I have long considered writing a book on getting started in student research. I likely still will. In the meantime, I'm going to review some books that are already on the market. This one has the sub-title The Insider's Guide to Finding the Perfect Undergraduate Research Experience. This one was written from a life sciences perspective. It has some useful information, but it isn't perfect. The book has a very annoying feature, it prints the things that it thinks the reader should highlight in bold. This is also to support skimming. The book is worth reading - this feature detracts from its usefulness.
The book begins with a section about why students should become involved in research and describes the benefits, both short-term and long-term, that can be derived from such involvement. It follows this with a chapter on what research is - this likely would have made a better first chapter. It's tough to get motivated if you don't know what you are doing! The next chapter is about whether students will like research - some will, some won't. It does point out that students don't always know at first that they are learning things that will help them. This gets to one of my major points about this book. Is it for students, or is it for faculty - the answer is both, but it would have been better to make this clear. Many new faculty would be helped by a book like this, but it would help readers if the sections for each audience were more clearly identified. Both audiences need to be familiar with the other's viewpoint, but it would help readers if the information for these roles was better separated. The authors address the question as to when a student should begin undergraduate research - for me the only acceptable answer is: Now. What are you waiting for? The authors describe different scenarios at length, but, in my experience, the earlier the better.
The book then has a search strategy for finding the ideal position. This will be helpful for some, but my philosophy on this is that in the beginning topics don't matter - as long as you are going to learn research skills, if you have an offer, and if the environment is welcoming and supportive, then you have found a good place to start. Over my academic career, I have seen prospective faculty turning down tenure-track offers without realizing that one such offer is all that most people are going to get, and I have seen faculty keep trying to publish in top-tier journals, resulting in insufficient publications for tenure or promotion. So my advice, if the opportunity is a good opportunity, take it. You will have the rest of your life to follow your own research directions. The search and interview process described in this book are also too complicated. If you are in an environment that is supportive of student research, you can probably get started by talking to your teachers, attending seminars and asking if you can attend some research group meetings. The CV and interview process described in this book is probably not going to be used for the sorts of experiences that most students are looking for.
Thus, in summary, this book contains much that is useful, but it probably pertains better to students attending major universities rather than the bulk of students who are attending colleges and comprehensive institutions where most students will gain their first research experiences. It will remain on my bookshelf, but I wouldn't have bought a copy if I had been able to borrow it from the library. It has some good points, but it has glaring omissions like funding, the availability of NSF REUs and how to progress.
No comments:
Post a Comment