publish w/o profs consent

[Rose-sensei]

I'm a Master's student in Japan and I need advice on publishing. Since I'm new to science and in Japan I am quite isolated from the rest of the [normal] world, I have no idea how publishing is usually done.

In my case I have the material but my prof says he'll never agree to my publishing. The reason is, in a nutshell, Japan is a feudal country with feudal minds. My prof literally believes that it is impossible for a Master's student to produce a paper and the first paper must be published after getting the Masters. The teaching style in this lab is, we throw you in the water and whoever of you swims, becomes a scientist. That means that for the past year and a half I've been working totally alone. I only had one advisor on experimental techniques (meaning, he's explained how to use lab equipment) and no one has ever said to me anything like "why don't you look at this thing here" or "you could try this method" or "have you seen this paper". Nothing like it has ever happened. In fact, no one in this lab has any idea of what I'm doing. But this is how it is for everybody in this lab. Swim or die, no one's gonna help you.

On top of that, the prof has a kink. He believes that "the True Training takes at least 5 years, and if you leave before that, you have not finished you training, you're nothing, you can't be called a scientist, you're a failure and he's ashamed" and doesn't want to have anything to do with you anymore.

And I have a husband. My husband got a position in Europe and now I have to move. And I'm a Masters. And the prof now does everything to show how I'm already a failure because I'm not gonna "finish true training". He said he's never going to write recommendations for me. This fall everybody is going to a conference in Taiwan but me, even the exchange student from Germany but me. It's like, he's trying to show me that I already am an outsider and a shadow and everyone's gonna ignore me as if I don't exist.

[Note: my prof isn't even paying me anything, cause the Masters students in Japan are equal to undergrads and in fact, I have to pay for my education, not get money for it. Prof isn't giving me anything except lab space, equipment, electricity and water bills. That's it. And he's even getting money for me from the faculty - cause I'm a foreign student.]

And what's bothering me, is that I've been working so hard and actually got some results. Now everything I've done will just be published by this lab, without my name on it. I heard this has happened here [in this lab] a couple of times but when I heard it I didn't listen because I just couldn't imagine that such kind of relationships can even exist in a scientific community in 21st century.

So, what I want to ask is, is it possible to publish without your prof's consent? What can I do in my situation?

[Lisa44201]

What, exactly, has he contributed to the research, such that it would earn him authorship credit?

[fuzzylogician]

The best thing to do is get out of there and try and start over in another lab, if you are still interested in continuing your studies. You'll have difficulties because you say you won't have a letter of recommendation from your advisor, but maybe you can still find a new lab e.g. by starting out as a volunteer or after meeting with a professor and establishing a relationship. I understand you'll be fairly constrained in where you could look, so you may need to be careful about how you approach this process.

 

As for whether you can publish your work without your advisor's consent, that depends at least somewhat on the field. In some fields, the PI is always co-author in all the papers that come out of his/her lab. If you're in that kind of field/lab, then you can't publish without your advisor's consent. If that's not the situation, then the question Lisa44201 asked above is relevant - did the advisor contribute enough to be deserve co-authorship (be honest with yourself; will he agree with your answer to this question)? If you can take your data/results with you when leave, you could perhaps do something. If the data belongs to your advisor, I think you're out of luck. Either way, if your advisor is a big name, getting into a power struggle with him will do you absolutely no good. You'll lose, because he is known and you are not. You don't want to create an enemy that could hurt you throughout your career. You may simply have to cut your losses and try and find a better lab and a better advisor, and start over. 

[Quantum Buckyball]

You could try to get it published through collaborators, there is a chance that you might lose the first authorship but that's the risk you will have to take. 

 

Or, you could get it published in open-access journals and not subscription-based journals... You will most likely have to pay the publication fee out of your own pocket though (usually the head professor pays this from the grant money) 

[dfindley]

If it is really your work that you developed on your own without collaboration, write it up immediately and submit it to s peer-reviewed journal. Submissions are often blind reviewed, and if you are genuinely innovative there is a good chance they will recognize it.

You don't need permission. The only problem would be if they say the project was a collaborative effort, in which case they need recognition -- because it is valuable intellectual property. You could be sued or have your reputation ruined.

Its up to you. It sounds though that you are a weak person. You should already know you don't need permission and that journal submissions are given blind reviews. You are your own scientist and you don't need another to tell you when you are ready to think for yourself.

You must find strength within yourself to do the right thing, and to do it well.

Good luck,

[TakeruK]

What, exactly, has he contributed to the research, such that it would earn him authorship credit?

 

 

If it is really your work that you developed on your own without collaboration, write it up immediately and submit it to s peer-reviewed journal. Submissions are often blind reviewed, and if you are genuinely innovative there is a good chance they will recognize it.

You don't need permission. The only problem would be if they say the project was a collaborative effort, in which case they need recognition -- because it is valuable intellectual property. You could be sued or have your reputation ruined.

These posters make important points. If the OP did not need permission to publish the article, then they can definitely go ahead and submit it themselves. However, the following statement by the OP leads me to believe that this won't be as easy (emphasis mine):

 

[Note: my prof isn't even paying me anything, cause the Masters students in Japan are equal to undergrads and in fact, I have to pay for my education, not get money for it. Prof isn't giving me anything except lab space, equipment, electricity and water bills. That's it. And he's even getting money for me from the faculty - cause I'm a foreign student.]

 

In most science fields, including my own, this usually means the PI technically owns the data and the intellectual property, even though the student has performed all of the work, and thus must be included as a co-author. In cases where the PI isn't abusing their power, this process is important because it's often the case that the PI will spend the majority of their time writing grants in order to fund the work going on in their lab. In order to get these grants, they need to show that their lab have actually been producing research/publications, especially to show that previous grant money has actually been converted into research products. So, in many scientific fields, co-authorship could be a result of intellectual/labor contribution (supervising, mentoring, data analysis, performing experiments, building equipment, writing programming code) as well as contribution in ways such as providing funding, lab space, setting up a group, paying the electricity bills etc.

 

So, to dfindley, I don't think it's always true that the OP can publish without needing permission and it's not always obvious what the answer is. Also, not all fields have double-blind review processes. In my field, the referees are not "blind", that is, they know who is submitting the article. However, the referees are anonymous -- authors do not know who reviewed their paper, unless the referee chooses to reveal their identity in the referee report (happens pretty often).

 

And what's bothering me, is that I've been working so hard and actually got some results. Now everything I've done will just be published by this lab, without my name on it. I heard this has happened here [in this lab] a couple of times but when I heard it I didn't listen because I just couldn't imagine that such kind of relationships can even exist in a scientific community in 21st century.

So, what I want to ask is, is it possible to publish without your prof's consent? What can I do in my situation?

 

To the OP: I'm sorry to hear about your crappy situation. I understand that academia in other parts of the world may function differently, but the situation you describe can happen anywhere, even in the "normal" world as you call it. Usually, if you are not sure that your advisor/supervisor is being fair to you, and talking to your supervisor does not resolve things, the next step is to talk to someone else in the department -- another prof you know, the director of graduate studies, or the department head. Maybe they can help you get this work published -- sometimes it just takes other profs to help you stand up to a prof that's abusing their powers to get things to work out. 

 

I think that you should have the right to be included on any results that your lab produces from your work. But as fuzzy said, if you are not able to get permission from everyone who has a claim to coauthorship to write it up, then it may be better to cut your losses and move on. I think you would be in the right if you did fight it, but being right doesn't always mean you'll win and it may not be worth the time and energy you would need to do it.