<p>I am interested in rotating with a PI who is doing very interesting research, but his/her publishing record is a bit strange. The PI publishes very frequently but it seems to be from a lot of different schools. I know the PI has voluntary positions at a couple of schools, but it looks like he/she is advising and consulting with those individuals rather than having his/her own lab involved in the research. That concerns me because I would obviously not be on those papers, and I have only seen 1 published a year from his/her lab in the school I am attending. I guess the positive is that the PI has a lot of contacts, but I don't know if a publishing record like this is normal.</p>
<p>I am really interested in the PI's research, so I want to make sure I am not over analyzing the situation. Any input would be appreciated!</p>
<p>You should be sure that this isn’t a “research asst professor” or “research assoc professor”. They probably wouldn’t even have an appointment with the graduate school if they were. Also, be sure that this person does have a lab with active people at your soon to be graduate school. My current PI has a joint appointment between my university and our affiliate in Singapore and publishes as part of both.</p>
<p>do you mean that the PI publishes from different schools (ie the address/department given on the paper changes), or that there are a lot of collaborations with people at other schools? The first seems weird-- if they have a joint appointment they usually list both, the other probably means that the lab has a special skill or knowledge base that lots of people want to take advantage of, but it probably won’t affect you all that much, although you would want to take a look and see how many of the authors are in the lab of the PI you are interested in, or if it is always the same person.</p>
<p>The PI is an assistant professor and has his/her own lab. I made my description a little confusing, but I meant to say that the PI publishes and is credited with being at my school, but the rest of the co-authors are from different places. I only see the PI on the papers and no graduate students or postdocs from my school.</p>