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Jun 19, 2015 at 1:28 comment added Chan-Ho Suh Maybe JeffE and all the other people saying similar things are doing a different kind of research than I know about, but I recall that doing academic research involved a lot of time mulling over things at different times. In-between I'd be doing various things, but thinking over things in the "back of my mind" was very important. I think it's understandable, even reasonable to be annoyed if a student is obviously working on other projects. Doing a PhD is not like a 9-5 job where you clock in and clock out.
Mar 18, 2015 at 1:25 comment added JeffE My students are free to get in touch with you on their own!
Mar 17, 2015 at 23:05 comment added user168715 And if you have some funded students and you don't mind them working on something unrelated to your research agenda, get them in touch with me, I can find them something to do ;)
Mar 17, 2015 at 23:02 comment added user168715 If I am paying you I expect you to work a certain number of hours (full time) on your frog research. Those don't have to be the 9-5 hours of a typical job, but if you are spending less than full time on frogs because you are caught up on your secret side project, I will be upset and I imagine most professors would be as well.
Mar 17, 2015 at 21:25 comment added JeffE unlikely to have been compatibleSo what? If you are making good progress on your frog research, why should I care what else you're doing? On the other hand, if you aren't making good progress on your frog research, why should I care about what else you're doing? On the gripping hand, if I can't tell whether you're making good progress on your frog research, then we have a very different and much more serious problem.
Mar 16, 2015 at 0:44 comment added user168715 Certainly it will have raised questions, in my mind and others, about whether you were working on the frogs in good faith. Acting in a way that raises these questions is unprofessional, whether you actually committed theft of time or not, and is easily avoided by decent communication.
Mar 16, 2015 at 0:43 comment added user168715 Yes, but I maintain that if I am paying you to study frogs, your secretly publishing a paper on trees represents a very large amount of research whose completion was unlikely to have been compatible with you having spent full time on my research on frogs.
Mar 15, 2015 at 11:53 comment added JeffE I will throw out a strongly dissenting opinion. If you are being paid to do X, then doing Y is neither unethical nor unprofessional. Not doing X is unethical and unprofessional. My paying you to study frogs does not forbid you to study both frogs and trees.
Mar 9, 2015 at 20:04 history answered user168715 CC BY-SA 3.0