Rights & Responsibilities of Postdoctoral Fellows and Faculty Mentors

While postdoctoral fellows are responsible for their career trajectory and progress, faculty mentors are expected to help their postdocs achieve their goals, by initiating and providing on-going mentoring, guidance, and resources, in both scientific and career development. Mentors/PIs should schedule regular conversations to review research direction and progress as well as career goals. Postdocs are encouraged to request these conversations, if they are not otherwise taking place.
 

I. Work Conditions


The work conditions of postdoctoral fellows should support and enhance their research and professional training. This objective may be compromised if postdoctoral fellows are overworked, or if their research and professional training are compromised for any reason.

Inappropriate work conditions include, but are not limited to:

  • Demanding excessive or inappropriate hours of work;
  • Preventing a postdoc from moving to another position;
  • Using intimidation and threats, for example by using visa renewal, recommendations, or authorship decisions as leverage.

In addition, all postdocs and mentors should abide by FAS and Harvard University policy, notably:

II. Expectations for Faculty Mentors
 

a. Develop in consultation with their mentee

  • A mutually satisfactory research project or scholarly program.
  • A career plan. A useful tool in this regard is the Individual Development Plan (IDP), available here, which should be initially filled out by the mentee, updated at least once a year, and serve as a basis for discussion at least once a year.

b. Encourage their postdocs to

  • Present their work and publish their results in a timely fashion;
  • Acquire and enhance their knowledge and technical skills, as dictated by their current and future needs;
  • Participate in career development activities (workshops, courses, conferences), complementing their scientific research training, including teaching opportunities, as appropriate;
  • Apply for training and research support, as appropriate;

c. Meet regularly with their postdocs to discuss progress in their research;

d. Provide constructive, respectful feedback;

e. Provide an annual review of performance;

f. Provide career counseling and mentoring to help their postdocs reach their career objectives;

g. Give postdocs time to participate in professional training programs;

h. Give proper credit and attribution for postdoc intellectual contributions to projects;

i. Provide appropriate work conditions for postdocs. See above.

 

III. Expectations for Postdoctoral Fellows

Postdocs have obligations to their faculty mentor, the group in which they are working, the Department/Area with which they are associated, the sponsor whose funds support them, and the University. These obligations include, but are not limited to:

a. Conscientiously fulfilling their research, scholarly, and teaching responsibilities, as applicable;

b. Conforming to ethical standards in research and scholarship;

c. Complying with good scholarly practice, including the maintenance of adequate research records.

d. Communicating with their faculty mentor openly and regularly on the status of the research and notifying their faculty mentor of any change in plans;

e. Discussing with their mentor the possession or distribution of tangible property such as materials, reagents, and the like;

f. Discussing with their PI laboratory records or scholarly materials, if relevant;

g. Disclosing to their PI prior to the event any scholarly information, findings or techniques proposed for dissemination privately, at scholarly meetings, or in publications;

h. Behaving collegially with all members of the Harvard community;

i. Complying with all applicable University policies, some of which are mentioned below. A comprehensive list of policies can be found on the Provost website.