Scholarship expectations at primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs) vary, but may hint at a “publish or perish” mantra, although limited. Regardless, ecologists at PUIs come from competitive graduate programs where publishing existed as part of daily life. Our publication aspirations do not just cease with the move to a PUI, but the context under which our science happens shifts dramatically. Leisurely full research days occur infrequently. Pace of scholarly productivity lessens, replaced necessarily with teaching and university service. Yet, in parallel with our Research I colleagues, we must shift our scholarly identity to Lab PI. Instead of training graduate students, we build research programs accessible to undergraduates. Concurrent with PUI mission statements, we devote substantial time teaching students about conducting research. We soon assemble our own lab group, albeit at a smaller scale and with a faster turnover than a graduate lab. Enough work eventually builds to warrant publication. The question arises – “Who’s on First?” or who should assume 1st author duties. At PUIs, 1st-author publications still impress, but working with students to author papers may be a more notable milestone in an ecologist’s career. Logistics of publishing with students appear daunting. However, intentional, upfront planning enables any ecologist to overcome the obstacles.
Results/Conclusions
Strategies exist for confronting 4 main challenges we face: 1) short turnaround time; 2) multiple student work contributing to a publication; 3) “average” writing ability of undergraduates; and 4) actual writing time. First, the time to negotiate issues about authorship and writing with undergraduates starts Day 1. Assume something they do will contribute a piece, however small, to some publication. With the student, forecast how you see their interests fitting into past or current work. Explain what it takes to accumulate enough data for publication. With multiple semesters or summers, undergraduates may acquire data to tell their own story. Alternatively, students may participate in a tag-approach where they pick up where others left off. Remember to write early, write often and revise until the very last minute. Stress to students long-term commitment and share stories of past students that continued to write past graduation. Finally, when time comes to write, schedule a face-to-face weekend writing retreat and ask your institution for modest funding. Although you serve as corresponding author, I can relate from personal experience that the satisfaction of having a student “on first” swamps the frustration and hard work it takes to get them there.
