University of Kent Department of Psychology Research Committee ...

University of Kent
Department of Psychology
Research Committee
Friday 23 rd May 2008
12:00pm in KS9
Minutes
Present:
Jacqueline Aldridge, Theresa Gannon, Roger Giner-Sorolla,
Gary Samson, Sofia Stathi, Mark van Vugt (Chair) Ulrich Weger
Jo Dunn (Minutes)
1. Apologies
Lynne Curran, James Cane, Diane Houston, Adam Rutland
2. Minutes of previous meeting held on 20 th March 2008
Agreed as a true record.
3. Matters arising
• Kent Academic Repository
CRB and CAS have been tasked to transfer Departmental records of staff publications to
KAR and the process is underway. It is hoped to have the transfer completed by the
end of June, by which time, all research outputs since 1965 will be centralised.
Further instructions will be sent to staff on how to amend and input new entries on the
system. Individuals will be responsible for maintaining their entries and keeping them
up to date. There is a typical web form that guides people through 6 stages for
depositing in the repository and the University will heavily rely on this as a resource for
annual auditing, etc. The onus will be on the Department and academics to keep the
data base up to date.
Working papers and those in press can also be entered but not grants. Conference
papers and presentations are not required.
• Lab space for FYP students
MvV spoke to DTW about this and has received an email from which will be forward to
JAD for the record. A query has arisen over whether not the ethics deadline has been
removed for FYP students. It was agreed that the on-line system negates the need for a
centralised deadline.
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Students should be encouraged to collect their data before Christmas. It was debated
whether or not it was feasible to collect data and submit ethics before submitting the
proposal. The proposal could form part of the ethics submission.
SP304 students are looking to complete their RPS requirement in the A-term and
supervisors should encourage their students to start collecting data before Christmas.
If students want to book lab space they have to make a case for the space used and GBS
was asked to check whether or not this was already on the booking form. This should
also be part of the ethics submission, as should any equipment required.
References to ethics deadlines in all publications and on the web should be removed.
ACTION: Web authors to remove all references to ethics deadlines on the web and in
departmental publications.
• RPS attendance
Psychology students appear to be just as bad as non-psychology students at not showing
up to participate in studies and this issue has been sent to the WP on student attendance
to discuss. Researchers would like something to be done about this for the next AY.
Penalties have been increased but cannot be enforced. Penalties can be applied
automatically by the RPS system if it is set to do so, but this could be a problem is the
student has a genuine emergency that prevents them for turning up. The system could
be set to default to a penalty if as the norm with the onus on the experimenter to amend
should the student show up. All researchers should be made aware of this and the
options they have for recording no-shows. They should also be reminded of the type of
culture the Department is trying to nurture, i.e. reward rather than punishment.
ACTION: RPS attendance issues to be discussed at the Attendance WP and any
solutions to be reported back to the next Research Committee.
ACTION: GBS to notify all researchers of the options at their disposal in the event of
a no-show participant.
4. ACTION POINTS:
ACTION WHO BY WHEN
MvV to discuss FYP with
DTW.
MvV Next Research Committee – 23rd May 08
Done
GBS to supply the URL of GBS Next Research Committee – 23rd May 08 –
the Kent Academic
Done – further developments since – see
Repository to staff and to
matters arising
investigate the inclusion of
grant application
information.
MvV to investigate the
possibility of holding a
hard copy of the RAE
submission for people to
MvV
Next Research Committee - 23rd May 08 Done
– a hard copy can be viewed in the
Departmental Administrator’s office
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inspect.
UW to liaise with DA on
the Research
Apprenticeship scheme.
MvV to find out how other
universities and other
departments at Kent deal
with the issue of RPS
credits for postdoctoral
staff and report this issue
to the next Departmental
Meeting.
GBS to email results of RPS
attendance analysis to
researchers, MvV and RS
GBS to put checklist on
web and pass the URL to
MvV for circulation.
GBS to email all students
and staff with the clause
concerning all-day lab
bookings.
JAD to prepare more
SILENCE notices for the 1 st
and 2 nd floor labs.
MvV to speak to GTV
about revisions to the
ethics procedure.
UW Next Research Committee In place from next
year onward. Will be on Departmental website
MvV Next Departmental Meeting – 15 th May 08
Dept meeting decided not to go down this
road. If the postdoc is working for someone
else, that person will have to sign off the study.
Supervisors should be reminded that postdocs
have a statutory 6 hours for their own studies.
This item is now closed.
GBS Next Research Committee – 23rd May 08 –
Done and circulated to committee
GBS
GBS
JAD
Next Research Committee – 23rd May 08 Done
Next Research Committee – 23rd May 08 Done
Next Research Committee – 23rd May 08 Done
MvV Next Research Committee – 23rd May 08
MvV emailed GTV about this- it will be pursued
once GTV returns from paternity leave.
5. Chair’s communications
None
6. Casual Research Assistance
JA spoke to her tabled paper which comprises a list of different tasks that could
be undertaken by a RA together with the grade the tasks attract. This is designed
to help with deciding which rate of pay is most suitable for casual research
assistance. JA was asked to send an electronic version of this to be circulated
with the minutes of this meeting and to be put on the web. The list has been
endorsed by the Research Committee and the check list will become a research
tool for the Research Office as part of the Irregular Worker contract that is signed
by the casual employee.
ACTION: JA to send JAD an electronic version of her casual RA task list.
The Research Office can help with deciding how to grade an individual and
people can be paid by a mixture of tariffs. JA would welcome advice as to
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whether or not these tasks are the typical tasks for a Psychology RA. If anyone
has any suggestions they should send these directly to JA (j.aldridge@kent.ac.uk).
R.G-S will go through this with JA.
ACTION: Staff to email suggestions to JA regarding tasks on the casual RA task
list.
ACTION: R.G-S to go through the list with JA
7. Research support for junior staff
MvV reported on this issue. The Department should move towards a more
structured system of giving research support to junior members of staff. They
should be made aware of the facilities offered, their teaching load, PhD
supervisions. It should be explained that the best research students are allocated
studentships.
UW reported that start-up funds are normally an issue of negotiation when a new
member of staff commences employment with the Department. He also stated
that new members of staff are mentored by someone from UELT while they
undergo their PGCHE training. He though that there may be opportunities for
co-supervision using one of the funded studentships.
Junior staff could be paired up with a more senior member of staff. Officially,
every new member of staff is provided with a mentor and this arrangement could
be enforced so that new staff members know who to approach for help with e.g.
research grant applications. It was acknowledged that this could back-fire as staff
may feel obliged to report back on a regular basis, but they should be
encouraged to see advice from the most appropriate person.
New members of staff should be given clear guidelines on what is expected of
them and what they need to achieve. This could be done by working within the
existing appaiser/appraisee framework. The whole issue needs to be discussed
at a Professorial meeting as it is an important issue and senior staff members
should be helping more junior members of staff. Discussions will continue and
any suggestions should be passed to MvV
ACTION: Suggestions on staff mentoring to be passed to MvV for discussionat
the next professorial meeting
8. AOB
None
ACTION POINTS:
ACTION WHO BY WHEN
Web authors to remove
all references to ethics
deadlines on the web and
in departmental
web
authors
By the beginning of next AY
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publications.
RPS attendance issues to
be discussed at the
Attendance WP and any
solutions to be reported
back to the next Research
Committee.
GBS to notify all
researchers of the options
at their disposal in the
event of a no-show RPS
participant.
JA to send JAD an
electronic version of her
casual RA task list.
Staff to email suggestions
to JA regarding tasks on
the casual RA task list.
R.G-S to go through the
list of casual RA tasks
with JA
Suggestions on staff
mentoring to be passed to
MvV for discussion at the
next professorial meeting
Attendance
Working
Party
GBS
JA
all
academic
staff
R.G-S
all
academic
staff
Next Research Committee
asap
asap
asap
asap
asap
JAD, July 2008
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