The "Laws of Herman" were published in Nature 445, 228 (2007). They are "tongue-in-cheek" advice to graduate students doing doctoral thesis work, in the form of 20 "laws."
Following the law
A guide for the perplexed graduate student doing research.
Irving P. Herman
Professor of applied physics at Columbia University, New York
Going to graduate school to pursue a doctorate is a major commitment of time and effort. It is not for everyone. Once in a graduate programme, choosing a research adviser is perhaps the most important decision a student can make. Likewise, choosing the right students is essential for the careers of advisers. It is obvious that mentors and students must have common research interests and compatible work habits. But it is sometimes less obvious that they must learn to communicate with each other. Developing a functional working relationship is important even between 『good』 students and 『good』 advisers, and this often takes some time.
In this spirit, I offer 20 『laws』 as a guide to graduate students doing thesis research. Each contains sound advice about the facts of life in graduate research, particularly from the viewpoint of a thesis adviser. Several have been slightly exaggerated for effect, or are not to be taken too literally. Some clearly pertain to experimental research, although they have obvious counterparts for other types of research.
I developed these laws to help motivate some of the graduate students in my group, to explain how to be an effective student and to convince them that supervised research is a symbiotic (although not symmetric) interaction between student and adviser. I admit that I am not always successful in this endeavour.
I also use these laws as general advice for graduate students in my department. All doctoral candidates in the department receive a copy of the laws when they enter our programme, to help them understand how to work with an adviser as they move from the undergraduate mode of taking courses to the graduate mode of conducting supervised research. These laws seem to resonate with my faculty colleagues, and several have posted them and used them.
Although the laws require no interpretation, students may understand them better by understanding their advisers better. Advisers, including my own students』 adviser, love to recall the 『good old days』 when they were graduate students. They all worked 20-hour days, seven days a week, and they never slept. They needed to build from scratch every instrument they used in their work and they thought of every idea in their theses. And, most importantly, they always, always, took to heart their advisers』 every suggestion and acted on each promptly.
On a more serious note, there are some real overarching themes in the laws. In research, being right is paramount, and ideas and results must be evaluated using objective methods untainted by egos. Productive people are productive because they have good work habits. Students need to grow professionally and advisers need to assist them. The relationship between graduate student and adviser truly is symbiotic.
1. Your vacation begins after you defend your thesis.
2. In research, what matters is what is right, and not who is right.
3. In research and other matters, your adviser is always right, most of the time.
4. Act as if your adviser is always right, almost all the time.
5. If you think you are right and you are able to convince your adviser, your adviser will be very happy.
6. Your productivity varies as (effective productive time spent per day)1,000.
7. Your productivity also varies as 1/(your delay in analysing acquired data)1,000.
8. Take data today as if you know that your equipment will break tomorrow.
9. If you would be unhappy to lose your data, make a permanent back-up copy of them within five minutes of acquiring them.
10. Your adviser expects your productivity to be low initially and then to be above threshold after
a year or so.
11. You must become a bigger expert in your thesis area than your adviser.
12. When you cooperate, your adviser’s blood pressure will go down a bit.
13. When you don’t cooperate, your adviser’s blood pressure either goes up a bit or it goes down to zero.
14. Usually, only when you can publish your results are they good enough to be part of your thesis.
15. The higher the quality, first, and quantity, second, of your publishable work, the better your thesis.
16. Remember, it’s your thesis. You (!) need to do it.
17. Your adviser wants you to become famous, so that he/she can finally become famous.
18. Your adviser wants to write the best letter of recommendation for you that is possible.
19. Whatever is best for you is best for your adviser.
20. Whatever is best for your adviser is best for you.
These laws were inspired by the 『Laws of the House of God』 from The House of God by Samuel Shem (Richard Marek, 1978), which provided a somewhat different brand of advice to medical interns. The author thanks Jonathan Spanier, Yigal Komem and other colleagues for suggestions.
1、在做學位論文期間，不要有任何度假休息的打算。
2、科學研究中，記住這個原則：重要的是什麼是正確的，而不是誰是正確的。
3、在思想上，你要相信:多數情況下，無論學術研究還是其它事情，導師錯的時候不多。
4、在行動上，你要相信：絕大多數時候，只要按照導師的要求去做，就不會有錯。
5、與導師意見有分歧，如果你覺得你是對的，那麼就想辦法去說服導師，這樣他也會高興的。
6、你的科研產出與你每天花在工作上的有效時間的1000次方成比例。
7、你的科研產出與你分析已獲得數據拖延的時間的1000次方的倒數成比例。
8、如果今天能拿到數據就不要等到明天，說不定明天儀器設備就出問題了。
9、為了避免自己日後崩潰，獲得數據後每次再多花5分鐘做好永久備份。
10、導師不會在初期就期望你發表論文，但一年或更長的時間以後，如果你還沒有論文發表，或者發表的論文比別人少，你應該抬頭看看導師的臉色。
11、在你所從事的研究領域，你必須使自己成為一個大專家，爭取成為你導師的導師。
12、如果你平時很配合導師的工作，導師的血壓會很正常。
13、如果你與導師背道而馳，我行我素，你導師的血壓要麼升高，要麼會崩盤。
14、學位論文的質量有一個基本標準，就是保證寫進論文的每部分結果都達到能夠發表的要求。
15、在論文質量第一，不追求數量的前提下，你發表的學術論文質量越高，你的學位論文也就會越優秀。
16、你要牢記一點：學位論文是你自己的，所以你必須自己親力親行去努力完成它。
17、導師很期待你能成名，這樣他（她）最終也會因你而成名。
18、如果你學業優秀，最後導師一定會為你寫一封特別棒的推薦信。
19、對你有好處的事情，對你的導師也應該有好處。你好，他也好。
20、對導師有好處的事情，對你自己也應該有好處。他好，你也好。
----中文翻譯來自：王德華，科學網博客。
----版權歸原作者所有，社科學術圈編輯整理。
Amendment to the Laws of Herman
The First Amendment to the Laws of Herman: "If you didn't document it, you didn't do it."
The Second Amendment to the Laws of Herman: "Do not present your advisor with only your data and analysis; also present your conclusions and plans for future work."
The Third Amendment to the Laws of Herman: "Do not present your advisor with only your conclusions and plans for future work; also present your data and analysis."
----http://www.columbia.edu/~iph1/lawsofherman.htm
Irving P. Herman