PsychologyPsychology Graduate Group Mentorship Expectations
Student and Advisor Responsibilities
November 2024
Responsibilities
The student should take primary responsibility for the successful completion of their degree. The student should know the requirements, milestones, and deadlines of the program, and they should develop plans and schedules to ensure that these are met. They should maintain a high level of professionalism, self-motivation, initiative, engagement, scientific curiosity, and ethical standards.
The advisor should take responsibility for guiding the student through the graduate program. The advisor should be knowledgeable about requirements, milestones, and deadlines of the program, so that they can assist the student in creating a work plan that allows timely completion of all program goals. If an advisor agrees to take a student, they should be committed to the student’s success, with the understanding that mentoring graduate students is one of the primary responsibilities of a faculty member, equivalent in priority to classroom teaching, faculty scholarship, and institutional service. This responsibility continues as long as the student is in the program, including summers and sabbaticals, and involves specific time commitments on the part of the advisor, such as committee meetings and faculty meetings. The advisor should be supportive, equitable, accessible, encouraging, and respectful. They should foster the graduate student’s professional confidence and encourage intellectual development, critical thinking, curiosity, and creativity.
Communication
The student should maintain an open line of communication with their advisor. They should arrange to meet regularly with their advisor to provide updates on the progress and results of their course work, research, and professional and career development activities. They should be accessible by email (or other electronic communication venues) and respond to communications from their advisor, instructors, and the program in a timely manner. They should inform their advisor if there are periods when they will not be reachable.
The advisor should be accessible to the student. They should set clear expectations about how they will interact with the student, and how often. They should be available for regular meetings to discuss the student’s academic and research progress. During the first year, these meetings will typically occur every week. The advisor should establish a method for electronic communication and respond to such communications in a timely manner. They should inform the student if there are periods when they will not be reachable.
Learning & Skills
The student should take responsibility for seeking out the knowledge and skills to advance their research, complete their dissertation, and advance their career, with the understanding that they are training to be independent scholars, and thus they should strive to learn the habits of independent learning. They should take the initiative to seek out relevant knowledge and training, through multiple channels, such as classes, published work, electronic resources, interaction with the advisor, interaction with lab members, and interaction with the broader intellectual community, at Penn and beyond. They should take opportunities to develop their professional skills, such as oral and written communication, grant writing, teaching and mentoring, balancing this development against their need to prioritize program requirements and dissertation research.
The advisor should take responsibility for guiding the student towards the knowledge, skills, and habits of thought that they need to do their work, and they should assist the student in developing the professional skills necessary for a successful career, with the understanding that the student may require guidance while learning the habits of independent scholarship. These skills include theoretical thinking, research techniques, oral and written communication, grant writing, managementand leadership, collaborative research processes, responsible conduct of research, teaching, and mentoring. The advisor may impart knowledge through a combination of direct one-on-one training, providing resources through the lab, or directing the student to external resources or multiple mentors.
Lab Environment
The student should strive to be good citizens of the lab (or labs) they are a part of. They should take part in shared laboratory responsibilities and use laboratory resources carefully and frugally. They should be respectful of, tolerant of, and work collegially with all laboratory personnel. They should be an active contributing member to all team efforts and collaborations and will respect individual contributions. They should maintain detailed, organized, and accurate research records, understanding that these records belong to the institution and will remain in the lab when they finish their dissertation so that other individuals can reproduce and carry on related research, in accordance with institutional policy.
The advisor should provide a laboratory environment that is intellectually stimulating, emotionally supportive, safe, equitable, and free of harassment. The advisor should set clear policies for their labs and apply these policies in a consistent, equitable and fair manner. These policies (which may, in best practice, be formalized in a lab manual) would encompass topics as working hours (e.g., in-person vs. remote), how conference travel is funded, expectations for data collection and participant recruitment in studies that are not directly related to the advisee’s research, the number of papers students are expected to produce, and expectations for undergraduate mentorship. The advisor should balance the research needs and goals of the lab as a whole with the needs and goals of the individual lab members, such as the student’s need to meet program requirements and complete their individual research as part of their dissertation. The advisor should put systems in place to ensure that data is properly managed and research records are adequately maintained. They should provide the necessary financial and material resources for research.
Publication/Dissemination
The student should strive to disseminate all research results in a manner appropriate to the standards of the field (e.g., publication, presentations at conferences). They should write up their research findings in a timely manner and take primary responsibility for ensuring that the publication process is completed, either before the receipt of their degree, or afterwards. They should seek out funding opportunities that will allow them to attend conferences and interact with the broader scientific community. They should discuss authorship policies and responsibilities with the advisor and other co-authors at the beginning of each project, to make sure that all individuals involved in the project receive appropriate credit in accordance with the standards of the field.
The advisor should provide assistance in getting the student’s work published in a timely manner. They should provide meaningful feedback on drafts without undue delay. They should acknowledge the graduate student’s scientific contributions to the work in their lab, encourage the graduate student to attend and present their research at scientific/professional meetings, and make an effort to secure and facilitate funding for such activities. They shouldprovide opportunities for the student to discuss science and their research findings with colleagues and fellow scientists within the institution and broader scientific community—for example, at lab meetings,research days, and seminars. They should discuss authorship policies and responsibilities with the student so that the student is conversant with the standards of the field.
Career Development
The student should take the primary responsibility for the development of their own career. They should explore career opportunities and paths that match and develop their individual skills, values, and interests to achieve their desired career goals. They should seek guidance throughout their graduate education from their advisor, dissertation committee members, other mentors, and any other resources that can offer advice on career planning.
The advisor should create an environment in which the student can discuss and explore career opportunities and paths that match their skills, values, and interests and be supportive of their career path choices. They should give advice and feedback on career goals. They should work with the student to define career goals and identify training milestones. They should provide letters of recommendation for the student for the next phase of their professional development.
Work Policies
The student and advisor should work together to establish clear expectations about work hours and work location (in-person vs. remote), balancing the individual needs and efficiencies of the student with the needs of the research group, as well as program requirements such as the requirement of students to remain “in-residence”. The student should acknowledge that scholarship is a vocation that may on occasion require more flexible or extensive working habits than regular employment; the advisor should acknowledge that students have a need to balance their academic and scholarly pursuits with familial, social, religious, recreational, and other personal needs. Advisors should be respectful of the normal cycle of the week and the need of the student to take occasional breaks from academic and scholarly pursuits (e.g., vacation). The student should consult with the advisor in advance of any planned absences outside of the normal University holidays, including absences during the summer, and they should apprise the advisor of any unexpected absences due to illness or other issues. The student and advisor should demonstrate respect for all individuals without regard to gender, race, national origin, religion, disability or sexual orientation, and strive to cultivate a culture of tolerance.