Committee member requests one more analysis every meeting and my funding ends in May Defense
Fourth year, social science. At every committee meeting one member asks for an additional robustness check. First it was clustering standard errors differently, then a subsample split, now he wants the whole thing replicated on a second dataset I would have to get access to. Each round costs me six to eight weeks. My advisor's advice is "just do it". Funding runs out in May and I do not have a plan B. How do people actually get a committee to agree the analysis is finished?
@integral_ines · 8mo ago · 3 replies
Make the list finite and written. At the end of the next meeting, out loud, say: "So the remaining items are A, B and C, and once those are done we're at defense." Then email a summary to everyone within 24 hours and ask them to correct anything you got wrong. Silence becomes agreement. The reason the requests never stop is that nobody has ever had to commit to a stopping point in writing, and each individual ask feels small to the person making it.
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@gramgrader_gus · 8mo ago
And if my advisor won't back me when I say that in the room?
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@integral_ines · 8mo ago
Then say it anyway, in the minutes, in your own voice. You are not asking for permission to summarise the meeting. If the same member later adds item D you can reply to your own email and ask whether D replaces C or is in addition, which quietly makes the cost visible.
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