Keeping Preliminary Results Private with an Overexcited PI

Dear Dora,

Is there a nice way to tell your boss to “keep his trap shut”?! Every time I share preliminary results, I find out later he tells our collaborators and a few times this has backfired when I wasn’t able to validate my preliminary result. I know I could just stay quiet until the data are validated, but I value his input and don’t want to lose his insights and feedback simply because I can’t trust him to keep new results quiet.

-Angie, graduate student

Dear Angie,

Many PI’s are very excited about preliminary results, and I have received this question from other students/postdocs too. If you value your PI’s input, you can ask him to keep the results private until you have validated them:

“I know you are excited about these preliminary results, but it would be best to share the data with our collaborators only after I have validated them. I will have more confidence in my data once I have repeated the experiments.”

Your PI will actually have more respect for you if you establish rigorous standards for your data. You can also try to validate the results before you talk with him, so he is less likely to get confused if your data is not reproducible.

Dora Farkas, Ph.D. is the author “The Smart Way to Your Ph.D.:200 Secrets from 100 Graduates,” and the founder of PhDNet, an online community for graduate students and PhDs. You will find links to her book, monthly newsletters, and discussion board on her site. Send your questions to [email protected] and keep an eye out for them in an upcoming issue!

Stay tuned for the next Dear Dora in two weeks!  In the meantime, check a few of Dora’s recent posts:

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Submit your questions to Dora at [email protected], or use the comment box below!

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