Getting into research

Research can be enormously rewarding, but those rewards often require sacrifices. In this article, I want to help you to understand why that is, whether you are in a good position to try research today, and what you might need to do to start.

Before you start thinking about trying research, ask yourself the following questions.

  1. Why are you interested in research?
  1. What would you like to research?
  1. What do you think conducting research is like?

As you read this post, think back to your answers to these questions. Try to clarify your answers.

Before we get into it, let me introduce myself:

Who I am

I am a Ph.D. student in Computer Science, so that is where most of my experience comes from. I also have some experience in Chemistry, Biomedical Science, and Mathematics, so I hope this advice can be useful to people with a broad range of interests.

How research happens

If you are reading this, you are probably pursuing higher education, so you already have a rough idea of what you’re interested in—your major field of study. Unfortunately, it’s not really possible to do research in entire fields, like “Mathematics”, “Biology”, or “Computer Science”—research proceeds on much narrower frontiers. If you are an undergraduate, you likely still have some work to do to figure out exactly where you’d like to start your work. If you are a master’s student, you probably have a couple of subfields you find interesting, but you may need help to figure out a really good research question. That is good for aspiring researchers—they only need to understand their subfield to begin research.

This can also be a serious hurdle; learning about the scientific frontier is very different from the process of learning in a classroom. In a course, the material being taught has been filtered and processed by thousands of people before it arrived in the notes for a modern course. Courses are composed with the goal of making it as easy as possible to understand the material in the short time allotted to a course. Working on the frontier is different—the number of people who are aware of the issues in a subfield might be in the tens or hundreds, and the number of those working on a given issue is much smaller. If you continue in research, you will likely cram yourself into a lecture hall with most of the people on Earth who are working in your area. When you present, it’s possible that nobody has considered your subject before—you’ll be introducing something entirely new. That is an incredible feeling.

Dedication

Research is an ancient task which has recently become a full-time occupation. A few centuries ago, research was primarily the domain of those whose worldly occupations or fortunes afforded them leave which they could put toward activities with such uncertain rewards. At that time, research required a heroic degree of passion and dedication. We are fortunate today to have such abundance that many can pursue research as an occupation. The need for passion, though, has hardly diminished; the pay for research positions in many fields is surprisingly low—research is a lot like Arts or Entrepreneurship in that way. That is why so many researchers are also teachers (i.e. professors), although abundance allows many more people to make research a larger part of their duties than before. For most, research is a small part of their official duties. Dedication is critical to make substantial progress.

Many students want to trial research for a short period—often a summer or a single semester. This is a good way to get a sense of whether you would like to continue in research, but it is challenging; getting a hang of research in a short period requires a lot of work. Even the smallest tasks can require deep knowledge of the field. Research requires you to simultaneously learn and practice at the highest levels of the discipline. To begin in research, you must catch up on the state of the art, then figure out how to work on it. That is especially difficult if it has to be compressed into a short period.

Think back on your answer to the third question—this is what research will be like—are you ready for that? If this sounds like something that you want to try, I think you should. Research doesn’t involve sacrificing everything, but it must involve, especially at the beginning, serious and sustained effort. Before you start, make sure you’re ready to commit to seeing that through.

Entering research

In order to enter research, you almost certainly need some help. The academy has organized a number of programs for inducting new people into research: formal programs for undergraduates like REUs, Master’s theses, doctoral programs, and postdoctoral research positions are some examples. These are essentially forms of apprenticeship. If you’re looking at starting up in research, you’ll probably be asking someone to apprentice under them.

Mentoring, for the mentor

Many aspiring researchers think that they are offering something irresistible to the potential mentor: “I’ll work for you for free!”. The challenge for mentors is that new researchers often don’t know what they don’t know, and may not appreciate how long it will take for them to contribute. Most research tasks require a lot of training. Some research projects have tasks that require less training, but those tasks usually aren’t very beneficial for the volunteer—they are the equivalent of sending an intern out for coffee.

This means that if a mentor wants to accept a student and help the student to succeed, they need to teach the mentee about the field, advise them, evaluate their work, and a thousand other things. For a mentor whose primary goal is research, rather than mentoring, this means that “free work” from a student can take a long time to pay off in terms of research alone.

With that said, many advisors greatly enjoy working with students—both because helping early-career researchers can be deeply fulfilling, and because new students often bring new perspectives, stirring new discussions and helping to advance research in ways that established scholars might be less likely to do. Some of the proudest moments of my life have been in seeing students succeed.

When you first approach a mentor, it will help to keep these facts in mind. A good research mentorship requires a lot of work from both parties. The student’s goal, should be to make it as appealing as possible for the mentor.

The Inquiry

How to find an advisor

When you’re trying to get in to research you probably don’t know exactly what question to pursue—asking a well-stated question is a skill in and of itself. To help you to bridge that gap, and to help you catch up to the frontier of research, you will need a mentor. That person might be a professor, a professional, or a more advanced student.

There are a few things that are likely true about the people you are approaching:

  1. They know as much as anyone does about their work.
  1. They want you to succeed.
  1. They are busy.

Dale Carnegie has some advice you should bear in mind whenever you make a cold call:

Everyone has their own interests, incentives, and motives.

Keep that in mind when you’re writing your email—everyone, including the people you reach out to, thinks first of their own motives. You are in the lucky position of asking for mentoring—mentoring can be very fulfilling in its own right. Potential advisors are often willing to meet with you if they have time. If they cannot, they often suggest someone else who might be better able to accommodate you—frequently, one of their students.

How to read a paper

It will be difficult, but when you find an advisor that you’re really interested in, you should make a serious effort to read their work before you reach out. This has two major benefits: first, it gives you a sense of what it takes to do the research that they do, and second, it will help you prove that you know enough to be interested in their topic. It also shows that you really are interested.

You will probably be able to find a list of their recent works on their personal or laboratory website—and you can supplement those lists with a quick search on Google Scholar or a similar search engine. Look through the list and pull out two or three papers to read. My advice is to read the abstract, then the conclusion, then the introduction, before trying to read the paper front to back—most of the time, the fastest way to read a paper will be to move back and forth between sections. This is a skill you will develop in time.

I recommend that you do this for a few people before reaching out to anyone. This will give you a better sense of what research is like in your chosen field in general, helping you with question 2 from the introduction, and it will give you valuable experience reading papers. You should also know: most of the work involved in writing a paper isn’t even described in the paper itself—papers are often idealized, presenting the conclusion of a body of research work in an unrealistically linear fashion.

How to win over an advisor

If you aren’t sure what you’d like to work on, being redirected shouldn’t be much of an issue—but if you are set on a particular topic, it can be disheartening. To get the interest and attention of a particular advisor, you will need a strategic approach. One common tactic is to read some of their recent research and ask them questions about it. That can work well, but often falls flat. Remember that the person you’re talking to knows everything about the paper you’re asking about—they wrote it. They will be able to tell if you have made an effort to understand it, and would prefer well-stated basic questions to more complicated-sounding questions that demonstrate that you did not spend enough time to really understand the work.

Are you ready?

Before you approach a potential advisor, think about the following:

  1. Do you have time to commit right now? You should plan to commit 10-15 hours per week if you want to make serious progress.
  1. Do you understand your own interests well enough to be able to make that commitment? If you aren’t intrinsically motivated to pursue your subject, the experience may be difficult.
  1. Do you feel ready to spend that time working mainly for yourself? Research, by nature, doesn’t have set “curricula”. Your advisor will probably try to help you get started, but you will very quickly be placed in the position of having to evaluate recent research for yourself.

If you feel like you want to be ready, and you have the time, but you aren’t sure that you have the skills yet, I would encourage you to reach out. Many mentors would be happy to help you learn some of the basics, if you demonstrate a real commitment.

The approach

Keep the initial email short and precise. Make it easy to identify what you want and to respond positively. If you have questions from reading their work, you can ask one or two short ones here, but you should ask if they can answer your questions in a meeting—doing so will make it easier for them to respond to your message. Focus on work that you know (or are pretty sure) that they are currently doing. Often, their current projects haven’t been published, so it’s worth asking what projects they are working on now that are similar to those you’ve read about.

The email is going to involve making a request; you should do your best to convince them that they want to meet with you. They already know that you want to meet with them. Here is an example of an effective email:

Hello Professor Smith,

I am a first-year Master’s student at UMass Amherst and I am interested in getting some experience in research. After looking at a number of the faculty here, I found your research especially interesting. I tried reading your [Paper Y] but wasn’t sure how to interpret [section Z].

I would love to meet with you and refine my understanding. If you’re still doing research like that, I would like to explore the possibility of working in your lab next semester. I want to commit around 15 hours a week to see if research is for me.

Best,

John Raisbeck

Here is an example of an email that is less likely to be effective:

Hi Emily,

I am a student here and I want to try research. My friend told me that you are interested in Y. I’m interested in Y and I’m also really interested in Z. Can I join your lab?

Thanks,
John

Advisors know that students are usually looking for someone local, but it feels a lot better to receive an email from someone who wants to talk to you than it does to receive an email from someone who wants to talk to a professor.

Explain and show through the context of your email that it is in their interest to consider your offer. Be respectful of their time and make it easy for them to say “Yes”. Don’t over-sell yourself, but make it clear that you want to start a relationship that will benefit you both. You want to get across the following points:

  1. You understand enough right now that you will be easy to train, and
  1. you will work with them long and hard enough that it is worthwhile for them to invest in you.

P.S. If you’re interested in working directly with me, I have prepared an interest form with some additional questions. Feel free to email me as well, but please fill in the form.