Student-Advisor agreement

Last updated on 23 Jun 2024

TLDR

  • Deadlines: Find out your deadlines, keep track of these, let your Advisor(s) know, and plan your work accordingly.

  • Timeline: Intermediate deadlines for (i) an outline of your dissertation (with key results and figures that demonstrate these results), (ii) a draft of your dissertation document, (iii) a practice talk in a group meeting are as follows:

    • For a 3-month BSc: the outline is due 6 weeks before and the draft 3 weeks before the thesis submission deadline; you should schedule a practice talk 2 weeks before your official thesis talk;

    • For a 6-month MSc: the outline is due 2-2.5 months before and the draft 1 month before the thesis submission deadline; you should schedule a practice talk in the group meeting 2 weeks before the official thesis talk.

    • Longer (more involved) topics may be available by arrangement.

  • Feedback: You should plan to take advantage of feedback sessions during weekly group meetings. Individual meetings with the Advisor(s) can be scheduled–especially near the beginning as the project is being defined, in the middle if the project needs redirection, and near the end to discuss the outline.Written feedback on the draft will be provided once (expect feedback ~2 weeks after submitting the draft).

  • Technical: Plan to use Python, GitHub, LaTex

  • Code of conduct: Scientific integrity, respect for others, spirit of collaboration, compliance with regulations and guidelines.

This document outlines expectations for the undertaking of a thesis project where the primary advisor is within the Experimental Oceanography group at UHH. If anything conflicts with University or Faculty requirements or guidelines, those requirements supersede what is written here. All details are open to discussion or revision by mutual agreement during the project work.

Expectations of the Student: The most important expectation to communicate is that you, the Student, should take ownership over your educational and research experience. From the choice of your Advisor, research project and through to degree completion, you carry the primary responsibility for your success.

Expectations of the Advisor: The Advisor’s primary task is to facilitate the Student’s educational experience, to guide the Student in their research project and foster independent learning. The Advisor should promote conditions conducive to the Student’s research and intellectual growth, providing guidance on the progress of the research and the standards expected.

Student’s responsibility

It is the student’s responsibility to

  1. Grow intellectually, develop skills necessary, complete research work and produce a dissertation that is their own work, reflecting a capacity for independent scholarship in the discipline.

  2. Make themselves aware of all applicable deadlines and regulations associated with the degree requirement, and to inform the Advisor of these deadlines in good time.

  3. Manage their own time, recognising that research often takes longer than expected; and recognise that the Advisor has other research, educational and service obligations;

  4. Conform to requirements of the degree program, including regarding the dissertation style, intellectual property, academic misconduct, and any relevant safety and/or workplace regulations;

  5. Meet regularly with the Advisor (or designate) and arrive prepared for all scheduled meetings; changes to scheduled meetings should be requested with 24 hours notice, when possible;

  6. Take advantage of analysis, coding and research input from fellow group members, e.g. at group meetings; Consider and respond to advice or feedback provide by the Advisor in a timely manner;

  7. Be prepared to approach the Advisor and/or course coordinator when any perceived problems or changes in circumstances could affect progress;

  8. By the end of the project (or continuously, via e.g., GitHub), make available to the Advisor all original research materials (data files, dissertation files, figures and analysis scripts) where appropriate;

Advisor’s responsibility

It is the advisor’s responsibility to

  1. Facilitate the Student’s intellectual growth; assist the Student in developing their research interests and help them modify the project when unforeseen problems arise;

  2. Ensure that the Student’s dissertation project is aligned with the educational programme objectives and manageable in the time allocated;

  3. Give ample notice of extended absences from campus, and make arrangements for the advising of the student when on extended absence from the campus;

  4. Be reasonably accessible to the Student via electronic communication or in person for consultation and discussion of the student’s academic progress and research problems; provide 24 hours notice, when possible, when cancelling an appointment;

  5. Be open, honest and fair with the Student when providing feedback on academic performance; examine and make constructive suggestions for improvement on formal written work;

  6. Make reasonable arrangements, within the norms appropriate to the discipline and limits of resources of the University, so that the research resources necessary for execution of the student’s dissertation are available;

Publishing work

In some cases, a student thesis may be suitable for publication as a whole or as a contribution to another piece of work. In these cases, the Advisor will facilitate appropriate crediting of the Student’s contributions to scholarly activity.

For example,

  • A. Where the Student’s intellectual contribution to the work is essential but routine, e.g. in the case of routine work without an active role in experimental design, execution, or data analysis, the Student will be acknowledged in the publication but not a co-author.

  • B. Where the Student has made a substantive intellectual contribution to the work, but has not taken the lead role in design, execution and anaysis, the Student will be a co-author.

  • C. Where the Student has had a major intellectual contribution to the work, and has led the design, execution and data analysis, the Student will be the lead author.

  • D. Note that no manuscript, abstract or poster should be submitted for consideration by a scholarly journal or meeting unless its content has been approved by all co-authors.

If the work is publishable, but the student has not prepared and submitted it for publication within 1 year since the student has left the group (or 2 years by prior agreement), then the work may be taken forward by others. Previous work on the project will be acknowledged by (i) co-authorship or (ii) in the ‘acknowledgements’ section of the paper. Note that co-authorship would further require timely responses by the student to contact from authors/publishers (see point D above).

In practice: EO group (2024)

Specific guidelines for BSc and MSc students in the EO group (updated 2024). See also the Meetings and Scheduling document.

  1. Feedback on progress: We use group meetings as a way to get individual feedback on progress, to share updates on work, and to generate a spirit of collaboration. You are expected to take advantage of these weekly meetings. Individual discussion time can be scheduled on an as-needed basis. For example: 1-3 meetings at the outset of the project as it’s being defined; in the middle, especially if directional changes are needed; near the end, especially to discuss key results and the outline of the thesis. Feedback on a written draft will typically be provided in written format; feedback on a practice talk (to be delivered in a group meeting about 2 weeks before the defense) will be given in the group meeting.

  2. Written feedback: I expect to review a your formal written work only once, and to normally provide feedback within 2 weeks. This timeline must be discussed in advance to take into account my other commitments and travel. Feedback will only be provided on a single document, so you should prepare a full format draft (not an introduction section one week, and a methods section another week). Outlines may be discussed multiple times.

  3. Open science: At the outset of the project, create an account on github.com and a repository for your thesis work (code and writing). At the end, a public repository is strongly preferred; to start with, e.g., for your working repository, you may make it private and invite the Advisor(s) as collaborators. Discuss with peers or see (https://github.com/eleanorfrajka/template-project/) for how to get started.

  4. Technical: Python is preferred for code. Latex is recommended for your final thesis document. You may store drafts within your working repository, e.g. in a sub-directory thesis/ or manuscript/.

  5. Regular report of progress (recommended): Within 1 day after an individual meeting, please digitally share a short set of notes including actions. These may be stored as markdown files with notes from the meeting, or PD with slides from the meeting. The compilation of these reports provide a record of progress through time. Name your file something sensible that promotes organisation, e.g.: YYYYMMDD-Lastname-dissupdate.pdf. Suggested headings are:

    • Agenda for meeting
    • Scientific content (e.g., action items from last meeting, aim of work since last meeting, progress since last meeting).
    • Next steps, including any action items carried forward
    • Notes from meeting

    These can be shared in your working repository or in a shared folder on UHH cloud.

  6. Individual meetings: See Meetings & Scheduling for how to schedule a meeting. Use http://calendly.com/eleanorfrajka to pick a 30-minute meeting.

    Alternatively, you can email Francisca Terrassa for a meeting (Please use this method for any meetings requiring participation of multiple people and where scheduling may require iterations);

    Less reliable ways of scheduling meetings with me include e-mailing, messaging in Mattermost or catching me in the hallway. Note that I organise my meetings using the University outlook calendar, and meetings that do not appear in my calendar are liable to be forgotten.

    Once a meeting is agreed, I strongly prefer that you use a digital calendar program (e.g., Outlook or google calendar) where the meeting event can be created, and I can be invited by adding my e-mail address eleanor.frajka@uni-hamburg.de. This will help me avoid double-booking. See Meetings & Scheduling: Calendar invites for how to do this.

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