Best practices for graduate student socio-ecological research

Working Group Reports

Final reports: 

Record_working_group_report.pdf

Participant list: 

List of participants.docx

At present, the LTER Network is in the implementation phase of the Integrated Science for Society and Environment (ISSE) initiative, a ten-year plan to promote socio-ecological research. The ISSE recognizes graduate students as the next generation of lead scientists in the LTER Network by stressing the importance of training and supporting trans-disciplinary graduate student research. Surveys and interviews of LTER graduate students suggest that students face different institutional, cultural, and logistical barriers to practicing socio-ecological research within the network, yet there are many thriving socio-ecological research projects within the network involving graduate students. In this working group, we would like to bring together graduate students and mentors from successful socio-ecological research projects with the following goals:

1) To disseminate the results of a 2009 ASM working group on the lived experiences of graduate students performing socio-ecological research within the LTER network by providing an overview of survey and interview results to spark discussion on successful socio-ecological projects,

2) To promote discussion of and generate a guide for best practices for graduate student socio-ecological research within the LTER network to be posted online and to appear in an issue of the LTER network newsletter.

3) To write a guide for general best practices for graduate student socio-ecological research using LTER project case studies to be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Working Group Materials

Related materials: 

socioeco_recap.pdf