I now have one less fear in life.
When Research Advisor reviewed my paper, she uncovered (or led me to uncover) tons of mistake in the data. This was after I had worked with the data extensively and several other people had read the manuscript. I did stupid things like clicking on the wrong column in Excel formulae or incorrectly converting units (apparently I don’t really understand the metric system). I also made larger errors in some of the equations I used. Lame.
The worst part was the doubt these mistakes sowed in me. I worked with that data set for years. It should not have had any problems. If I could have errors like that in spreadsheets I know like the back of my hand, what other problems are lurking in my work?
But you know what? The world didn’t end. Other than pointing out the problems, RA didn’t say a disparaging word. I was really embarrassed and went on about what a Bad Scientist I am, but she just brushed off those self criticisms, saying things like “it’s easy to mix up columns in complex spreadsheets” or “everything blurs together after a while”. I have a feeling she’ll check all my future work with an even finer comb than she used this time, but at least she didn’t make me feel like shit.
Now I know what happens when I screw up in that particular way, so I guess I don’t have to worry about it anymore.
10 comments:
ouch.
I have no idea how many times I've ad to correct errors in my data, there is always room for more mistakes. So check, check and check it over and over again. Too bad it's so freakin' boring...
I hate when that happens :(
RA sounds awesome, Dr. Smooth would give me an "I'm Disappointed" lecture for several weeks, and then of course would refer back to this mistake for the rest of career whenever we worked with a new data set...
You know what, mistakes happen. That's why we have collaborators who can pick up on these things. Your advisor sounds great. Don't worry about this sort of thing. One thing to be grateful for is that it didn't go to press with those mistakes!
I'm just glad you have a DC who realizes that it's something that happens to everyone!
Yes, my Research Advisor is certainly great. And it's true that everyone makes mistakes of all types (although I can think of only one time RA made a data mistake and she caught it herself well before it was at the writing-up stage). I think I learned some lessons about data handling and file organization, so hopefully it won't happen again.
Aaah, this happened to me soooo many times ... usually I found out myself, but once a paper reviewer noticed that I had mixed up milligrams and micrograms, ro something similar. But yes, the world still functions, and the paper got published :)so don't worry!
Yeah, awesome that it was caught before it went out to review! And your advisor sounds really supportive. It burns to realize that a mistake has been made, but it's happened to all of us (not always caught before going to review!!!)
This is such an awesome feeling huh? I had one of those moments last week and it really made my day and shifted my perspective.
Ouch. I've been there and I hate it.
RA sounds great -- you're down already, embarrased for not having noticed it yourself, etc., so you don't need to be lectured on disappointment, screamed at, etc.
aw man, I hate it when that happens! But it does happen to everyone (at least it happens to me!) The important thing is that it WAS caught. That's part of the reason to get someone to read over your work. It's definitely not possible to see some mistakes when you've looked at something for sooooo long. I even find that I have a group of people read something for story/language and a completely different set who I ask to do it as detail checkers.
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