A PhD Examined: The Research Lab

Navigating Professional and Personal Relationships with My Fellow Students

9 min readSep 29, 2024

Academic research labs are in many ways similar to a typical workplace. They have rules of professional conduct, you have a boss, and they have their share of office politics. What sets them apart is that you spend a lot more time around your colleagues: you may be taking classes together, socializing outside work hours, and meeting and working together regularly.

In this article, I’m going to go into navigating the relationships with fellow students in your research lab, based on my experience and stories of other labs related by my friends.

Working With Other Students

Lab Culture

I think research labs can be broadly divided into collaborative and competitive labs. Since a typical research lab has both collaboration between students and competition to generate new ideas and work on interesting topics, I should clarify the above statement. What I mean is that the lab environment can be mostly about students working together, where everybody shares ideas and people are willing to help each other; or it can be an environment where people jealously guard their ideas and work in isolation, with each person out to prove their superiority.

To put it another way, labs can be an exchange economy where social status is defined as “having control of things” or a “gift culture” where “social status is determined […] by what you give away” (see the wonderful book ). In reality, most labs will fall somewhere between the two extremes, with different individuals behaving differently, but a prevailing culture one way or the other, often modeled by the research group advisor.

From my experience, both types of lab have pros and cons and both cultures can hinder your progress when manifested in the extreme. A collaborative lab, at its best, brings out the best in people and can help generate wonderful original ideas by combining input from multiple people. On the other hand, too much collaboration encourages freeloaders, who depend on others to do most of the work while they reap the benefits. This can foster resentment and sour personal relationships. Collaborative labs also tend to be very helpful to new students who are just starting out and need lots of help and guidance.

The best thing about competitive labs is that they will drive you to put forth your best work and to do it quickly. The negative extreme of an overly competitive lab culture is quite toxic and can lead to people refusing to share their ideas with others for fear of theft. This culture can bring out the worst in people, with such environments rife with backstabbing and plagiarism.

In my opinion, the best course of action is to figure out your group’s culture and make the best of it. Emulate the discipline and drive of competitive workers and share ideas and approaches with collaborative ones so you can benefit from both.

Co-Authoring Articles

Before you work on writing articles, it’s important to know the conventions of authorship in your particular field. For example, in my field, it’s typical for article authors to be listed as follows:

First author is the one with most contribution, often the one who
came up with the original idea for the article.
Last author is the most senior one, often the research advisor.
All other collaborators listed in between by seniority from least
senior to most senior.

The etiquette and conventions for listing authors may vary by field, so make sure to consult others with more experience about this before starting out. In my case, I found this out through various conversations with professors and colleagues.

It’s quite natural that you’ll collaborate with some of your fellow students on some research work and end up co-authoring articles about it. A thorny issue that often arises is the question of how your names will appear on the article. This is why it’s important to set expectations early. You should have an honest conversation with your lab mates about this, ideally from the start. There may even be a lab policy in place for how authorship is decided, so it’s good to clear that up with your advisor as well. You should also consider re-negotiating this agreement if the relative contribution of each student changes compared to what was planned at the start. Some publications will even let you add a note naming multiple authors and stating that they have contributed equally to the article.

Benefit From Experience

What I have seen during my PhD program is that more senior students in your research group can be a great asset, as long as they’re willing to help you. Students who are working on something similar to your interests can help get you started on the right path, often by showing you their past results and suggesting how you can build on them. They can also show you tricks for giving your manuscripts a better chance of being accepted for publication.

Senior students also often know a lot of shortcuts through lab and school bureaucracy and some tricks that can save you time on your work. In my case, for example, part of our research projects was to design a printed circuit board (PCB) to fit our integrated circuits on so that their performance can be measured. This design process is not intuitive at first and requires a lot of guidance. There are many tricks to it that help save time and cost down the line. My senior lab mates helped me a lot with this when I was starting out. Moreover, to get these PCBs manufactured, we had to request funds from our group and it had to be approved by the department. I received guidance there as well on what the procedure was and the most efficient way to do it.

The more helpful senior students can even guide you socially by introducing you to more people, showing you their favorite spots around town, and even becoming your friends. They can help show you university resources, and money-saving tricks. All this to say, the experience of your lab mates is a very good asset and, when faced with a new challenge, you should always consider approaching them first. Be mindful, however, of the kind of lab culture you have and of students’ individual personalities. Some people are just very closed off about their work and not willing to share, others may not be very good at social interactions. My advice is to not take it personally and find someone else who is willing and able to help.

Group Meetings

It’s likely that your research group will have regular group meetings, typically once a week. I find group meetings to be very important for at least two reasons: they’re a good way to keep your advisor up-to-date on your achievements and progress, and they’re an opportunity for you to get feedback and guidance from your advisor and fellow students. I think it’s really crucial that you’re well-prepared for these meetings.

The number one rule I followed when preparing my presentations for group meetings was to know my audience. I had to keep in mind that my lab mates were not necessarily aware of the details of my project and the technical concepts of my specific search area. I started each presentation with a quick recap of the previous one to make sure people remembered what I was talking about. Our group meetings were also quite big, so each of us got 5–10 minutes to talk. I had to keep only the essentials in my slides and relegate anything else to backup slides that I only showed if needed. For that reason, I focused on the two main important things: what I achieved this past week, and things I needed feedback on/help with.

On the logistical side, I found it good to have a template for the group meeting slides (remember my fondness for having a workflow for everything); our lab group had a loosely-defined template that I used for all of my meeting presentations and most of my other presentations outside the group as well. Finally, the best approach I found to preparing these slides (and one I wasn’t always able to stick to) was to make slides as I worked during the week: every time I did something new that I knew I wanted to present, I would make slides for it. Getting into the habit of keeping a work journal was also really helpful for me, as my notes served like an outline for the group meeting presentation.

Here are some things I found very useful to get the most out of group meetings:

Be mindful of the time you’re allowed to speak and leave room in your presentation for comments and questions.
The meeting is a chance to get a lot of feedback from others. If they don’t volunteer it, don’t be afraid to explicitly ask for it.
It’s important to specify your next steps (plan for the coming week) and that’s especially important if you’re working on a project with other people. The next steps should be clear and you should take ownership of the ones you’ve planned or been assigned.
Take notes on any feedback or action items you receive and plan to address them before the next meeting. For the next meeting, highlight how you did that so that people know you take their feedback seriously and continue to give you their notes.

Social Considerations

I mentioned that your fellow students can be part of your social circles as well. While that’s true, I find that there are a few things to keep in mind to make sure any such socialization goes well.

First and foremost, I’m a big believer in professionalism. It’s important to keep a good working relationship with everybody, even people you don’t necessarily like. You never know when your paths might cross again or when you may need assistance from somebody on a problem you’re working on. Please note that this isn’t an invitation to tolerate abuse or toxic behavior from your lab mates, I’m just pointing out that even if someone annoys you or just rubs you the wrong way, it’s important to find ways to work together with them in a professional manner. The best guidance I ever received on maintaining a formal and professional work environment is to never bring up the following topics:

Religion
Politics
Sex
Sports

These are topics people tend to have very strong, and often conflicting, opinions about. Discussions of these topics can often get heated and can cause awkwardness and friction with your co-workers later on. I have stuck to this advice in all my work settings ever since and it has never failed me. Even when the group includes people I’m friendly with, if there are others I’m not that close to, I usually refrain from talking about these topics.

That being said, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to form very close friendships with some of your lab mates. It’s especially easy because you’ll often share the same schedule, be working on similar things, and may even be going to the same classes. It’s a good opportunity to take advantage of if you’re looking to form a good support system. The one caveat is to exercise common-sense judgment and make sure you trust the people you befriend, as you’ll be working closely with them for several years.

Many lab groups will have regular opportunities for socialization, such as a weekly happy hour or quarterly group gatherings outside of work, or something similar. It’s a great opportunity to get to know your lab mates better and socialize with them in a more relaxed setting if you choose. I highly recommend you take advantages of such events. And if your lab group doesn’t have any such events, consider starting one.

Concluding Thoughts

Your research lab will form a big part of your work life during grad school and can even be the basis for your core friend group if you want. It has certainly helped me form lifelong friendships but also foster good professional relationships that are a part of my professional network to this day. It’s important to know what to expect, how to gauge the kind of lab culture you’re working in, and how to maximize your benefits and the support you receive from your colleagues.