I have recently finished collecting data for my MSc dissertation. Having eyeballed the data and done a very swift first pass at the statistical analysis, it looks like there is a null result. My supervisor agrees, and we are going to look at the data again to see what patterns we CAN discern, possibly omitting some of the more ambiguous data, etc. I want to get it in for September, so I have plenty of time for a decent writeup. It's disappointing to get null results, and I don't know if it's a methodological flaw yet, or something else going on.

A friend of mine on the course has also used a very similar methodology for her dissertation, but she is likely (because of paid job pressures) to use the extension given to part-time students which means she'll hand it in six months after me (April 2011). Therefore she hasn't even started to collect her data. I too am a part-time student, but my paid job is far less pressurised than hers so I will get it in by the first deadline this autumn.

This friend is lovely, kind, yet disturbingly ambitious and confident and a bit of a magpie. I sometimes feel (possibly paranoia) that she feeds very strongly off our discussions and would not have decided on her current dissertation methodology if it hadn't been for our chats about an interesting phenomenon in our discipline.

She now knows I have all my data and am beginning to analyse it. I have vaguely indicated to her that the methodology used has produced a few strange patterns that we didn't predict and I said I planned to think it through as it might be telling me something interesting. She has asked me if when I do think it through, can she be present, as it will influence how she uses that particular methodology in her dissertation.

On one hand, an intellectual discussion between equals about the shortcomings of a particular methodology and possible improvements is a glorious thing. On the other hand (and this is where the intellectual stinginess comes in), something in me doesn't want her to profit by learning from the mistakes I've made. I want her to experience it for herself, rather than to hand in her work 6 months after mine with a vastly improved methodology.

Am I being mean? Are we scientific collaborators for the greater long-term good? Or are we competitors, each eager to get better marks than the other? Shall I tell her everything? Or shall I hide all aspects of my results and discussion from her for the next 12 months?



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That's an interesting question, one I've been thinking about lately but don't have any answers to.

Right now I'm at an early stage in my PhD and one of my supervisor's other students (in the final year of his PhD) has been helping me with a lot of stuff e.g. learning data collection and analysis techniques. This is stuff that he had to work out for himself in the earlier years so obviously I have the advantage in having someone to help me. He's also the first PhD student my supervisor ever had. For my own project, my supervisor has a much better idea about the timescale - what would be achievable and when we have to reach certain milestones in the project. But I know that he didn't plan very well for the other student and as a result their PhD will take a year longer than expected and will not give great results.

So sometimes I think it's a little unfair because I have way more support and he's a more experienced supervisor now. There's always a disadvantage in being the first person to try something I guess is my point.

For your specific situation, I'd say that unless you're working together and will publish together, you should put up a bit of a boundary. After all, if she gets a nice result, she's not gonna put your name on her publication, is she? Intellectual advancement is a two way street. ;-)

I can understand your reluctance, when experience has been hard won its a bit grating to see others swan off with its bounty! It sounds as if you feel like this friend is all but copying your homework answers.
That said, if I was using a method and it performed poorly, I'd absolutely tell my fellow workers and students. My work has been based on the results and experiences of hundreds of scientists before me, plus the extensive advice and help of those I work with. I'd help out for the sake of the field, but also because I'd trust others to do the same for me.
I wouldn't do the work for her by describing all the ins and outs of your results or discussion, but I would explain (broadly) the apparent limitations of the method, then leave it to her to think of suitable modifications. I know it must feel as if you're in competition, but if you can form a constructive critique of this methodology, your thesis should be strong despite the null result (written as one who has many null results but has done some of her best critical thinking as a result of them).

Hi Ogriv,

Can I put a slightly difference perspective forward? I don't think this needs to be about 'the greater good' or any form of intellectual obligation to the future and the field, etc (if you get my drift). And it doesn't have to be about you thinking that she should experience it for herself- in a sort of parental way.

If you feel uneasy about it-simply say no. You have a perfect right to and not to give any reasons whatsoever. This is your work and I think there is a real difference between discussing overall methodologies and general issues involved in post graduate study-and your friend being party to your intellectual labour so that she can improve her own after yours has been submitted. I don't think it is intellectual stinginess-I think that your 'gut instinct' is correct here. This has nothing to do with your friend being a really nice person-and its great that she can submit a bit later. Yes being able to extend deadlines due to extreme job pressure is valid, so that's fine as well.

But as for the rest...no. It is your thesis- your methodology- your struggle. She is not your supervisor- neither is she your partner in this thesis. So why should you feel as if you should share all of your difficulties before you have finished so that someone else can do better. I know it might not work out like that anyway-but where is it written that you have to share everything in order to be a good friend or study buddy. As a friend, you give her moral support-as a study buddy- you help each other with accountability and a few process and supervisor tips- that's it. A friend is not obliged to do someone else's work for them.

Hope this helps-and if you take this road and set this boundary-don't feel guilty. If your friend sort encourages the guilt then she is using a bit of mild emotional blackmail-so just be firm and be a friend to yourself-focus on your own work.

Cheers Ogriv

Thanks for responses. Luckily I haven't done much of my analysis yet, so I haven't even known enough to give her any good tips. I think there is something to be said for giving her an overview of the kinds of anomalies we have found in the data. We are friends and her supervisor is likely to find out from my supervisor anyway.

But I think I'm going to draw the line at telling her specific details of the results, or including her in my deeper musings on the matter. That will involve me looking very carefully at my own experiment, and although she shares a methodology, she is showing participants very different stimuli to mine. The cause of my results could be something other than the methodology, anyway. We just don't know yet.

When all's said and done, I think that she's very talented and likely to get publications quite easily anyway (she got one from her undergrad work). I am newer to science than she is, and am a mixture of (debatably) less talented, certainly less experienced, and certainly less confident. But I do plan to let these null results influence my critical thinking... just don't want my diffidence and her opportunism to work against me.

I suspect she'll go on badgering me for a bit to reveal all, anyway. Might have to emigrate to avoid her. They say Canada's nice... :p

Hi Ogriv,

Ive had a really 'vile' day at work but a good really participant interview and then lots of family interaction, heard very sad news from a work colleague-had to finally wind down with a couple of glasses of red wine and its only Thursday night! Tomorrow need to face several hundred middle school students in bullying awareness activity- oh joy! But important for their development so I really shouldn't complain!

Anyway, look what I wanted to say was, you do what you need to do-but you don't need to justify anything. Anything. Your friend is an adult and she can do her own research. Discuss a few general issues by all means, but friendship and support doesn't mean propping up and giving away things that you have worked hard to learn for yourself-at least not until you are ready to submit and/or publish-really! I'm generally regarded as a 'nice person' in workplace- which is full of people who are not so nice believe me- so if I am saying this then it really isn't evil advice-well that's my theory anyway.

Don't hide to avoid her -just change the subject when it starts to go along this trend or 'tweak it' so it goes along different lines a bit. Yes, you do discuss work but your actual methodology is your work!!! Methodology is it!!! It is the bones of your research- you do not need to educate her. The whole thing about postgrad research is that one becomes independent-even from supervisors. You do your own research unless you are part of bona fide team! Then it can be collaborative! DON"T FEEL GUILTY... totally inappropriate guilt is the plague of modern society. Nice people feel it all the time when they don't need to and not so nice people take advantage of these feelings to get away with things they probably need to be pulled up on. Must go now-that second glass of wine is really kicking in on top of the fatigue-hope you are not offended-take care Ogriv

Cheers:-)

Hi Pjlu - thanks for the further advice. It says you posted 7 hours ago and you were having a glass of wine... are you in the UK?!?

Yes, I'm changing the subject onto more benign things now. Lectures have more or less ended so I won't even see her weekly now. Should be able to keep it under wraps. I think that she is going to go far, even without my twopenn'orth. She is talented and confident... although interestingly her fatal flaw is that she likes earning good money in her day job... that alone might keep her away from a PhD.

I will indicate to her if asked some very basic sense of unexpected findings in the data. But any patterns I discern therein via my own blood, sweat and tears will remain a secret between me and my sup I think.

Hope the anti-bullying measures went well! You've certainly stood up for me! (up)

Thanks Ogriv, no I am in Australia, so the time when I was posting was around 9pm at night but this time is always registered as a time in the UK-so while I usually post (during working times) before and after work-or sometimes during the day on days off-it tends to look like I have posted at some outlandish time-or during the early hours. Thanks also for your replies and the best of luck for the future also. The anti-bullyiing activity and assembly went really well, I thought-especially considering that I gave students the opportunity to comment on the mike-always a risk!