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Forum: Please somebody help in resolving this issue

Hello biostars

First of all I admit that my question maybe is irrelevant to you but as must of you doing data analysis you could help me

I joined a lab as a data analyst; in days 2th I was given a targeted transcriptome set to play with. Experiment had been designed by senior postdoc and data collected by lab technician. We have a newly joined clinician in our lab as her training part. After a week I prepared the results but as I was (I am) shy and not confident in English presentation, I then asked this clinician trainee to present my slides in lab meeting. I should mentioned that she has prepared the clinical information for patients in our experiment from hospital database. However 100 percent of analysis has been done by only me. So first stupidly I was happy that I did not have to do a talk in lab meeting. But a bit later I woke up from a winter sleep and I saw she was presenting my results in different conferences and her name is the first name in posters or published abstracts. Even my boss always says X's data or project leading by X (X I mean she).

I really got hurt and disappointed to be too simple to trust her. It is too unfair especially when I see her speaking like a professional on my data while when she joined the lab she was not able to read a table in R and I thought her

Now she is going to talk on my data even without letting me know unless I am being aware if she is practicing her talks in causal lab meetings

Now my question is; should I complain to my boss? Is this normal in research environment? How I can calm my mind down because I'm too sad and even feeling sick by seeing her pretending data owner while my boss completely confirm her

Help please

analysis
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updated by Ram Ram • written by jivarajivaraj • jivarajivaraj

You probably still have the code for generating the data?

Please change your title to something more descriptive about this question.

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written by WouterDeCoster WouterDeCoster

1 answer

I have heard that most disputes in research derive from issues pertaining to authorship, and I believe most of us who have been in academia / research for a few years will have encountered at least 1 such dispute (or been directly involved in one). This is why it is important to ensure that each person involved in a project understands their respective role, and that authorship is decided from the start. Granted, doing this requires an organised supervisor ('boss'), but not all are organised like this, and neither may have the foresight to predict such disputes. Balancing the needs of every group member can be very difficult, though. I note that disputes (generally) appear more commonly in larger groups as opposed to smaller ones.

In your situation, are you sure that the 2 events are directly related? - i.e., by asking the Clinician to present your work, you then lost first author position, and also lost the 'lead' role on this project? If this logic is correct, then, at least, your boss and the Clinician had originally decided that you would be lead, but, in the act of delegating the role of presenter to your Clinician colleague, the interpretation to them may have been that you were / are content to take a 'secondary' role on the project.

There are a lot of unknowns to your situation. As a result of this, I do not believe anybody here can say that it is a good idea to "complain" to your boss. You could, on the other hand, ask for some clarification, and / or state that you would now like to take a lead role on the project. At the very least, you could request joint 1st authorship.

As I have battled shyness my entire life and career, I do have sympathy to your situation. I have also, on the other hand, worked all over the World in 40 - 50 different labs / groups / companies. One recurring theme is that the majority of supervisors will naturally assume that, as an analyst / bioinformatician, you will not necessarily be interested in publishing or progressing from your current role [as analyst]. So, you could also relate your career ambitions to your boss, if you wish.

Kevin

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written by Kevin Blighe Kevin Blighe

Do not you think that he should clearly explain the situation to his boss (no complaint here) to avoid such a situation/misunderstanding in the future ?!

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written by Medhat Medhat

Yes, as I stated already:

You could, on the other hand, ask for some clarification, and / or state that you would now like to take a lead role on the project. At the very least, you could request joint 1st authorship.

.

So, you could also relate your career ambitions to your boss, if you wish.

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written by Kevin Blighe Kevin Blighe

My bad I missed it :)

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written by Medhat Medhat

Thank you

Do you think adkung any clarification from supervisor would have negative impact on my future career in any term like extending the contract or getting a recommendation letter? If so I must sacrifice my bad filling inside to save something in future

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written by jivarajivaraj • jivarajivaraj

You know your supervisor best. You could explain the situation and your feelings about it as keeping them bottled may lead to an unnecessary confrontation.

You should make sure this does not happen with your future work. It is probably too late to do anything about this incident but you should insist on getting your fair share of the credit going forward. A fair supervisor must respect that for all those who report to them.

Public speaking does not come easy and the only way to get over the fear is to practice as much as you can. If you don't start doing this now you will always find yourself relegated to a background role. There are organizations that help with this (toastmasters). Find a local chapter and attend.

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written by GenoMax GenoMax

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