Timeline for My PhD supervisor is doing nothing and is probably involved in academic misconduct. What should I do?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
15 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Apr 10 at 20:10 | comment | added | Buffy | @yujaiyu, I'm not protecting the advisor. You aren't protecting the student if you get them terminated. Yes, it is good to support the oppressed, but you need effective action to be able to do it. | |
| Apr 10 at 20:05 | comment | added | yujaiyu | @Buffy, "the first rule of survival is to protect yourself." That's right. However, we do not identify with the same side. You're protecting the abusive faculty member. I'm protecting the abused student. "The world's like that" kind of arguments aside. These are well understood to support the oppressors' positions. | |
| Apr 10 at 8:50 | comment | added | Mentalist | @AdamPřenosil I suppose you're right. I got a little reactionary in my comment because I felt so disgusted with the situation OP describes. But I would still say that taking steps toward justice is called for. What that looks like exactly, may require a more nuanced discussion. | |
| Apr 8 at 12:04 | comment | added | John Doe | As much as I think this is a reasonable answer it is also the thing I straight up hate about research and one of the main reason that dissuaded me from pursuing a PHD. You are a student and forgot a reference? "Academic misconduct, plagiarism, you are the worst human being that ever existed and need to be expelled or see your career destroyed!" A professor straight up treats you like garbage, borderline steals your work and randomly includes authors in a paper as favors? "Well guess you need to bite the bullet, it may hinder your future to speak up and the world is not a perfect place anyway" | |
| Apr 8 at 11:00 | comment | added | Adam Přenosil | @Mentalist "after graduating you should dump his name here publicly for all to see" Academia SE does not allow for accusations against specific individuals (and rightly so). | |
| Apr 8 at 8:36 | comment | added | Mentalist | OP: If you choose not to confront the matter though proper channels, and incur the abuse, then after graduating you should dump his name here publicly for all to see. Otherwise there is no justice and this behavior continues. Some people might think it unprofessional, but protecting an abuser's reputation is even worse, and it allows those who come after you to be harmed as well. But I think if there's someone you can talk to (integrity officer?), do that first. | |
| Apr 7 at 23:46 | comment | added | Thierry | This is probably a pragmatic answer but it's unfortunate how normalized this behavior seems. I'm sure it's a big reason why the public has such little faith in science and institutions of higher learning, but I guess it's easier to blame fox news and twitter than to look in the mirror. (Not you personally or anything Buffy, I'm speaking in general) | |
| Apr 7 at 16:39 | comment | added | sh314 | Unfortunately, this is a pretty reasonable answer. I'd only add the suggestion of building a mentorship network beyond your advisor. In situations like this, either the advisor is someone that will not be a good mentor and should be avoided, or the student is missing some important context that is important for their professional development. I've heard horror stories from students that are completely the fault of terrible PhD advisors, and others that are completely misaligned expectations and lack of professional experience on part of the grad student. Mentorship networks help with both. | |
| Apr 7 at 11:25 | comment | added | Buffy | @yujaiyu, the first rule of survival is to protect yourself. | |
| Apr 7 at 11:12 | comment | added | Buffy | @yujaiyu, you have seriously understood the intent of 'perfect'. I was writing of the effect for the OP. If you don't graduate, how do you win this game? No, I don't support the behavior, but the OP has more serious concerns. | |
| Apr 7 at 6:07 | comment | added | Alex Wertheim | ...consequences. It might be better for your own well-being to seek a 'good' outcome (i.e., graduating) and set this fight aside." Again, I'm not commenting on whether or not this is good advice, but I certainly don't read it as criticism of the OP or validation of the professor's actions, tacit or otherwise. Just my two cents. | |
| Apr 7 at 6:04 | comment | added | Alex Wertheim | ...a more just outcome enables future misconduct. But I think it's going too far to say that any of Buffy's advice here is "pure evil", even if it's pragmatic in a way you find distasteful. Lastly, I don't think that the last sentence is saying that wanting the professor to face consequences is "perfectionism". My read is that it is saying that "in an ideal world, you could both graduate without obstacles and the professor would be held accountable for his actions, but a more realistic possibility is that you could damage your own career irreparably and the professor won't face any... | |
| Apr 7 at 6:00 | comment | added | Alex Wertheim | @yujaiyu I think this might be an extremely uncharitable reading of Buffy's answer, to the point of possibly misreading it entirely. For starters, I don't see any support for the professor's behavior in Buffy's answer, considering he says "I agree that the behavior is bad and seems to be unwarranted". The essence of Buffy's advice reads to me as "tread VERY carefully when confronting a professor who dramatically outmatches you in resources, power, connections, and community esteem." One can argue whether or not this is good advice, and whether prioritizing one's own situation over pursuing... | |
| Apr 7 at 4:31 | comment | added | yujaiyu | False authorship, degree forging for the students you like (attributing someone else's work to them), and discrimination against foreign students, are not "other concerns." Calling it perfectionism is beyond disgusting. Publicly supporting these behaviors while being a professor yourself is pure evil. I suggest your future advisees read this "advice" very carefully. | |
| Apr 6 at 15:19 | history | answered | Buffy | CC BY-SA 4.0 |