Asked to do Work for Someone Else's Dissertation

[LadyJ]

I was recently asked by my advisor to do a great deal of work related to his other student's dissertation. I am under the impression that this student is struggling with a specific aspect of her dissertation...an aspect that happens to relate directly to my skill set. Apparently rather than make her learn, simply having me do it will "speed things along." The problem is, my advisor asked me to do this under the guise of my Research Assistantship with him...i.e., "I want you to do this task for me, which just so happens to be exactly what Jane Doe needs for her dissertation." 

 

At the bare minimum, I am fundamentally bothered by the idea of doing something that will be such a boon to a fellow student without her ever having to learn it herself (that's why we go to school, right?), and it seems to border the unethical for him to ask me as part of my RA-ship. I've been able to put off doing the task so far, but probably not for much longer.

 

Any ideas on how to tactfully approach this with my advisor? Thanks!!  

[Lisa44201]

I'd help out. It's not uncommon in my field for people with different skillsets to collaborate on something, even if it is assisting with part of a Thesis/Dissertation (I had first-year grad students work on part of my Thesis; not that I couldn't do the work myself, but that's How Things Are Done in that lab). I would make sure you receive authorship credit in return (possibly ask for that in writing). No one walks out of grad school knowing how to do everything; perhaps this student has skills in an area in which you do not?

[Snglo-Aaxon]

I don't understand what the problem is. Helping out colleagues is part of the research experience and, in particular, it is vital for developing beneficial relationships. You'll get an acknowledgement in the dissertation, and, hopefully, enough gratitude to access return favours.

[LadyJ]

Seriously? Collaboration is one thing (which I love)....being asked to do a part of someone else's dissertation through your advisor (not from the student)...is quite another. Thank you for the advise on asking for authorship credit...I suppose that is one small crumb in the table scraps of academia...

[TakeruK]

In some fields, like mine, an RA-ship from your advisor is meant to be paid work for work towards your own thesis. If this is the case, then you should find out what the norms are and make sure your RA is getting you progress on your own work, not towards others when everyone else has RAships for their own dissertation. 

 

But in other fields, an RA ship (from your advisor or otherwise) is meant to be paid work towards whatever the employer wants you to do--which may or may not be work towards your own thesis. This work might be towards another paper that the lab is producing, or to help on someone else's work. Let's say I am an expert in X and another student in the department is an expert in Y and doing their thesis on Y. However, they want to use method X to analyse a part of their research. It doesn't make sense for this other student to learn all of the intricacies of X just to get a very small part of their dissertation completed. Even if they did, it might not be as good because I might have spent years doing X and having experience in X. So, instead of them spending 8 months to get X to work, the prof might hire me as an RA to spend 2-3 months on it and finish it better and faster.

 

However, if the prof wants to pass off my work on X as his/her student's work then it becomes a problem! You should get credit for your academic contribution to the other student's thesis and this can't be replaced by your RA payment! 

[Snglo-Aaxon]

Seriously? Collaboration is one thing (which I love)....being asked to do a part of someone else's dissertation through your advisor (not from the student)...is quite another. Thank you for the advise on asking for authorship credit...I suppose that is one small crumb in the table scraps of academia...

In a nutshell, you are being paid to a job. In my experience, what your advisor is asking you to do is not unusual. 

[lewin]

Thank you for the advise on asking for authorship credit...I suppose that is one small crumb in the table scraps of academia...

 

Authorship is hardly a crumb, in academia it's the main course.

[rising_star]

In my experience in the social sciences, what you're describing is NOT normal. It's fine to get someone to help you with part of your thesis, share their notes, help you with figure out the analytical methods, etc. But, they don't just DO the work for you. There's a very big difference between helping and doing. Also, I'd imagine that your advisor's other student would then have an issue signing where you say that the dissertation/thesis is your own work...

[danieleWrites]

I'm a bit confused. Are you being asked to do some of the, ah, creation (for lack of a better term) aspects of her dissertation or are you being asked to do lab-work in experiments that she's designed while perhaps tutoring her in her weak spots (while this is undoubtedly the wrong way to phrase it, it gets at the gist of my question)? I'm not at all familiar with your field, but it seems like it's the kind that involves testing hypotheses with specific methodologies.

I can see this being ethical if you're running the equipment and teaching her the accepted methodologies (the grunt work), but not if you're involved in any of the design or analysis phases. If she's not directing the experiment (for lack of better phrasing), there's a problem.

I think that, were I in your shoes, I would have a conversation with my adviser asking, specifically, what kinds of things that I shouldn't do for her, just to make sure that I don't accidentally cross some academic integrity line without any of us meaning for that happen.

[TakeruK]

Depending on the school and the field, not all of the work/content that goes into a dissertation needs to be work that is performed solely/mainly by the author. Obviously, the majority of the work must be original and "belong" to the author, but whether it needs to be 80% or 90% or 100% depends on the regulations of each specific PhD program. For example, in my current program, I can include a paper, verbatim, in my thesis that I did not write nor even have first authorship. In all these cases, the author would have to declare exactly what is theirs and what is not theirs of course. So I can still see a situation that is ethical where one section of the work is "done" by someone else (ideally while still involving the author though).

 

But I think asking the advisor about clarifying what you should/shouldn't do is a good idea too, in addition to clarifying authorship privileges. 

[mdiv2014]

difficult to tell what the original poster really means, but here's a perspective

 

sharing 'knowledge' saves time 

 

yes, the process of discovering knowledge on our own is superior to having it handed to us

but perhaps this student is in a bind, has personal issues, is overloaded and needs a hand

 

when you get to be a professor and an honest hardworking student is in a pickle, what do you do? tell them they'll fail unless they find the answers themselves or do you cough and point at a certain book and ask them if they tried reading chapter 18 of that one?

Edited February 9, 2014 by mdiv2014

[St Andrews Lynx]

The way you've phrased it, the arrangement does sound a little dodgy...but it also not clear how the advisor intends to credit you. In my field if Student A "leads" a project while Student B contributes a smaller proportion, then Student A would be the first author on the publication & Student B would be the second...but Student B could still include the results they produced (and analysis/conclusions) in their dissertation. 

 

It also depends on how far removed your skill set is from this student's. For instance, in my field one student would synthesise a potential drug molecule...but the biological testing would often be done by somebody else (a collaborator), as would any computational studies on the reaction mechanism. If somebody's research is 95% focussed on making molecules, they wouldn't be expected to "just learn" how to run complicated computational studies to include in their dissertation. However, if a student can't get their act together to write up a journal manuscript...I don't think it is fair to make another student do that for them. 

 

As others have said - talk to your advisor to clarify what credit you will receive for this. Get it in writing, too. If you have your own project then I would still focus the majority of my time on that and keep strictly within the RAship hours for this other project. There isn't anything in it for you if you slave away on somebody else's work, neglect your own independent research...and then end up with little credit for all your hard work.

[summoner]

I was recently asked by my advisor to do a great deal of work related to his other student's dissertation. I am under the impression that this student is struggling with a specific aspect of her dissertation...an aspect that happens to relate directly to my skill set. Apparently rather than make her learn, simply having me do it will "speed things along." The problem is, my advisor asked me to do this under the guise of my Research Assistantship with him...i.e., "I want you to do this task for me, which just so happens to be exactly what Jane Doe needs for her dissertation." 

 

At the bare minimum, I am fundamentally bothered by the idea of doing something that will be such a boon to a fellow student without her ever having to learn it herself (that's why we go to school, right?), and it seems to border the unethical for him to ask me as part of my RA-ship. I've been able to put off doing the task so far, but probably not for much longer.

 

Any ideas on how to tactfully approach this with my advisor? Thanks!!  

 

Doesn't sound unreasonable for your advisor to have you help.  Are you sure this is something that would render her PhD inadequate if she didn't do it herself?  It's quite common to have someone with a specific skillset, particularly a methodological skillset, obtain results for the dissertation writer.