Expectations for Graduate Students
Graduate Student Expectations and Professional Development
These SPEC Lab expectations complement the formal requirements of each student’s degree program, supervisory committee, assistantship, and the UF Graduate School. When requirements differ, official university and degree-program policies take precedence.
(A) Progress Reviews and Individual Development Plans
Graduate students will complete a brief self-assessment of their progress each semester and discuss it with their advisor during a semester review meeting. Students should come prepared to explain their assessments, recognize accomplishments, identify areas requiring improvement, and develop specific strategies, resources, and timelines for addressing them.
The assessment will consider professional and respectful communication with members of the lab, academic units, university, collaborators, research partners, and the public. Students should represent the SPEC Lab responsibly on campus and in national and international settings.
The assessment will also consider progress toward high-quality, ethical, and reproducible research; advancement of the thesis or dissertation; research productivity; responsible data management; completion of required training; and contributions to productive collaborations within and beyond the lab. Students should also evaluate their efforts to identify appropriate research grants, scholarships, fellowships, and fieldwork support.
Students are responsible for maintaining satisfactory academic and professional standing, including meeting coursework, GPA, teaching or research-assistantship, committee, training, and degree-program requirements.
UF requires PhD students to complete and discuss an Individual Development Plan annually. Master’s students are also encouraged to use the IDP for research planning and professional development. UF’s current IDP templates and instructions are available here:
https://grad.ufl.edu/gss/idp/
(B) Publications and Research Products
SPEC Lab students are expected to develop and submit approximately 1–2 peer-reviewed manuscripts from an MS degree and 3–4 peer-reviewed manuscripts from a PhD degree. These manuscripts will normally address thesis or dissertation research, although related work that develops important methods, datasets, or analytical skills may also be appropriate. Students will work closely with their advisor, committee members, and collaborators to develop research questions, conduct analyses, interpret results, and prepare manuscripts for internationally recognized peer-reviewed journals.
Research ideas and objectives should normally begin taking shape during the first semester and be refined throughout the degree. Authorship and author order will reflect substantive intellectual and research contributions and should be discussed as projects develop. Advisors and collaborators will provide guidance and feedback, but students are responsible for maintaining progress and responding constructively to reviews. Publication acceptance cannot be guaranteed because final decisions are made by journal editors and reviewers.
Side projects and external collaborations are welcome when they support the student’s professional development, but they should not interfere with agreed SPEC Lab, assistantship, thesis or dissertation, and degree-program commitments.
(C) Advising and Communication
Graduate students will meet individually with their advisor at least twice each semester. More frequent meetings may be arranged during periods of research design, fieldwork, data analysis, manuscript preparation, proposal development, or degree completion. Committee members may also be included when appropriate.
Before each scheduled progress meeting, students should email a concise update describing progress toward previously established goals, current products or results, challenges requiring discussion, and proposed next steps. Meetings provide opportunities to review degree progress, develop research ideas, evaluate study design and analyses, discuss manuscripts, identify funding opportunities, and establish clear goals.
Email is encouraged for focused questions and routine updates. Questions requiring extended discussion, major research decisions, or detailed document review may be addressed more effectively in a scheduled meeting.
(D) Research and Fellowship Funding
Graduate students are expected to actively identify and pursue appropriate research grants, fieldwork support, scholarships, travel awards, and—when eligible—external fellowships. Applications should be developed in coordination with the advisor and relevant committee members and submitted early enough to meet sponsor, academic-unit, and UF review requirements.
Students should not assume that summer salary, fieldwork, conference travel, equipment, or other research expenses will automatically be available. Funding plans should be discussed with the advisor before commitments or expenditures are made.
(E) Conferences and Professional Presentations
Graduate students are expected to present their research, when appropriate, at local, regional, national, and international conferences, workshops, seminars, and other professional venues. Presentations may include posters, talks, demonstrations, data products, or other forms of scientific communication.
Students should provide abstracts, posters, presentations, and related materials to their advisor and relevant collaborators with sufficient time for review before submission or public presentation. Final materials should accurately represent the research, include appropriate authors and acknowledgments, identify major contributors and funding sources, and use UF and SPEC Lab names or logos where appropriate and permitted.
Conference participation and travel funding must be discussed in advance. Approval to submit an abstract does not necessarily guarantee that travel expenses will be available.
These SPEC Lab expectations complement the formal requirements of each student’s degree program, supervisory committee, assistantship, and the UF Graduate School. When requirements differ, official university and degree-program policies take precedence.
(A) Progress Reviews and Individual Development Plans
Graduate students will complete a brief self-assessment of their progress each semester and discuss it with their advisor during a semester review meeting. Students should come prepared to explain their assessments, recognize accomplishments, identify areas requiring improvement, and develop specific strategies, resources, and timelines for addressing them.
The assessment will consider professional and respectful communication with members of the lab, academic units, university, collaborators, research partners, and the public. Students should represent the SPEC Lab responsibly on campus and in national and international settings.
The assessment will also consider progress toward high-quality, ethical, and reproducible research; advancement of the thesis or dissertation; research productivity; responsible data management; completion of required training; and contributions to productive collaborations within and beyond the lab. Students should also evaluate their efforts to identify appropriate research grants, scholarships, fellowships, and fieldwork support.
Students are responsible for maintaining satisfactory academic and professional standing, including meeting coursework, GPA, teaching or research-assistantship, committee, training, and degree-program requirements.
UF requires PhD students to complete and discuss an Individual Development Plan annually. Master’s students are also encouraged to use the IDP for research planning and professional development. UF’s current IDP templates and instructions are available here:
https://grad.ufl.edu/gss/idp/
(B) Publications and Research Products
SPEC Lab students are expected to develop and submit approximately 1–2 peer-reviewed manuscripts from an MS degree and 3–4 peer-reviewed manuscripts from a PhD degree. These manuscripts will normally address thesis or dissertation research, although related work that develops important methods, datasets, or analytical skills may also be appropriate. Students will work closely with their advisor, committee members, and collaborators to develop research questions, conduct analyses, interpret results, and prepare manuscripts for internationally recognized peer-reviewed journals.
Research ideas and objectives should normally begin taking shape during the first semester and be refined throughout the degree. Authorship and author order will reflect substantive intellectual and research contributions and should be discussed as projects develop. Advisors and collaborators will provide guidance and feedback, but students are responsible for maintaining progress and responding constructively to reviews. Publication acceptance cannot be guaranteed because final decisions are made by journal editors and reviewers.
Side projects and external collaborations are welcome when they support the student’s professional development, but they should not interfere with agreed SPEC Lab, assistantship, thesis or dissertation, and degree-program commitments.
(C) Advising and Communication
Graduate students will meet individually with their advisor at least twice each semester. More frequent meetings may be arranged during periods of research design, fieldwork, data analysis, manuscript preparation, proposal development, or degree completion. Committee members may also be included when appropriate.
Before each scheduled progress meeting, students should email a concise update describing progress toward previously established goals, current products or results, challenges requiring discussion, and proposed next steps. Meetings provide opportunities to review degree progress, develop research ideas, evaluate study design and analyses, discuss manuscripts, identify funding opportunities, and establish clear goals.
Email is encouraged for focused questions and routine updates. Questions requiring extended discussion, major research decisions, or detailed document review may be addressed more effectively in a scheduled meeting.
(D) Research and Fellowship Funding
Graduate students are expected to actively identify and pursue appropriate research grants, fieldwork support, scholarships, travel awards, and—when eligible—external fellowships. Applications should be developed in coordination with the advisor and relevant committee members and submitted early enough to meet sponsor, academic-unit, and UF review requirements.
Students should not assume that summer salary, fieldwork, conference travel, equipment, or other research expenses will automatically be available. Funding plans should be discussed with the advisor before commitments or expenditures are made.
(E) Conferences and Professional Presentations
Graduate students are expected to present their research, when appropriate, at local, regional, national, and international conferences, workshops, seminars, and other professional venues. Presentations may include posters, talks, demonstrations, data products, or other forms of scientific communication.
Students should provide abstracts, posters, presentations, and related materials to their advisor and relevant collaborators with sufficient time for review before submission or public presentation. Final materials should accurately represent the research, include appropriate authors and acknowledgments, identify major contributors and funding sources, and use UF and SPEC Lab names or logos where appropriate and permitted.
Conference participation and travel funding must be discussed in advance. Approval to submit an abstract does not necessarily guarantee that travel expenses will be available.
Thesis Proposal for Defense
The components and structure of a good proposal are as follows. The overall length is expected to be around 8-10+ pages, with the focus being on the content not on the length. Relevant figures and tables throughout the document are most useful for quickly conveying complex ideas or the overall structure of your approach, please work to develop and include these.
1. Title - clear and descriptive in a concise manner. Identify the topic and location.
2. Abstract - a one paragraph summary which includes all important components from the proposal.
3. Introduction / literature review - a short overview of the relevance and importance of the project quickly moving from international to site specific.
4. Your research objectives and questions - preference is for hypothesis driven research using the scientific method.
5. Methods section, including:
6. Study area - provide a map, even if just from Google Earth.
7. How you will collect data and how it will be analyzed statistically to address your research objectives and questions and hypotheses! Divide this up by section, i.e., (a) forest inventory analyses, (b) wildlife biodiversity monitoring, (c) remote sensing, and (d) spatial statistical integration.
8. Anticipated results
9. Other relevant activities and their significance - such as training local schoolchildren in animal identification, etc...
10. References cited - use a standard format and cite within the text of the proposal.
In general, it is expected that you will have at least two rounds of revision with your advisor prior to sending to the committee. You should plan to send the proposal to your committee at least 1 week, better 2, before your defense. Also, request your committee members to please provide comments prior to the defense if possible which you can incorporate beforehand - thus making the defense a much smoother process for all.
Overview of proposal expectations from another department: http://www.geol.umd.edu/graduate/proposalguidelines.php
Quick overview of the scientific method, I'm sure there are better sources out there! http://undsci.berkeley.edu/article/scienceflowchart
1. Title - clear and descriptive in a concise manner. Identify the topic and location.
2. Abstract - a one paragraph summary which includes all important components from the proposal.
3. Introduction / literature review - a short overview of the relevance and importance of the project quickly moving from international to site specific.
4. Your research objectives and questions - preference is for hypothesis driven research using the scientific method.
5. Methods section, including:
6. Study area - provide a map, even if just from Google Earth.
7. How you will collect data and how it will be analyzed statistically to address your research objectives and questions and hypotheses! Divide this up by section, i.e., (a) forest inventory analyses, (b) wildlife biodiversity monitoring, (c) remote sensing, and (d) spatial statistical integration.
8. Anticipated results
9. Other relevant activities and their significance - such as training local schoolchildren in animal identification, etc...
10. References cited - use a standard format and cite within the text of the proposal.
In general, it is expected that you will have at least two rounds of revision with your advisor prior to sending to the committee. You should plan to send the proposal to your committee at least 1 week, better 2, before your defense. Also, request your committee members to please provide comments prior to the defense if possible which you can incorporate beforehand - thus making the defense a much smoother process for all.
Overview of proposal expectations from another department: http://www.geol.umd.edu/graduate/proposalguidelines.php
Quick overview of the scientific method, I'm sure there are better sources out there! http://undsci.berkeley.edu/article/scienceflowchart
Qualifying Exams
PhD qualifying exams are an important phase, which according to the graduate manual (see below). The manual states that "The Qualifying Exam consists of two parts, the written examination and the oral examination. The exam is intended to evaluate your understanding of the major and minor areas of study and your capability for carrying out the proposed research. Therefore, prior to the Qualifying Examination, you should have completed all basic coursework and circulated a draft of your research proposal to all members of your Supervisory Committee. The Qualifying Examination is usually completed in the fourth semester of the program, and must be completed no less than two semesters prior to the date the degree is awarded. " (from the FRC handbook referenced below).
The SPEC Lab employs a standard and globally accepted qualifying exam format consisting of:
(a) written answers by the student to 1-3 questions addressed by each committee member on a predefined theme over a 4-8 hour session. If there are more than 3 committee members, than 4 hours are provided for each committee member's questions. The exact format of each session is up to each committee member, and may be either open or closed book. The questions are provided to the student immediately prior to each session. Typically, the student will work with each committee member to identify their theme, which will best assist the student in understanding required methods and theory related to their dissertation research. Within this theme, each committee member develops their questions and shares with the adviser, who then shares them immediately prior to each session.
(b) an oral defense of the written responses which typically takes 2-4 hours and which starts with a 20-30 minutes presentation overview by the student on their responses.
The qualifying exam represents a unique component of the PhD and which differs in critical ways from other activities, such as the proposal development and defense, literature reviews of key themes for your research, and other standard required dissertation writing tasks. However, the conceptual advancement and writing that occurs during the qualifying exam significantly assists the student in developing their research proposal theoretically and methodologically. The written content then directly assists students in writing their dissertation and related papers.
In passing your oral and written qualifying exams, you change in title from PhD student to PhD candidate.
The SPEC Lab employs a standard and globally accepted qualifying exam format consisting of:
(a) written answers by the student to 1-3 questions addressed by each committee member on a predefined theme over a 4-8 hour session. If there are more than 3 committee members, than 4 hours are provided for each committee member's questions. The exact format of each session is up to each committee member, and may be either open or closed book. The questions are provided to the student immediately prior to each session. Typically, the student will work with each committee member to identify their theme, which will best assist the student in understanding required methods and theory related to their dissertation research. Within this theme, each committee member develops their questions and shares with the adviser, who then shares them immediately prior to each session.
(b) an oral defense of the written responses which typically takes 2-4 hours and which starts with a 20-30 minutes presentation overview by the student on their responses.
The qualifying exam represents a unique component of the PhD and which differs in critical ways from other activities, such as the proposal development and defense, literature reviews of key themes for your research, and other standard required dissertation writing tasks. However, the conceptual advancement and writing that occurs during the qualifying exam significantly assists the student in developing their research proposal theoretically and methodologically. The written content then directly assists students in writing their dissertation and related papers.
In passing your oral and written qualifying exams, you change in title from PhD student to PhD candidate.
Final Dissertation Exam
"The Final Examination is required of all students and is primarily a defense of your dissertation, thesis, project, and/or coursework, and your comprehension of any topics related to any portions of the major and minor fields may be explored by the Supervisory Committee. Final Exams must be announced two weeks in advance, and all forms associated with the Final Exam must be signed and submitted to the Academic Coordinator at least 48 hours prior to the deadline for the semester in which the examination is taken." (from the FRC handbook referenced below).
A typical final exam in the SPEC Lab takes 2-3 hours and consists of a 30 minute presentation by the student on their PhD research, including standard introduction, questions / hypotheses, results, and discussion / conclusion slides. Followed by 1-2 hours of questions and answers, using multiple formats (including white-boards, etc... as is useful).
In passing your final dissertation exam, and the associated dissertation, submission, logistics, and graduation, then you change in title from PhD candidate to PhD!!
A typical final exam in the SPEC Lab takes 2-3 hours and consists of a 30 minute presentation by the student on their PhD research, including standard introduction, questions / hypotheses, results, and discussion / conclusion slides. Followed by 1-2 hours of questions and answers, using multiple formats (including white-boards, etc... as is useful).
In passing your final dissertation exam, and the associated dissertation, submission, logistics, and graduation, then you change in title from PhD candidate to PhD!!
Research Assistantships
“You may receive a graduate assistantship as part of your offer to join the SFRC Program. Your Letter of Appointment is a contract between you, your advisor, and the SFRC, and details the duties, work hours, registration requirements, duration, and compensatory rate of your appointment. “ (FRC handbook 2019). RA duties will be assigned by your advisor, in discussion with each RA, and will be a balance between accomplishing research tasks needed for various ongoing or new SPEC Lab projects, and ones which specifically support or may be included in each student’s graduate work. The goal is to identify and assign duties which will assist students with gaining key methodological or conceptual skills, or advancing actual analyses and manuscripts. While duties will vary by student, it is expected that students will keep careful track of the time they invest into their RA tasks and that this will align with the contract discussed above. In some cases, if RA tasks are specifically designed to align with the graduate thesis objectives, then additional non RA time will likely be needed as each student decides independently. RA hours may in some cases include assisting in teaching and/or driving state vehicles (typically vans or trucks), and such activities will count equally towards the hourly weekly commitments as defined in each student’s RA contract.
Reference
http://sfrc.ufl.edu/grad/frc_handbook.pdf
Reference
http://sfrc.ufl.edu/grad/frc_handbook.pdf
Online Master Students
You required to initiate and conduct 1-2 30 minute meetings per semester with your advisor. In these meetings you should cover logistics, such as completing course requirements, etc.., challenges you are having, and discussion regarding other topics such as career development.
Email protocol
As standard protocol do not email twitter or phone text style emails. Start with a Hi X, end with a Best wishes, etc.. (e.g., not "Hey", or "Wuz up!") and carefully consider the content of your email, including grammar, etc... Emails sent tweet style will be ignored, or at best given low priority. We recommend following these simple suggestions for all professional emails.
Graduate student tips and advice
http://brunalab.org/resources/
Email protocol
As standard protocol do not email twitter or phone text style emails. Start with a Hi X, end with a Best wishes, etc.. (e.g., not "Hey", or "Wuz up!") and carefully consider the content of your email, including grammar, etc... Emails sent tweet style will be ignored, or at best given low priority. We recommend following these simple suggestions for all professional emails.
Graduate student tips and advice
http://brunalab.org/resources/
