Dorothy Hudig, Ph'D'

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Project Management
Dorothy Hudig, Ph.D. INBRE Program
Coordinator Chris von Bartheld, Ph.D., David C.
Ward, Ph.D., and Linda Restifo, Ph.D., INBRE
Mentors April 13, 2007
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• 4 Sessions
• March 30 The Strongest Start Commitment,
  Resources and Strategies
• April 13 Project Management
• April 27 Individual Experiences Mentors
• May 4 Reports (with Mentors) to Group Your
  Publications

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Ideas from the Field
Q1. In 1 minute, write 2 of your ideas to manage
a laboratory to increase publications.
Share the ideas to the group.
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Publication Management

• Eight suggestions
• Avoid blunt instruments
• Envision
• Enlist help from your lab
• Utilize colleagues and collaborators
• Strong personnel management
• Think more
• Start writing early
• Specific journals

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1. Blunt instruments
What to do with weak students?
What to do with inadequate technicians?
What to do with inadequate supply lines?
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2. Envision the paper

• Make the time
• a. Create large blocks of time
• b. Consolidate small tasks
• c. Set up an inviolate meeting w/ yourself

2. Remember that lab work takes more time than
writing.
3. Schedule times to review plan, priorities and
update literature.
Q2. What is your scheduled time for publication
issues?
Ron Gary, Ph.D.
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2. Envision the paper
Center on a specific question XX
Q3. Write down a current question. Do so NOW and
share.
Shape it Maintain references, keep notes in
Reference Manager or Endnote.
Check, recheck, and modify the vision as the data
come in.
Only ONE message per paper.
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Envision the experiments
Experiments/data as contributions to a
publication.
If you can't picture being able to publish data
from a planned experiment, perhaps you shouldn't
do it! Linda Restifo, Ph.D.
Think freely. Best approach, no matter cost.
If I were a Howard Hughes Scholar....
Plan blocks of experiments.
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More Vision
Assault the plan before implementing it. (Pippa
Marrack and John Kappler)
Q4. Who can help with the assault?
Try for a win-win publication strategy,
regardless of how the experiments turn out.
Set goal of abstract for a meeting.
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3. Enlist the help of your lab
Have students write and update drafts of papers
as project goes along.
Require students to submit drafts of
papers during thesis committee presentations.
Have students write introductions to their theses
early Might be a review paper.
Q5. Are reviews needed in your subject?
Make a game of studying well-written papers.
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4. Utilize colleagues and collaborators
Q6. Who can help you?
Q7. Collaborators?
Consolidate a collaboration to make publishable
a set of preliminary results that do not
constitute a paper on their own some will need
to be repeated. Collaborator is working on set of
complementary experiments that will not be enough
for a paper either. Ideally, he would send a
post-doc for a month to my lab (this summer?) to
work on this project and complete the preliminary
results. Patricia Berninsone, Ph.D.
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5. Strong management
Protocols and records No record, no value.
Praise, even if experiment encountered
difficulties.
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6. Think more.
Forethought vs. afterthought
Write conclusions and comments each time for
experiments.
Milk each experiment for maximal
yield a. positive information b. negative
information
Create a project board with positive and negative
information. David Tamang
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As the data are generated Analyze and organize
data promptly into one or more figures. Use a
format that would be suitable for publication.
Collate replicate experiments in tables.
Q8. How do you assimilate data?
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7. Start writing EARLY
Sooner rather than later.
Don't get stuck on a storyline.
Put in citations immediately.
Start "shopping" for target journals.
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8. Focus on the journals
Get instructions to authors
Q9. Talk to editors before submission?
Q10. Select reviewers?
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Summary

• 1. We can write the How to Publish More book.
• Begin with our experiences
• Send answers to Qs of sessions 1 2 and draft
  of a paper to your mentor.
• May 4 is 5 minute share insights from your
  mentored experience and publication progress with
  the INBRE group.