The Power of Publishing with Pre-doc Students

by Anthony C. Hood, PhD

I had a pleasant surprise hot off the press in my mailbox today—print copies of the journal containing one of my team’s recent publications. This pub may be one I will cherish most because I coauthored it with 3 of the pre-doc students in my #phdpreplab—Alicja Foksińska, Crystal Allman, and Zakiyyah Ajigbeda.

This paper was the outgrowth of a project accepted for presentation at the 2016 Science of Team Science Conference. The project is part of a larger research program on filling fortifying the leadership pipeline in academia.

These activities speak to one of the specific aims of the #phdpreplab—for all of our pre-doc students to enter the PhD program application process with demonstrated research experience (as measured by at least 1 conference paper acceptance and/or a full-length manuscript under review at a peer-reviewed journal).

I’ve heard some say that your first pub is the hardest. Maybe. I just know there’s no greater confidence builder for young/aspiring researchers than to see your name in print on your first publication—and experiencing this before you enter a PhD program can be a game changer both personally and professionally. With this in mind, I ordered print copies for each of them as a tangible reminder of their true potential.

This project is also important to me because it features an organization near and dear to my heart—The PhD Project. Without the personal and professional support afforded by this organization, I’m not sure I would have even applied to a PhD program, let alone earn the degree and advance to promotion and tenure. For more on the vital and impactful work of The Phd Project, visit www.phdproject.org.

Lastly, this work is helping me to become a better a researcher, leader and mentor. As have most of us, I’ve had some good mentors and some bad ones over my career(s). Having a bad mentor can set you back years professionally. I don’t want that to happen to these young scholars. That’s why I strive to help them build a mentoring team–a network of more senior scholars who I trust to provide them with the support, guidance and commitment that they deserve.

For my new pre-doc students, this team building process typically ramps up in November at the Annual Conference of The PhD Project. During this 3-day conference, I work to connect my pre-doc students with current doctoral students and faculty based on mutual research interests and dispositions. This augments the support I give them locally and increases the likelihood of them finding the right fit for doctoral programs. For more on our approach, read our manuscript here: http://www.anthonychood.com/preparing-for-a-phd/.

Stay tuned for more from our research group. We’re just getting started.

Dr. Hood is an associate professor of management in the Collat School of Business at UAB where he conducts research on conflict, communication and innovation in teams. He is the founder of the PhD Prep Lab, a research-based startup that attracts, incubates and accelerates PhD-level talent.You can follow his work at anthonychood.com/me

#squad #teamscience #SciTS #predoc #phdpreplab #researchtraining #trapademician #phdproject #transactivememory #translationalscience