Guidelines for Research and Publishing in the CMHD Lab

Teamwork

Most projects will be completed in teams, therefore the ability to work well with others is required for success in the lab. Teamwork is the collaborative effort of a group to achieve a common goal or to complete a task in the most effective and efficient way, with a group of interdependent individuals who work together towards a common goal. Although each student will have unique primary areas of focus and projects they are leading, all students are expected to assist with all projects as needed. Students who persistently do not get along with labmates, who interfere with learning, or who engage in uncollegial behaviour may be asked to leave.

Authorship

All students who are in the lab for more than one semester will be provided opportunities to publish or present research, and it is expected that graduate students will be co-authors on lab manuscripts. Authorship ordering will be determined based on contributions once the manuscript is complete. Contributions do not just apply to writing, but also conceptualization, data collection, editing, revising, and shepherding the manuscript through the publication process. Therefore, doing the bulk of the writing does not guarantee a first author position. Students who have not written journal articles before should not expect to be first author right away as it is a learning process. Publishing a manuscript requires perseverance, as the process can take anywhere from months to years. Additionally, students who fail to complete lab projects in a timely matter or abandon projects in progress may be removed as authors and instead be listed in the Acknowledgements. However, students who relocate due to internship or graduation may assist in completing projects remotely if they wish to ensure they will be retained as authors.

Peer-Review

A note on what 'peer-review' means: A manuscript is submitted to the editors of a specific journal, who then sent it to anonymous reviewers, who, along with the editors, provide feedback and suggestions (or demands) for specific changes. Those requested changes are incorporated into the final published version or otherwise addressed (e.g., shown by the authors, to the editors' satisfaction, to be unwarranted or otherwise unnecessary). This peer review process can help ensure quality control in the scientific enterprise, although it can also hinder or prevent the publication of ideas and findings that challenge the conventional wisdom of editors and reviewers.

Text Recycling

According to BioMedC Central (BMC), text recycling, also known as self-plagiarism, occurs when sections of the same text appear (usually un-attributed) in more than one of an author's publications. The term 'text recycling' is intended to differentiate from true plagiarism (i.e., when another author's words or ideas have been used, usually without attribution).

In general, authors should consider how much text they will recycle. The reuse of a few sentences is clearly different to the verbatim reuse of several paragraphs of text, although large amounts of text recycled in the Methods might be more acceptable than a similar amount recycled in the Discussion. Recycling may be unavoidable when using a technique that the author has described before, and it may actually helpful when a technique that is common to a number of papers is described. However, text recycling is almost always unacceptable in the Results section if it duplicates previously published data. Also Conclusions should not be recycled.

Use of AI

Students are encouraged to use AI tools like ChatGPT to enhance their learning. However, students may not directly cut-and-paste text from any AI tool into any work or research product. They may use AI generated images, however. All use of AI for any project must be disclosed.