of communication
• Network (SICN, SISP, conferences, etc)
• People you can talk to about ideas, even if they are not
collaborators

Science is a team sport
Collaboration increases the quality of your research
• Produces higher impact research (Wuchty et al., 2007)
• Learn from your collaborators
• Often more fun and interesting

• “I only collaborate with people I like.” – John Cacioppo
Science is a team sport

Advisor-Student
Very important that you trust your advisor
• They know more than you
• They understand the contingencies better than you
• They are privy to information that you may never know (e.g., the
opinion the other faculty have of you, contingencies, etc.)
• They are working in your best interests
You and your advisor benefit by promoting one another and
succeeding
• Every success of yours reflects positively on them and vice versa

Advisor-Student
Show initiative
• Approach your advisor with questions, but also ideas
• Find novel directions to take the research
• I want PhD student collaborators, not research assistants

Advisor student
Develop your own thoughts and ideas
• Exercise this ability in course papers
• Write down cool ideas, even if you never intend to pursue them
Take responsibility
• Try to work through problems (e.g., study programming, data analysis)
on your own because the struggle often leads you to understand the
source of the problem better
• Take responsibility for your own career, and life!
You will eventually be on your own, so try to try your hand at as
many tasks as possible in graduate school
• Believe it or not, it is a safe place to fail

DIGESTION
about strategies for managing collaborations.

Making research more efficient and impactful

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