A Practical Guide to Working With Undergraduate Research Assistants

Melusky, Benjamin

doi:10.4135/9781526477576

Cited by 2 publications

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“…Learning good management practices can help faculty prepare to be mentors and enhance the student's research experience. However, faculty are rarely trained in these skills (Melusky, 2019). A guide from Northwestern advises faculty to focus on selecting a project that helps the student's career, provide an overview of the goals at the beginning of the project and update them quarterly, meet with the student regularly, scale the contribution to the student's constraints, and finally set expectations on co-authorship at the beginning (Northwestern, 2019).…”

Section: For the Professormentioning

confidence: 99%

A Guide for Student-led Undergraduate Research in Empirical Micro-Economics

Gitter

2021

jeconteach

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This guide provides advice on doing a student-led undergraduate research project in empirical economics to both students and faculty members. For students, research projects are good preparation for graduate school or data-intensive jobs. For faculty, mentorship can be a fulfilling experience, and an undergraduate research project can lead to a publication. The guide follows the steps of an empirical economics research project, including preparation before the project, matching a student and professor, writing the paper, presenting, defending a thesis, the publication process, and finally how to reap the benefits of the work. The guide also includes specific advice for doing work with data typical of applied microeconomics. I would like to thank participants at the Conference on Teaching and Research in Economics Education and RobertGitter for comments on an earlier draft, as well as Jennifer Golden for copyediting help. I would also like to thank my research students, particularly Savannah Wilhelm, Lauren Cahalan, Allie Wesley, Ally Rakus, and Kierstin Ekstrom, as well as Erin Fletcher and Nzinga Broussard, who helped mentor them. I also thank two anonymous reviewers and the editor for very helpful comments. All errors remain my own.

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Section: For the Professormentioning

confidence: 99%

A Guide for Student-led Undergraduate Research in Empirical Micro-Economics

Gitter

2021

jeconteach

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“…There are multiple modes of involving undergraduates in political science research, including by integrating research in undergraduate courses (Bowman and Jennings 2005;Druckman 2015;Huerta 2015;Kelly 2021;Knoll 2016;Rosenthal 1999) and hiring them as research assistants (RAs) (Melusky 2019). Dotterer (2002) found that undergraduate research flourishes when it embraces the collaborative investigative model, which involves collaboration between a mentor and students.…”

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confidence: 99%

Undergraduates and Political Science Research: Insights from Research Assistants in a Minority-Serving Institution Lab

Velásquez

Esmail²,

Stoltz³

et al. 2023

APSC

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This study examines undergraduate research experiences at a minority-serving institution (MSI) in a political science laboratory. Students contributed to projects in a collaborative research lab at the University of California Riverside that involves undergraduate and graduate students in projects related to health and politics. Adopting a participatory approach to research, the study’s research participants also are coauthors who co-created the research protocols; collected the data; transcribed, coded, and analyzed the data; and wrote up the findings. Our analysis of 12 in-depth interviews with current and former undergraduate research assistants (RAs) found that their work in the lab challenged their perceptions of what research is and what it means to do research; shaped their path to pursue graduate studies; developed their social and professional skills; and offered an inclusive and humanizing experience with graduate students and faculty members. Challenges that the RAs mentioned included time management, bureaucratic accounting and payroll procedures, and feelings of self-doubt; the lab’s culture of inclusion and independence mitigated some of these challenges. Our findings align with the scholarly literature that suggests collaborative research opportunities can have beneficial outcomes, particularly for students from groups that are underrepresented in doctoral programs.

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A Practical Guide to Working With Undergraduate Research Assistants

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

A Guide for Student-led Undergraduate Research in Empirical Micro-Economics

A Guide for Student-led Undergraduate Research in Empirical Micro-Economics

Undergraduates and Political Science Research: Insights from Research Assistants in a Minority-Serving Institution Lab

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