Core Lab Training & Policies

On-boarding

Complete the Core Lab training (document below). Getting started on research is a priority so please do this within the first week of your time in the lab.
1. Please sign the Authorship Policy and Data Management Policy on the Lab website (linked, below)
2. Email Kendra when training is completed to be added to EHS and IACUC
Complete any additional University or TA training
Sign up for classes (if relevant)
1. The course time table is here: https://apps.es.vt.edu/ssb/HZSKVTSC.P_DispRequest
2. Recommended classes for grad students:
  1. Kate Langwig’s Stats class -
  2. Ignacio Moore’s Behavioral Endocrinology class -
  3. Mery Mimm’s Community Ecology class -
  4. ** Fill the remaining credits with research to get to 12 credits
3. Regular Seminars
  1. Integrative Organismal Biology reading group (IOB)
  2. Ecology Evolution and Behavior seminar (EEB)
  3. Fralin Life sciences Seminar
Get access to the printer/copier - contact BiologyIT for assistance
Get keys to your office, the labs, the animal rooms, and the building - submit a request to Stacie Spradlin (hayness@vt.edu) in the business office and cc the PI so they can approve
Get added to listservs by emailing Valerie Sutherland vsutherl@vt.edu - relevant listserves are EEB, Biology grad students, and all Biology...
Grad school/departmental benchmarks are in the Biology Department Graduate Policies but some to think about early…
1. Plan of study is good to outline for your spring committee meeting
2. Choosing committee members and contacting them for a first committee meeting
Email Kendra and the Business office to be added to Hokiemart for ordering if this is relevant
Set up a time to meet with Kendra to go over student/mentor expectations and start your Individual Mentoring Plan
Join the Sewall Lab calendar and ask Kendra to give you editing access (https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0?cid=Y19jcm51Z2QycTBpbG12a2ptODFhNGV2YW8zMEBncm91cC5jYWxlbmRhci5nb29nbGUuY29t)

Off-boarding

Review the lab authorship and data management policies and make sure you have electronically signed your name and dated the document (again) in the Sewall Lab Drive
Email the PI and all other lab mates your detailed plan for ongoing collaboration. This plan needs to include minimum frequency of communication, conditions for ongoing work (e.g., benchmarks for progress), and a statement of provisional authorship. The plan for ongoing collaboration is a cooperative document on which all team members will provide input and must approve of the plan (and digitally sign) for collaboration to continue. If an agreement is not signed off on by all team members involved in the collaboration or if the contract is breached the departing team member loses all intellectual ownership of the data/research products and any guarantee of authorship. Per the Data Management policy, the privilege of ongoing collaboration and work with data collected in the lab are not guaranteed as all data and research products generated in the lab are the intellectual property the PI, Virginia Tech, and funding agencies.
Archive all data following the criteria in the Data Management policy.
Generate a “Project Status” document listing each project, the samples and their locations, the data (raw and archived) and where they are stored. List any grant proposals and/or manuscript drafts relevant to the work and put copies in a folder with the ‘Project Status’ document. List immediate next steps in the project and include any rationale documents you created as you developed the project. List any data files you are taking copies with a statement that you agree you will destroy those copies if the collaboration agreement is breached or upon instruction to do so from the PI.
In a lab meeting walk all lab members with special attention to collaborators through the sample storage, data archives, and project status documents you generate.
Provide contact information at your next position and let all team members know how long your VT email will be available. If you do not provide a forwarding email address you will no longer have access to the lab drive
Create a folder titled with your name and ‘archive’ with the year (e.g., Lane archive 2022) Upload copies of all posters and talks to that folder, along with any copies of data files you have been working with and all copies of working code.
Complete a 1 hour discussion with the PI to give feedback on your experience in the lab and complete a lab climate survey
Create a document that describes the next questions you would want to tackle in your project.