Community

The Harms lab is a community of scholars. This page documents our community standards.

• Get along: Don’t be a jerk. Don’t discriminate against someone because they’re different than you. Encourage each other. Give constructive criticism. Take constructive criticism. Go to each other’s talks/posters/events.
• Safety: All lab members are responsible for their own safety and that of others in the lab. Think before you act. If you see something amiss, intervene.
• Records/lab notebooks: We are working as a team; therefore, it is imperative that the records of experiments be accessible to all. This assures the integrity of our science and also that lab members can build on the experience of others. All lab members should keep good records in lab notebooks and/or electronically, as well as appropriately labeling stocks/samples/reagents. A full set of standards is available here.
• Ethical conduct: Learning cool things about the universe requires that we trust the results generated in the lab. So don’t make up your data. Don’t steal other people’s work and claim it as your own. Let the data lead, even if it undermines your cherished hypothesis; this is how we learn!
• Care of lab equipment: As a group, we all share equipment. What you do with it can affect the work of others. So: Be careful. Clean up after yourself. If something breaks, report it and work to fix it.
• Work ethic: We should all work hard. It’s unfair to those who are working hard if one person just goofs off. This does not necessarily mean working a million hours a week, but it does mean working in the hours we are here. So please don’t play Zork all day.
• Face time: A great thing about academic work is that we can have whatever hours work for us. (And, if writing or coding, wherever we want). But, as a community, we also need to spend time together so we’re not each working in a vacuum. Lab members should make sure that, whatever time they come in or leave, there is significant overlap with normal M-F/9-5 work hours.
• Broader sharing: The default is to share. Our work is funded by the public; therefore, our results should be made accessible to the public.