Shiya Cao

Shiya Cao

Disability Inclusion Researcher; Assistant Professor of Statistical and Data Sciences at Smith College

DIAL Lab Book

Introduction

Welcome to the Disability Inclusion Analytics Lab Book! Here we outline the values that guide our work, lab member responsibilities, guidelines for communications, authorship and acknowledgements, and expectations on group conduct.

These protocols are inspired from the work of several groups that inspire us - in particular the Aly Lab Manual, the Carceral Ecologies Lab Book, the CLEAR Lab Book, and the DEAL Lab Book.

Further, the protocols are continuously being collectively developed as new members join the lab.

Lab Values

Inclusion

In this lab, we strive to foster an inclusive research community. We respect and utilize each lab member’s strengthes to get the job done. Our work is collaborative not competitive. We learn from each other, help each other out, and step up for others when unexpected circumstances come up. We expect that you are able to ask for help when you need it, and to problem solve. It is my goal for everyone to learn and grow in this lab. We encourage and listen to each other’s ideas, provide constructive feedback, and offer flexibility/wiggle room. We celebrate each other’s successes and hype each other up in moments when we feel discouraged. We espcially learn things about disability etiquette.

Integrity

In this lab, we are committed to ensuring research integrity, including data collection and analysis, literature review, writing, authorship, and presentation, etc. We take a hard line on research misconduct, including fabrication, falsification, or plagiarismWe, etc. We don’t make assumptions; if we don’t know, we ask questions. We acknowledge what we don’t know, can’t know (due to our unique positionality), or have yet to learn. We value reflexivity in our research practice. Our work is building a more inclusive and equitable society; this moral goal should lead us to pursue our research practice with integrity and act as a person with honesty.

Caring

In this lab, we care about each other, not just in our work lives, but also as individuals that have lives outside of this work. It is my position that attending to your physical and mental health and well-being should be a top priority. We strive to embody kindness in all of our interactions with each other, show appreciations, and check in with colleagues before starting collaborative work.

Responsibilities

Joining the Lab

We are thrilled to invite new members to the lab. When joining the lab, you should do the following:

  1. Read this lab book.
  2. Email Prof. Shiya Cao and ask to be added to our Slack Workspace. Check out this tutorial if you are new to Slack.
  3. Create a GitHub account if you don’t have one, and send Prof. Shiya Cao your GitHub handle.
  4. Ask Prof. Shiya Cao to be added to the shared Google Drive.
  5. Complete CITI Training here (Navigate to Required Online Ethics Training and follow instructions). You should complete the Basic Human Subjects - Social and Behavioral Course. Send Prof. Shiya Cao a copy of your certificate upon completion.

Faculty Responsibilities

This section draws heavily from the Carceral Ecologies Lab Book, the Aly Lab Manual, and the DEAL Lab Book.

As the director of the DIAL Lab, Prof. Shiya Cao commits to:

  • Support you (academically, intellectually, emotionally, financially).
  • Be regularly available in person and via Slack to discuss your research progress, ideas, and questions.
  • Provide timely feedback on project ideas, data collection and analysis, literature review, writing, and presentations.
  • Review and approve timesheets on a timely basis.
  • Support your career development (e.g. helping you network with people in the field, introducing you to infrastructures and workflows that may be relevant to your future career, writing recommendation letters, and inviting you to attend conferences when finances permit).
  • Ensure that you are properly acknowledged for your contributions in all presentations and publications of our work.
  • Encourage you to prioritize your physical and emotional well-being before other obligations.

Student Researcher Responsibilities

This section draws heavily from the Carceral Ecologies Lab Book, the CLEAR Lab Book, and the DEAL Lab Book.

As a student researcher, you will be expected to:

  • Take care of your physical and mental well-being first. If you are sick or burnt out, please stay home. If possible, let us know ahead of time that you need to step back. The Schacht Center has a number of resources available to help navigate distressing times.
  • Attend weekly lab meetings. Lab meetings are held weekly for one-hour. In these meetings, we discuss how we operate as a lab and as a community, along with our progress on a number of projects. Please let us know ahead of time if you cannot make a meeting via the Slack channel - preferably at least 24 hours in advance (though we recognize this is not always possible). You do not need to explain why you cannot attend a meeting in this message, but please don’t create a habit of missing meetings.
  • Take personal initiative with group support. While we collaborate as a team, each individual member of our group has a personal responsibility to ensure that their contributions to the work get done. There will not be a great deal of oversight of your work, so we expect that each member will take steps to manage their time effectively, honestly communicate their capacity to contribute, and let us know if/when they need to re-evaluate their time commitments. To help cultivate and sustain this culture of accountability, all group members are encouraged to support each other by outlining manageable tasks, helping out with tasks in times of struggle (when asked), and respecting a group member’s decision to step back when needed.
  • Problem solve when you can. Ask questions when you are unsure. We are all here to help each other navigate this work, and we encourage you to ask questions and request help when it’s needed. Still, attempting to problem solve when you can demonstrates that you value your collaborator’s time, so try that first. If you learn how to do something that might be helpful to others, share it in our Slack Workspace!
  • Contribute to a caring and collaborative environment. Celebrate each other’s successes, respect each other’s individual strengths and weaknesses, demonstrate compassion for each other’s struggles, and affirm each other’s diverse identities.
  • Ideally, commit to at least two semesters in this lab. Disability inclusion research may not be an area that you were familiar with. It takes some time to get familiar and passionate about this field. Related readings and resources will be provided to you as soon as you join the lab. We offer mentorship in cases when we have specialized knowledge to share, and we welcome the unique knowledge that everyone in the labs brings to the collaboration. Commitment and consistency would ensure the high quality of this important work we are doing, which helps empower disabled people and other underrepresented groups.

Communication

Slack

Slack will be the primary means of lab communication. Here is a link to our Slack Workspace. This Slack channel is on the Smith Enterprise Workspace, meaning that anyone with a Smith email address can immediately be added to this Workspace. When posting message, please be sure to post in the relevant channel:

  • #general: announcements to all lab members
  • #[project-name]: communication regarding a particular DIAL project
  • #support: questions about the group protocols, timesheet reporting, or other group infrastructures
  • #appreciations: celebrate lab member accomplishments or express gratitude for a lab member’s work
  • #random: non-work related conversations

Since Slack is our primary means of communication, you should check Slack regularly. You may wish to install the Slack Desktop application to help keep track of Slack messages. You can also configure Slack to notify you when messages come through on specific channels. You are not expected to respond to Slack messages on evenings and weekends.

GitHub

When you join the lab, you will be added to our GitHub organization. We use GitHub to ensure reproducible analysis.

Google Drive

We maintain a shared Google Drive for all shared lab documents and files that are not hosted in GitHub repositories. This may include:

  • pre-reading list
  • research papers
  • lab meeting agendas and meeting notes
  • lab planning documents
  • datasets that are too large for GitHub storage
  • drafts of collaboratively edited manuscripts, abstracts, proposals, or presentations
  • spreadsheets for lab contacts

Authorship & Acknowledgements

As members of the group, you may be asked to participate in the preparation of manuscripts and presentations. As the faculty lab director, it is Prof. Shiya Cao’s responsibility to ensure that:

  1. Group members are properly acknowledged for their contributions to the group in all presentations and publications of our work.
  2. Opportunities for authorship and presenting our work are equitably distributed across group members.
  3. Clear and direct conversations about authorship and acknowledgements are held early in the process and are revisited as necessary as the work progresses.

Code of Conduct

DIAL is committed to making participation in this lab a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of level of experience, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, personal appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, age, or religion. Examples of unacceptable behavior by participants in this lab include the use of sexual language or imagery, derogatory comments or personal attacks, trolling, public or private harassment, insults, or other unprofessional conduct.

As a member of DIAL we have the right and responsibility to point out and stop behavior that is not aligned to this Code of Conduct. Participants who do not follow the Code of Conduct may be reprimanded for such behavior. Instances of abusive, harassing, or otherwise unacceptable behavior may be reported by contacting the director of the lab.

All lab members are expected to adhere to this Code of Conduct in all settings for this lab: lab meetings, over Slack, GitHub, and Google Drive, both online and off.

This Code of Conduct is adapted from the Contributor Covenant, version 1.0.0, available here.

References

Aly Lab. (2021). Aly Lab Manual. Columbia University. https://github.com/alylab/labmanual/blob/master/aly-lab-manual.pdf

Carceral Ecologies Lab. (2021). Lab Book (draft version). University of California Los Angeles. https://github.com/Carceral-Ecologies/lab_book

CLEAR. (2021). CLEAR Lab Book: A living manual of our values, guidelines, and protocols, V.03. St. John’s, NL: Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. https://civiclaboratory.nl/clear-lab-book/

DEAL. (2022). DEAL Lab Book. Smith College. https://lindsaypoirier.github.io/lab-book/