Friday, May 20, 2016

Getting and giving peer feedback

Peer feedback is really a crucial tool for faculty researchers. It is core to the review processes for publications and for grant proposals. But even beyond this, peer feedback is essential for getting your manuscript or your grant proposal into shape before you submit. However, giving and receiving feedback is oftentimes an overlooked skill, but one that can make all the difference for you and your colleagues when employed well.

At ORDE, we recommend that PIs get three internal reviews of their grant and integrate the feedback before submitting. One of your reviewers should be a layperson and the other two should be experts in your field, but not familiar with your project (you don't want your peer reviewer intuiting things in your proposal that aren't there; you want them to identify what's missing).

Getting feedback
When asking for feedback from your peers, be specific with the kind of feedback you want. I've found that when asking for feedback on my writing, if I don't explain what sort of feedback I'm looking for, my reviewers tend to resort to their grammar school training and focus on punctuation and spelling rather than advising me on clarity.

Along with giving your reviewers instructions on what you want them to look for in your proposal, also give them enough time to adequately accomplish the task. If you're waiting till the last minute to pull things together, and then dropping it on your colleague's desk, not only will you frustrate that colleague and likely get sub-par feedback, but you probably won't have time to really use the feedback they do give you. On that same point, give your colleague a heads up. Ask them if they can review your proposal weeks in advance, tell them when you will send it to them, and agree on when they can have feedback back to you.

Lastly, be sure to thank your peer(s) for investing their time in you and your proposal. Make sure you offer to return the favor and let them know how important their feedback was to you. And, circle back around when you get that grant to thank them for their role in your success.

Giving feedback
When your colleague comes back around to ask you to review her proposal, some of the same tips apply. First of all, ask your colleague to plan ahead to ensure you have adequate time to review the proposal and she has adequate time to incorporate useful suggestions. Also, ask your colleague what she wants you to look for. Is she still tweaking her idea? Is she open to methodological suggestions? Does she want feedback on clarity or persuasiveness? If she asks you to proof it, you may want to suggest that they find an editor for that.

Giving feedback doesn't seem like a difficult concept, but many folks are uncomfortable with giving constructive feedback to a friend or colleague. You don't want to hurt any one's feelings after all. I actually think the reason people stick to grammar and spelling feedback is because they're nervous about offending a colleague. Yet, constructive feedback is essential to get better. However, good editors or reviewers understand how sensitive people are about their work. The editing adage, "murder your darlings" is often used, because getting feedback on your latest pride and joy can feel quite personal.

So, to deliver your necessary but perhaps sensitive feedback, some suggest a sandwich approach. Begin by telling your colleague everything you liked about their proposal, then move into some constructive critique, and end with more positive. In using this approach, it's important to be sincere in what you found as strengths. And, instead of dividing up the positive attributes, share all of them at the front end and finish by describing how excited you are about their project.

Also important to giving good feedback is being specific with your critique, and making sure your advice is usable. We don't call it constructive criticism for nothing. Negative feedback that is not useful or can't be applied is just mean.



I included a discussion of getting and giving feedback, because to be successful, you need to do both. If you make it a habit to ask for feedback but never find time to give it, then it won't belong before your peers are too busy to look at your proposal. Reciprocity is the name of the peer feedback game.

Resources
Giving and Receiving Feedback: A Guide to the Use of Peers in Self Assessment - UTS
The Delicate Art of Giving Feedback - Harvard Business Review



Friday, May 13, 2016

Developing your writing practice

I recently heard one of our faculty members compare writing to exercising. In that, they're both hard to do either one consistently. But both are good for you and you need to practice them to develop your skills. She warned that, like shirking your daily run when planning to run a marathon, you'll be in a lot of pain when you try to write a major piece, be it a manuscript or a grant proposal, when you haven't been writing consistently.

I thought this was an appropriate topic as the semester ends, and for many faculty researchers, their daily schedules change for the summer. Certainly, summer is a good time for a little break, but make sure you don't pay for that break with your writing!

Don't wait to be inspired
I'm happy to report that in all of my bad habits, procrastination isn't one. Yet, I must admit that when I have a major writing project on the horizon, I often go through a short spurt of paralysis. I'm not sure how I want to approach the piece, or it feels a bit insurmountable. However, I recognize when I'm doing this and am able to move through it. I do this in one of two ways. If I really am clueless as to my approach, I turn to the literature. You can't write well, if you haven't read the relevant literature and know what you're contributing. The second way is to just start writing. Be careful not to get stuck in the reading where you just keep looking for the next article instead of starting to write.

Do outline and rewrite
As I've mentioned in previous blogs, free-writing can be a good way to get yourself going even if it's really bad in the beginning. However, if you write your first draft completely off the cuff, oftentimes you have a lot of re-working and re-writing to do. Now, you'll always have re-writing to do even if your first draft is awesome. But, if you've written 20 pages without looking back once, who knows what you're working with (including you). By all means, start free writing, but try drafting the introduction of your paper and then working with that to decide what makes sense and what doesn't, what should you keep and what is off topic. Use this initial writing and brainstorming to create an outline for your piece. Look at the nuggets that come out of your initial thinking and writing and decide how you're going to build on those.

Try to write in chunks or sections and make sure you're on track. Having your piece organized in sections makes it easier to re-write and revise your writing. As you finalize your writing, make sure that it flows and those sections fit together. Also, try to avoid correcting your work at a proofing level (grammar, spelling, and punctuation) too early. Stay at a higher level of editing/revising until you think you've got a final draft.

Do consider your writing practice
As you consider your writing practice for the summer, think about what you're doing now. When do you do your best writing? Are you a morning person or a night owl? Try to plan your daily writing around when you're at your best. Also, look at the bigger picture. What is the flow of your week? What days do you have meetings? What days can you spare uninterrupted time to write? Also, be honest about your bad habits. If you procrastinate or get paralyzed on a new project, recognize it and make a plan to get through it. Take all these things into account and make yourself a summer plan. Identify when you'll write and when you'll exercise. :)

Resources 
How to Develop a Daily Writing Practice - Mattan Griffel
16 Ways to Improve Your Writing Skills  - Dan Shewan

Friday, May 6, 2016

Research collaboration makes it happen

We in ORDE sometimes meet with faculty that have an abundance of great ideas for research for which they are seeking funding. But these great ideas are not always fully developed or in alignment with agency goals. Given the traditional lone-wolf approach in research, many PIs think that if they haven't figured out a whole project by themselves then they won't do it. However, more and more, the most exciting and competitive projects are collaborative. But, if you're not sure how to form these collaborations, here are some tips.

Know your strengths and weaknesses
Before you reach out to collaborators, be clear on where your expertise lies and where it is limited. This will help you to pitch yourself and your project to potential partners and help you to identify the right partner(s).

Identify potential team members' strengths and weaknesses
Once you're clear what your role should be in a project and what roles and needs you must fill to make it come to fruition, you're ready to look for collaborators. Talk to your colleagues and make connections in the areas you have needs. When you identify a potential collaborator, set up an initial conversation to vet them.

Be ready to share
If you want a collaboration to be successful, you shouldn't go into conversations assuming that you're the boss and your collaborator will just provide what's needed. If that's how you want to run things, then you're really looking for a consultant on your project, not a collaborator. Most researchers will not be willing to invest themselves in a project that does not feel like it is theirs. So, be prepared to not only share your idea, but adapt the idea with your new partner(s).

Be ready to assert yourself
On the flip side, a collaboration shouldn't feel like a hand off of your idea to another. Some researchers feel their project is co-opted especially when they seek collaboration with a more seasoned PI. To combat this, be ready to assert yourself and demand a true partnership in the project.

Know what's in it for each researcher
An essential piece to a good collaboration is setting each collaborator up for success. When beginning a collaborative project, it's important to get all motivations out on the table to make sure they're complementary. Also, this is the time to discuss order of authorship of subsequent publications, and who will provide what resources and time to which parts of the project. This can help you avoid confusion or conflict later on.

But is collaboration worth it?
Collaboration is a lot of work, but it seems to be the direction we're going. According to Adams (2012):
  • Co-authored pubs tend to get cited more
  • The first paper with 1,000+ authors was published in 2004
  • The U.S. collaborates with China the most on 3-4% of its Science papers
Resources:
The Rise of Research Networks - Adams (2012)