STATS 810 (Fall 2025), Class 1

Class web site: https://ionides.github.io/810f25

Syllabus

Prompt

How does your reputation as a responsible researcher and scholar become generated and transmitted through the academic community?

UM-GPT 4.1

A scholar’s reputation as a responsible researcher is built and maintained through a combination of demonstrated behaviors, interactions, and contributions within the academic community. Here’s how this process typically unfolds:

1. Conduct and Practices

• Research Integrity: Adhering to ethical standards—honesty in data collection, analysis, and reporting; proper authorship practices; appropriate handling of conflicts of interest.
• Transparency: Sharing data, methods, and results openly when feasible, enabling replication and assessment by others.
• Reliability: Producing high-quality, rigorous research that withstands scrutiny over time.

2. Academic Outputs

• Publications: Articles, books, and other works in reputable, peer-reviewed outlets signal scholarly quality.
• Presenting at Conferences: Sharing findings and engaging with peers at academic events.
• Peer Review: Serving as a reviewer or editor, earning trust by providing fair and constructive feedback.

3. Professional Interactions

• Mentorship: Training students and early-career researchers responsibly, passing on ethical and best practices.
• Collaboration: Working effectively and ethically with colleagues locally and internationally.
• Networking: Building positive relationships at conferences, seminars, and via online academic platforms (e.g., ResearchGate, Academia.edu, LinkedIn).

4. Community Recognition and Transmission

• Word of Mouth: Colleagues discuss researchers’ integrity, reliability, and collegiality—both formally (reference letters) and informally.
• Citations and Impact: Consistently cited work, especially if cited positively, enhances reputation. However, quality outweighs quantity.
• Awards and Honors: Recognition from professional societies and institutions contributes to a responsible image.
• Service: Participation in committees, editorial boards, and grant panels demonstrates trustworthiness.

5. Transmission Mechanisms

• Formal Channels: Reference letters, tenure and promotion evaluations, grant/fellowship applications, awards nominations.
• Informal Channels: Conversations at conferences, social media, and personal networks help “spread the word” about a researcher’s character and reliability.

6. Risks to Reputation

• Misconduct: Fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, or unethical behavior can quickly damage a long-standing reputation, often more widely than achievements are broadcast.
• Retractions or Corrections: Public records of mistakes or misconduct influence perception, but transparent handling of honest errors can mitigate harm.

7. A Living Process

Reputation evolves—responsible actions consistently over time reinforce trustworthiness. Reputations are context-sensitive, meaning they might vary between disciplines or geographic regions.

Summary:
A researcher’s reputation as a responsible scholar is generated through ethical and transparent research practices, high-quality outputs, constructive engagement with peers, and trust built via formal and informal channels. It is transmitted through personal networks, scholarly communications, and community acknowledgments, and it requires continual maintenance through responsible behavior.

If you’re interested in U-M’s specific guidelines and resources for responsible conduct of research, I can provide campus-specific links and contacts!

Prompt

Summarize this in 3 sentences.

ChatGPT

A scholar’s reputation as a responsible researcher is built through consistent ethical conduct, high-quality publications, and positive professional interactions. This reputation is communicated through both formal means (such as reference letters and citations) and informal channels (like word of mouth and networking). Maintaining it requires ongoing integrity and engagement within the academic community.

Conclusion:

ChatGPT gives good general advice. But it does not tell us concretely how to make practical decisions as a PhD student in Statistics at UM. We want to do better than ChatGPT.

• How should I balance time between the many demands on a Statistics PhD student?

• How do I get good advice on professional decisions?

Class format:

• 2 minutes for a question or comment relevant to the class topic.

• For this class,

  • Say your name (as you wish to be called) and your home town.

  • Summarize what (if anything) you use AI for.

  • What do you view as the main dangers and opportunites for AI in the context of education, research and practice in the field of statistics?