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Tips for working with research assistants?

In our new “how can we help you?” thread, a reader writes:

I’m fortunate to have started a job recently that provides a generous research start-up fund that I can use for various purposes, including research assistance. However, I’ve never worked with RAs before, nor do I understand how they might be able to help me advance my program of research. I work in applied ethics, and it’s not clear to me what (if any) parts of the research and/or writing process I could delegate to RAs in ways that would be advantageous. One idea I had was to hire an RA to do some empirical research associated with a philosophical project I’m working on, but other than that I’m not really sure. What are some good strategies for working with RAs to do philosophical research? What are some potential pitfalls or things to avoid?

Does anyone have helpful tips or insights to share?

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6 responses to “Tips for working with research assistants?”

  1. Anonymous

    sorry for distracting from the actual questions but: if OP doesn’t even know how RA can help, is hiring RA even a good thing to consider? Even if you have a generous fund, it can be spent over many years on international conferences, regular trips, writing/workshop retreats, research meeting meals, buying books&electronics, teaching related stuff, and even supporting gradstudents’ conference travel when department funding is not enough . Just my cents. Of course, I am happy to hear if other commentators explain how RAs can be super helpful.

    Reply
  2. Anonymous

    A lot depends on the kind of student you can hire – is this an advanced PhD student whose dissertation you’re supervising, or an undergraduate?

    When I was a graduate student I had the fortune to work for my supervisor as an RA on a number of occasions. Here are some of the things I did:

    1. Track down books, articles and references for whatever research he was working on. Maybe in this day and age, there isn’t much need to do delegate this, since most stuff is on line, etc.
    2. Do an index for a book he was completing.
    3. Give him feedback on book and article manuscripts.
    4. Co-author papers with him.
    5. Help him organize a conference.

    Sometimes the workload was light – especially when he knew I was trying to finish my dissertation. So in this case it was more like a “fellowship” for the graduate student.

    Reply
  3. Bill

    I have on a few occasions tried to use undergrad RAs, and even students who I rated highly were of no use to me (consistent with OP’s intuition). I couldn’t trust their judgement and thoroughness in putting together a lit review, for example. If you find talking about philosophy a way you make progress with your thinking (I don’t, really), then I guess a captive audience is useful. If you have a manuscript that needs editing, perhaps a student who is a very good writer could be helpful. Unless you have access to a pool of already-trained empirical researchers, that sounds like more trouble than it is worth, too. Whichever way you work with RAs, (a) don’t steal their ideas without credit (of course) and (b) be VERY clear up front about how their work will be credited (are they going to be listed as co-authors?).

    Overall, I think RAs are a much better fit in the sciences than in the humanities.

    Reply
  4. Assistant Prof

    Echoing others, though I’ve used RAs in the past and it’s worked well for me, I really want to make sure we don’t get distracted by the focus on RAs here.

    If the fund is in the reasonable range (anything less than e.g. $20k/year should be easy to burn through) you’ll probably do best by spending on common big-ticket items: organizing conferences, attending conferences, buying a nice computer, furnishing your office (if allowable), open access fees (very expensive for books, but worth it if you can), professional services (e.g. hire an editor to look at your papers), software (if nothing else, just upgrading the tier of LLM subscription you already have), paying research participants if you do empirical work, etc. You can also just travel in ways that make your life more livable, e.g by booking flights at more convenient times, staying at better hotels, paying for wifi or lounges or coworking spots if you need to work, even upgrading to premium economy if allowable.

    Reply
  5. Anonymous

    I have also worked with (hired) undergraduate assistants. First, as Bill notes, do not overestimate their abilities. Expect to have to check their work. So they cannot be expected to manage tasks on their own. (This is obvious, given that most undergraduates have not been taught such things). Second, they can be useful. I was doing some empirical work, and I set my assistant to scan the literature for relevant studies done in the past. Of course he found some studies. But the biggest pay off was that he accidentally found something that was relevant and useful. He did not see it, but he brought it to my attention. It was a body of data that I could use to test a hypothesis. I believe the assistant did develop intellectually and as a researcher. So it was a good experience. And he did save me some time. But you have to work with the student, and given them feedback. They need to know when they have made a mistake or misunderstand something. And they need to know when they have found something quite valuable.

    Some caution is needed. When you select a student for a such a job, they can get the idea that they are more developed or advanced than they are. You need to frame it in a way that makes it clear that this is an opportunity, and they will develop skills that will put them ahead of tehir peers.

    Students appreciate such things because they can earn decent money working on the campus, so they do not have to commute for a part-time job.

    Reply
  6. Anonymous

    I was an RA for a philosophy professor as an undergrad. (I, myself, am now a philosophy professor.) It was a pivotal experience for me, both in clarifying my vocational aspirations and in developing my writing, research, and otherwise philosophical capacities. I read a lot of primary literature (for the prof’s work in history of philosophy—early modern and ancient), flagging passages I thought were germane to the project. I also conducted a lot of secondary literature review, writing an annotated bibliography as I worked. I proofread the prof’s own writing. And eventually we did co-author a paper together, for which I wrote a lot. I realize that my ability was probably far greater than average and that most undergrads are not to be expected of this kind of work, but my sense is that if you are willing to mentor and teach a highly capable undergrad, they may be useful in these areas. For what it’s worth, this was at a mid-tier SLAC. I also later co-authored with undergrads at an Ivy, and they were highly capable of literature review and, in the case of the project, data cleaning.

    Reply

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