How to get back control of my research

[user8789738967]

So, I started a new research project a few years ago in an area that is interdisciplinary and new for me. Hired a PhD student to work on it. It has been going very well, we've published a couple of papers and I asked student to apply to give talks at conferences/workshops etc. I usually try to give them a lot of credit and visibility and independence.

Anyhow, student has been giving these talks etc (he doesn't mention I'm his supervisor and usually will pass off things I've said to him as his own) . Some of these have been closed talks (i.e I couldn't join) and now he's being asked to be part of discussions that I would generally have been participating in. He does let me know what has gone on but I feel a bit like I'm losing control of my research. He's a good student, not exceptional, but diligent and hardworking. However, definitely not at a stage where he's a panel member with senior faculty etc. I don't want to seem petty or like I don't want the student to get his due but I feel like I've been painted out of my own research project. Any ideas?

@springtimeishereagain yes I don't trust him any more, I don't freely talk to him because I'm worried he'll take what I say and go to our collaborator and present it as his idea. I'm working on another research project with another PhD student, I was going to involve this student with that work, but have decided not to. I don't trust him and can't risk him being involved in all my projects. Sigh. I've been seething this morning.

I'm tempted to think good riddance but somehow I don't think that will be the end of it. The last paper we wrote together was interesting and novel and him claiming ownership of that might come back to bite me.

Is their a senior woman in your current or former place you could run this by? The email evidence is compelling. If you do not have any embarrassing posts on MN, in the name of efficiency you could start by asking her to RTFT.

The question of whether he is capable of doing the external work as well as continuing to work on your project is a good one. Just how far your obligation to him extends at this point is an even better one. I would take @parietal’s comment’s to the effect that he may be looking for an exit strategy seriously.

Are you pushing back more effectively now?

@user8789738967 - if the last paper you wrote together was interesting, then you write the next one by yourself! Make sure your name is out there. Sounds like you need to be proactive here: get yourself in front of people. Maybe you should be giving these talks and Mr Pushy should be left back in the lab or office to get on with some of your work?

Do you have a line manager you can talk to or ask advice from?

How long is left of his PhD?

I’d be tempted to email the other group and say ‘he is funded on my research grant to do x and h y. Once he has finished his PhD of course he can work for you 🥰 but his current funded projects must come first.’

Maybe not with slightly snide emoji

And you need to get out and talk about the work you wrote the paper on! Go to masses of conferences and speak at masses of other universities. I spoke at 9 last year just because I am coming up to writing big funding apps and it was so good for getting my name known

And re the talking down in meetings - you need to have this out with him. It can’t continue

Thanks for all the advice - I don't really have anyone I can talk to at current or previous uni, this is more of a chat you have informally over coffee/lunch, but I'm going to try to reach out to someone I've had similar conversations with in the past and ask her too.

He's told HoG this paper will only take a short period of time (a few months I think). Ofcourse I know from experience there is no such thing as a quick paper. I think I'm going to have to say 'yes, he can go ahead and work on this for 2-3 months, but I won't be funding it. So if the HoG is happy to fund him for this period, then go ahead. He can then continue on the work we're doing after the 3 months and I can resume funding him. I don't think there's much I can do, he's basically played the card of going to the higher ups and backed me into this corner and I don't think I can go to them and say he's been chalking me out of this research program even though it was my idea to begin with.
He's basically going to be using an algorithm we devised in our last paper and using that for this paper with other collaborators. I have other ideas for how to reuse that algorithm, so if I want to continue down that route of research I will need his 'expertise' - in that, he is the one who coded the algorithm. Someone suggested upthread that I write the next paper myself, it's difficult because I'm not usually the one doing the coding, so I do need the student expertise to do that.
It's a pretty shit situation, I feel well and truly played. This has been going on for months and I tried pulling him up on it, but he's going to get what he wants by going to the HoG......

I am doing what you are all suggesting, trying to get my name out there and give talks. So all that is certainly happening and will make me feel better in the long run. For now though, I do feel a bit winded by this whole thing. I really put the wind in his sails early on, told him the stuff we're working is very novel and exciting and his thesis will be one of the first on the subject etc (all true, but it was my initiative to work in this direction). Anyhow, I think will definitely be needing a few glasses of wino tonight :)

Can you get him to document the algorithm so that others can use it & share it? that fits well with the remit of OpenScience etc.

Does your field use GitHub or similar to share? if so, he should document his code & release it.

It is dangerous to have a valuable algorithm that only one person knows how to use. Much better to make it open & shareable (at least within your team) so that you can both use it for later project etc.

I'm female. I've always had male colleagues fall over backwards to insist on pushing me forward and give me as much credit as possible. Put me down as first author when I hadn't written first draft, gave me heaps of opportunities, etc. They're more delighted at my career developments than I am.

I know I'm in minority so there's little point in me speaking up, people are welded to their prejudices. I still can't help but say: You've done so much of this wrong.

The moment you said you wouldn't fund him you wrote yourself out. You put him in a position to find other collaborators. Why did you do that? You're doing the opposite of collaboration by not sitting him down & making clear how joint authorship works, he's a flipping gormless student, so tell him what you expect and how crediting others and authorship usually happens in academia. "My" group doesn't mean he runs the group any more than "my family" means he leads his family.

He will say things like 'both user and I think xyz' and basically repeat a discussion that I have had with him where I've told him what I think of the state of play of the field

I acknowledge I'm slow. I had to read that 5x to understand the supposed objection. Which is fairly paranoid which is why I couldn't get it. It doesn't say that he is taking credit for OP's brilliant idea. Which frankly even you can only own in a very transitory way -- the moment you publish then others will build on it and 'take' it from you, too.

He's not your emissary. He's your potential future colleague. He's allowed to own an idea he's trying to sell to others if he wants them to adopt a specific working practice and build on collaboration with Both of you.