Respect toward others, diversity, and inclusiveness. We must create an environment that is respectful, welcoming, and inclusive toward researchers from all segments of society.
A supportive and team-oriented group culture. We must be invested in the success of our fellow group members.Everyone benefits if we are supportive of each other and celebrate each other’s successes.
Well-being of the group members, physically and psychologically. It is inevitable to feel tired towards the end of a PhD, but we never want to feel beat-down or disillusioned.Although there will always be difficult times on a project, we always want science to be fun.
Safety of the group members. By far the most important thing is that no one gets hurt! We must build good safety practices and achieve a strong safety record.
Success of group members after they leave the group. We want all group members to pursue successful careers after they leave the group.While they are in the group, it is important that group members have opportunities to learn about different career paths.
A culture of good group citizenship. We will hold each other accountable to make sure we are all doing our group jobs, andwe will show appreciation and recognition for selfless work that benefits everyone.
Open dialogue and respectful, constructive feedback. We must maintain open and honest communication and develop a culture of respectful and constructive feedback. Constructive criticism is essential for all of us to improve, and positive feedback can reaffirm that we are on the right track. Feedback is important from graduate students to graduate students, from the PI to graduate students, and from graduate students to the PI.
Good record and data-keeping. It is critical that our work be understandable and readily reproducible.We must implement rigorous practices for recording experimental procedures and preserving data.
We will do solid, reproducible, and ethical work. We want our work to be extremely reliable and to stand the test of time.We will take our time and do things carefully and thoroughly; we will not cut corners.We are dedicated to pursuing the truth, no matter how complex or messy it might turn out to be.
Fostering cross-disciplinary dialogue to identify creative solutions. Intense focus on one’s project is necessary at times to make progress, but we must always remain open-minded and gain valuable perspectives through interdisciplinary dialogue.
Creativity. We must always think outside the box and identify innovative ideas that others have overlooked.
We must be highly critical of our own work. Before publishing any conclusion, we must exhaustively consider all possible alternative interpretations of the data.We cannot be tricked by the data into reaching a conclusion that we want to be true.
Impact. If our work lacks implications for anyone else’s research, then the impact is minimal. Projects with great impact influence the way other scientists think about their own research. We must be highly critical in assessing our ideas and prioritize ideas with the greatest potential for impact.