Weekly Schedule

Online discussion at Piazza

The following is a tentative schedule. Against each weekly topic is a list of competencies matching the NSF/NIH Responsible Conduct in Research (RCR) requirements. All students supported on an NSF or NIH grant must satisfy the RCR requirement. The aim is for this course to meet this requirement.

Week	Topic	RCR Comp.*	Discussion Leaders	Assignments
Week 1	Introduction: On being a graduate student in computer science	[1–8]	Instructors
Week 2	Choosing and managing a relationship with your advisor	[1], [5]		Personal academic website due (checked in-class)
Week 3	Identifying and reading research papers	[1]
Week 4	Reviewing research papers	[1], [4], [8]
Week 5	Writing research papers, and being an effective writer	[1–8]
Week 6	Presenting research work: how to be a good communicator	[1–3], [6–7]		Submit your selection for which paper to review + brief justification
Week 7	Tools of the Trade: resources to help prepare papers and conduct research	[2]
Week 8	Experimental design and data analysis	[2], [6–7]		Assignment 2A: Submit review (deadline: TBA, 11:59), (then, 2 reviews assigned to each for peer-evaluation)
Week 9	Academic conduct: truth in reporting and conflict of interest	[1], [6–7]		Assignment 2B: Submit peer evaluation of reviews (deadline: TBA, 11:59pm)
Week 10	Whose idea is it? Acknowledging and building on other work, or just plain plagiarism?	[1], [5–8]		Assignment 3A: Submit title and abstract (deadline: TBA, 10:00am)
Week 11	Finding resources: BU library facilities, online materials, and the greater research community	[2]
Week 12	Life after your PhD: Finding a job, academic careers versus industry and research labs	[1], [6]		Assignment 3B: Submit your technical papers (deadline: TBA 11:59pm)
Week 13	Time management as a PhD student	[1–8]
***	RCR CASE STUDIES: Research misconduct and mentorship — roles and responsibilities in reporting allegations of research misconduct (whistle blowing) See: p. 20 of ORI Introduction to Responsible Conduct of Research (Updated Edition August 2007) Authorship credit See: p. 36 of On Being a Scientist (3rd edition, 2009) — “Who Gets Credit”

Previous Instances of CS697

Material from prior instances can be edited and re-used with due credit attributed.

RCR Competency Key

[1] Mentor/Trainee Responsibilities
[2] Data acquisition, Management, Sharing and Ownership
[3] Publication Practices and Responsible Authorship
[4] Peer Review
[5] Collaborative Science
[6] Research Ethics and the Role of the Scientist
[7] Research Misconduct
[8] Conflict of Interest and Conflict of Commitment

Additional Information

The course requires 14 weeks of classroom discussions. All students are required to be in attendance. Your grade will be based on your participation.

Each of the 14 weeks is broken down into the following:

One meeting per week for class discussion.
Reading and preparation of discussion materials in advance of classroom meeting times.
Continued work on three assignments outside the classroom, with monitored interaction between each student, the course instructors, and other CS faculty acting as designated research/academic advisors.

Students are required to be in regular discussion with the course instructors about progress on a technical paper for a chosen research topic. Similarly, students are required to meet with the course instructors ahead of each class to prepare discussion notes (e.g., PowerPoint slides or equivalent materials, group questions, and classroom activities).

Discussion notes must meet the approval of the instructors before the class meets to discuss the chosen topic. As class sizes can vary, teams of students are assigned to tackle each of the 14 week topics, with emphasis placed on RCR competencies.

Aside from the classroom meetings, we expect students to commit to at least 2 hours of effort each week, in combination with meeting the course instructors, other CS faculty, and working on their required assignments.

RCR Case Studies: We might combine the listed topics into appropriate discussion weeks, described above. Depending on the duration of discussion, we may choose to expand Weeks 9 and 10 ("Academic conduct" and "Whose idea is it?"). Everyone is required to participate in the case study discussions.

Finally, as part of your RCR requirements, every student must complete the Advanced RCR Online Introduction. You can take this online introduction before starting CS697. Upon completion of both the online preparation and the Graduate Initiation Seminar, you will be eligible for a Certificate of Completion from the Office of Research Compliance. Please see the attached welcome message for more details.