Core Values
Welker Lab Core Values
Co-Developed with all Lab Members 10/22/24
Written and formalized by Cara 10/25/24
Respect, Diversity, and Inclusion
We strive to treat others with humanity, courtesy, understanding, kindness and compassion, regardless of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, physical ability, family status, ethnicity, nationality, citizenship status, and religious beliefs.
We appreciate that there is strength in a diversity of perspectives [1-3], and we commit to making the time and space to empathize with other points of view. In any interaction, we seek to put a good interpretation on others’ statements rather than to assume bad intent.
We aim to promote diversity in all aspects of the lab, including recruitment of lab members, research studies, and outreach opportunities. We strive to provide mentoring opportunities to – and in turn to learn from – underrepresented members of society, including members of LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities, as well as individuals with diverse educational and financial backgrounds.
We recognize that lab members come from different backgrounds, both professionally and personally. We do not look down on anyone for not understanding a “basic” technique; we instead see it as a learning and teaching opportunity.
We believe Black lives matter. We recognize the pervasiveness of systemic institutional racism in all aspects of life and are particularly conscious of its impact on scientists and science.
We acknowledge CU Boulder sits upon land within the territories of the Ute, Cheyenne, and Arapaho peoples. Further, we acknowledge that 48 contemporary tribal nations are historically tied to the lands that make up the state of Colorado.
Accountability
We acknowledge that no one is perfect, and we should be accountable to ourselves and our team in our strengths and weaknesses. We welcome feedback (including corrective feedback) without prejudice. This principle holds for our scientific goals, as well as any issues that arise when individuals feel that they are not being respected as outlined above.
If group members witness disrespectful behavior or feel that any of the principles above are not being followed, they are encouraged to try to resolve the issue amongst themselves, and then notify Dr. Welker if the issue persists. As employees of CU Boulder, we are obligated to to a Title IX officer.
Collaboration and Communication
We believe that collaboration both within and outside of the lab is important. Within the lab, it is important that all lab members work together to achieve our goals. All graduate students in the lab will be given a lab job and are also encouraged to work together on research projects.
Working with people in other fields can bring about a diversity of new ideas. However, successful collaboration requires successful communication. We strive to be open and honest from the start of any collaboration and discuss issues like authorship and research scope early on.
Open Science and Outreach
Our success in science and engineering is limited unless the work is accessible and shared. Manuscript pre-prints should be made available at the time of submission on
arXiv or BioRxiv, unless there is a compelling reason not to do so. Code and databases should be appropriately commented and made available to members within and outside of our group via Github or other open-source databases. Scientific success is not defined by positive results; negative results can be just as valuable to present to the community to further knowledge.
Part of sharing our work is distributing it outside of the scientific community as well. Because of this, outreach events are an important part of what we do. All graduate students are required to participate in at least two outreach events per year in order to achieve these goals.
Celebration
We promote a culture of celebration. Doing research and getting a PhD is inherently difficult – you are developing new knowledge that no one has shown before! Many aspects of academia are also drawn out over a long period of time – manuscripts are submitted and usually go through multiple revisions, grants are rejected and resubmitted, and getting approval for your PhD has multiple components. Because of this, we believe it is important to celebrate all points in this process.
References:
- Gomez, L. E. & Bernet, P. Diversity improves performance and outcomes. Journal of the National Medical Association 111, 383–392 (2019).
- Barjak, F. & Robinson, S. International collaboration, mobility and team diversity in the life sciences: impact on research performance. Soc. Geogr. 3, 23–36 (2008).
- Robinson, G. & Dechant, K. (1997). Building a Business Case for Diversity. The Academy of Management Executive (1993-2005), 11(3), 21–31.
- Note: some of these values were influenced/adapted from the DeGrado Lab