Off-boarding

Leaving the lab well takes some planning. Your data, samples, cultures, and notes need to be in a state where someone else can pick them up and understand them, often long after you’ve gone. This page lays out the timeline, what I expect, and a checklist to work through.

Timeline

When	What to do
Undergraduates: at least one month before your last day Graduate students: at least one semester before you plan to leave	Tell me when you plan to leave. Earlier is better, especially if you’re in the middle of experiments or field work
About a month before your last day	Go through the checklist below and make a plan for anything that will take time: finishing data entry, handing off cultures, cleaning up your project repo
Your final two weeks	Schedule an exit meeting with me, and finish the checklist
Your last day	Return keys and anything you’ve borrowed, and clear your space

Exit meeting

Before you leave, we’ll meet to make sure nothing gets lost. Topics we’ll cover:

• Where your projects stand: what’s finished, what’s still in progress, and who will pick up any loose ends
• Data, code, and samples: where everything is, and whether someone else could find and understand it without asking you
• Manuscripts: the plan and timeline for any papers in progress, and your role in them
• Handoffs: who is taking over your cultures, samples, and any lab responsibilities
• Staying in touch: your contact information after you leave, and letters of recommendation down the road
• Feedback: what worked well for you in the lab, and what could be better, including anything that should change in this handbook

Expectations

Note: Publication timelines may stretch beyond your time in the lab. In these cases, ensuring that the lab has your up-to-date contact information is critical. Because all authors must stay engaged during the entire review process, if we’re not able to get in touch we won’t be able to include you as an author (you would instead be included in the acknowledgements section).

Before you leave, cultures, samples, and any ongoing experiments should be handed off to someone in the lab, or wrapped up, with enough notes that the next person can take over without you. You can still ask me for letters of recommendation after you’ve left (see Letters of recommendation for what to send me).

WarningPlaceholder

What happens to manuscripts that aren’t finished when someone leaves: deadlines for handing them off, and who takes over.

Checklist

Notebooks, data, and code

• Final lab notebook entries are written and pushed to GitHub, including transcriptions of any handwritten notes
• All raw data are entered into CSV files and pushed to the project repo
• All code is pushed, and any outstanding work is merged into main or clearly described in an open pull request
• Each project repo has an up-to-date README, so someone else can find and understand the data and code
• Any modified protocols are recorded in your lab notebook or the Lab Utilities repo
• Images and other files are saved to the lab OneDrive, and relevant papers are added to the Zotero group library
• Your final term report is posted to the ‘term-reports’ Slack channel

Samples, cultures, and space

• All samples are labeled, logged, and stored in the right place
• Cultures you’ve been maintaining are handed off to another lab member
• Ongoing experiments are wrapped up or handed off, with notes
• Your bench, incubator space, and storage are cleared out
• Borrowed equipment and field gear are cleaned and returned

Access and contact

• Keys and ID card access are returned
• You’ve had your exit meeting with me
• I have your personal contact information (a non-UMass Lowell email address)