ProPublica article about pay-to-play “research”

[ProfSD]

@ColdWombat

I’ve honestly not heard of profs who directly offer fee-based research experiences to the public (e.g., high schoolers). It would be viewed very poorly in my professional circles. I would be appalled if any of my colleagues did that. I don’t consider it ethical.

I have to agree with @ColdWombat and @dfbdfb. I don’t consider this ethical, and I think it would be openly ridiculed in my professional circles.

I’m not even sure I would engage a high school student looking for a research opportunity anyway. I prefer to partner with undergraduate or graduate students whose research opportunities and publications can actually make a difference in their ability to secure fellowships or full-time employment. My first obligation is to undergraduate students at my LAC.

I imagine AOs see this for what it is. Unless you are in the very slim percentage of students that also boast something like a Regeneron STS award, most would assume your contribution on a project was (at best) limited or (at worst) simply due to a parent’s connection.

I’m also curious about the publication venues. Scholars all know the journals that take 90% of submissions and are mere CV padding. In many ways, being “published” is only as prestigious as the publication.

[neela1]

Students don’t need to be published in any journal. Just the process is valuable as they learn the research method, learn to read literature, learn to explore the edges of the field they are interested in. Whether some AO finds this exercise creditable is a second order issue. I would absolutely have my kids do research in the high school. I have strongly encouraged it. And it was of immense value to them as a learning exercise. They just did research inside the school under a teacher’s guidance. No professor. No payment. Nothing.

[ProfSD]

Yes. I wasn’t talking about through a high school or specialized summer program. That is certainly valuable for high school students—I never said it wasn’t. I was addressing the aspect of taking my time to engage a high school student in research through a “pay to play” model when my first obligation is to undergraduate students at my own university. (I was addressing an earlier post where I was referenced.)

ETA: And I wonder how many parents of college students would be happy if their student missed out on a research opportunity because professors at their university decided to work with high schoolers instead.

[neela1]

I have friends who are faculty at a university that engage local high school students without getting paid. To each their own. Some faculty find it fulfilling, if the student is worthy.

[ProfSD]

Again, I only responded because I was tagged by @DadOfJerseyGirl, and I was responding to his inquiry specifically.

[DadOfJerseyGirl]

@neela1

faculty at a university that engage local high school students without getting paid

Then by definition, it’s not “pay to play” research - which is what this thread is about.

[ColdWombat]

That’s interesting. Thanks for the info on Polygence. I took a look at their website and browsed some of the projects.

The mentors are mostly PhD students, as noted by @IBG. Importantly, PhD students do not yet know how to write a standard scientific publication. That’s what they learn to do during their PhD. Ideally, they can do it by the time they graduate, but some new PhD’s still struggle to independently write a scientific publication. In my years of mentoring, I’ve had only 2 grad students with the writing chops to do it well early in their PhD, and even they had to learn stuff about the proper format, language, etc.

The “publications” linked on the Polygence site are not what would be considered a publication in normal academic research. They are on the level of a term paper or slide presentation for an undergraduate class. The ones that I viewed on the site are pretty much exactly what I’ve gotten as a work product when I’ve assigned my undergraduate students to write a review article on a topic or to do a short presentation on a topic. Some are pretty crappy, others are decent.

Importantly, none of the ones that I viewed report any novel results – so they aren’t “primary” research. They produced what are called “review” articles, which discuss other people’s results.

The best one I saw was co-written by the mentor, and I suspect the mentor did most of it, since it’s well within the topic of research for her PhD project. Unless the HS student was an incredible writer, had read tons of scientific papers, and worked her butt off for the project, there’s no way she would have been able to produce the paper.

So yeah, the parents are paying $4K to a company that employs cash-strapped PhD students/new grads (I bet they get a fraction of the $4K). The PhD student hand-holds the HS student through either doing a slide presentation that would be typically seen in an undergrad course, or writing a term paper that is “published” in a special “journal”. Then they can call it “research”, somehow. It is definitely not the same as working in a lab, I can say that!

ETA: There are a few Polygence projects where it looks like the students fabricated or coded something and thus reported something new. They are on the level of science fair projects. That is in line with what I said in an earlier comment: novel projects that involve math, coding, or building things are among the most accessible to HS students.

[Thorsmom66]

That’s different. S24 will be doing a self-designed Capstone research project next year at his HS. This will not involve professors or publications but should give him a sense of the process. That has value.

[dfbdfb]

Remember, this is specifically discussing “pay to play” research opportunities. That seems materially different than what you’re talking about.

(Though if that is what you’re talking about, yeah, there are both ethical and contractual paperwork issues that those faculty need to make sure they have in really good order.)

[ucscuuw]

That is true and indeed such experience is valuable,AND it helps applicants stand out. Which is precisely the market need that these “pay to play” companies are taking advantage of.

[IBG]

The university that I work for does the same. However, it is organized institutionally. No connections are required. In fact, any connections would likely be frowned on. Nobody expects much to come from the research. It is mainly just for outreach.