Choosing a research advisor

[Xarqin]

We've just made a website where current and former members of a research group can anonymously rate and review their PIs, and provide accounts of their experience in that group. I was just wondering if prospective students and postdocs would find such a resource useful?

Most prospectives make decisions based on research topics and the professor's reputation/publication record, which are all common knowledge, but there's little to go on as to whether one would work well with the PI. Recruitment weekends are useful to some extent, but you don't always get all your questions answered. There are also enough stories about bad advisor-advisee relationships in academia to suggest that many didn't make the right decision. Any feedback is appreciated.

[Zencarrot]

This is a pretty cool idea but I am skeptical about how anonymous reviews would actually be. In Canada, for example, professors don't have dozens of doctoral students or RAs at any given time and a detailed review on a professor would most likely be easily identifiable by same. I think it is a very cool concept but I wouldn't personally feel comfortable posting a review of someone I'd had a close working relationship with unless it was overwhelmingly positive.

[Xarqin]

Hi Zencarrot,

It's true that reviewing your prof. would be problematic if: 1) the group size is very small, 2) the adviser-advisee relationship is a bad one, and 3) a long and detailed written review was indeed provided (thus providing identifying clues).

In view of this, written comments have been made optional. There is also a 30-question questionnaire that will provide sufficiently useful info about the prof. and life in the group, even in the absence of a written review. To see an example, search "Pattenden" on the website. This was the first review we received. The user chose not to write any comments, but the rating chart is still useful for prospective students. Moreover, the advisee-advisor relationship could be a good one, and in that case, a current or former student may wish to promote the group by letting others know that the PI is a good person to work for.

Thanks a lot for your critique and time.

P.S. The website is not set in stone; it can be modified and improved based on user input.

[MoJingly]

Hmmm... do you think the title of the website will encourage negative comments? If, for example, I loved my research adviser, I'm not sure I would go to this website.

[Xarqin]

MoJingly,

That very issue regarding the URL did come up even before the site was created. The title was supposed to be partially tongue-in-cheek, except for those who really did have an evil PI.... but I admit that some might take it the wrong way. Conversely, if the name sounded too positive, researchers who have suffered a nightmare experience are unlikely to use the review system to warn others. There was also the issue of coming up with a name that wasn't already taken, e.g. most of the neutral-sounding ones.

[eco_env]

there should be a way to search by school/subject. or if there is a way, it should be easier to find.

[Xarqin]

Hi eco_env,

That's an extra feature we plan to add if/when we get a significant number of reviews. Right now, there's just insufficient user-generated content to justify hooking up extra search capabilities to the research advisor database.

[Eigen]

It seems like something very similar came up a few months back.... Was that you guys as well? It was an anonymous rating site for PIs.

[Eigen]

Ok, It was another site, but very similar. The discussion there might be informative.

[Xarqin]

Eigen, thanks a lot for the link.