Etiquette concerning Lab Findings / Results

Question

I'm an undergraduate and was fortunate to be selected for a 12 week summer placement in a professors lab at my university. I worked way over and above the funded hours and made some very interesting and exciting findings. I have been asked to present a talk to the university body in a few months. I agreed with the lab professor during my placement that this was a good opportunity.

Recently I pulled together my presentation and a summary. I copied the professor on it, who replied very angrily saying I had let him down; I wasn't following lab etiquette and I had no right to publish my findings without his agreement as he was funding it and it was part of larger research work etc. The findings hadn't been published, I just wrote the summary and presentation and only he has seen it.

I've never done lab work before and just prepared the presentation in advance before the term starts to be as organised as possible. I'm worried I've ruined my future lab prospects - I wasn't trying to breach any confidences and was just keen and excited to do the work.

What is your advise on how to further handle this, as well as future lab findings/discoveries and hierarchy discussing anything, lab work etc. I am not sure how to repair the relationship as I was shocked about it and am now quite nervous following his reaction.

Answer 1

Assuming you simply emailed the presentation to the professor before using it: A reasonable professor would not be angry. They might give you advice on how to better prepare the presentation.

Ask the professor for input on how to fix the presentation. If the professor is still angry after you followed their advice, that is their problem.

I think it's likely that you have misunderstood the situation.

Answer 2

Yes, it is the role/right of the principal researcher to allow publication of results.

Maybe he though that you are going to present this somewhere, and you just sent it to him for feedback. Just clarify that with him that this was just an internal thing and you don't plan submitting, and thank him for clarifying the situation.

Answer 3

It seems like the professor may have been blindsided by this presentation/report.

The professor's response was strange - so perhaps they were responding to what they believe you have done rather than what you actually did. The response you describe makes it sound as if they assume you have already disseminated the findings (rather than simply giving them first-look at a draft for an upcoming presentation).

Was the professor aware of this upcoming presentation/report? Was it a requirement of the summer placement, or some new opportunity offered to you by the university? If it had been mentioned earlier, it is still quite possible that they forgot, or that they were expecting some heads up to have a discussion on which details should be shared rather than getting some sort of "I'm done. Here's what I'm saying!" dropped on their lap.

Etiquette dictates that the lab you work in (that funds the very work you are doing) decides when/where/how to publish the results. Nobody wants to get "scooped"... especially not by the very labmates they are supposed to be able to trust. It seems like your professor fears you had just "scooped" the results from your summer placement in such a way that may jeopardize their current publication plans for this body of work.

Ultimately it seems like there was a miscommunication issue somewhere. The fix is to figure out where signals got crossed and uncross them. Presumably the professor should be relieved when it becomes clear that (1) you sent them an internal draft rather than just cc'ing them on an external publication submission, (2) there is plenty of time left to make changes to the presentation if they prefer to save certain results for other venues.

Answer 4

Are there politics at play?

Was there anything of a controversial nature in your findings? Anything that would cause a big industry to lose money, or anything like that? Is it possible your professor has ties to interests that would frown on the publication of the findings in question?

If you believe this to be the case, disseminate the information very publicly through other channels. Don't play that game, at all.

It's sad that such conflicts of interest sometimes stand in the way of scientific advancement and the larger interests of humankind, but that's the politics of humans. And as such, the possibility should be at least considered.

In any case, don't be intimidated. Stand your ground and get people to back you up. Be vocal about it.