When developing a research project, you may find that you want or need collaborators. Collaborators provide several things: guidance, content expertise, access to data and/or sharing the work load. As a KansasCOM student, you MUST have a faculty member serve as a sponsor. Additionally, students cannot be a Principal Investigator (PI). The first author of your research project is customarily the PI, unless they direct otherwise. This is done to protect the integrity of our work while giving guidance to less experienced researchers. The principal investigator of your project may be from an outside organization. However, you will still need a faculty member to serve as your sponsor. This faculty member does not have to be an author.
| Role | Responsible for overseeing project |
First Author | Mentor to Student | Responsible for conducting research ethically and with integrity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Faculty Member | Yes, if not the PI | If the PI | Required | Required |
| Principal Investigator | Required | Expected | Expected | Required |
| Student | n/a | No | n/a | Required |
As you determine the right collaborators for your project, you should also consider authorship for the eventual publication.