LaBella Lab Manual

1. Introduction

Welcome to the new-ish LaBella Lab! This manual is a living document that is designed to ensure an equitable and productive lab environment. I am always open to suggestions and I will be happy to discuss any aspect of this document with you directly. You are required to read this document, in its entirety, prior to joining the lab. This ensures that you know what to expect from me and know what is expected from you.

This document has been modeled after the following exceptional examples and will be updated with university resources. Other lab manuals: https://github.com/memobc/memolab-manual http://jpeelle.net/peellelab_manual.pdf https://github.com/alylab/labmanual

This document was last updated on December 10th 2025

   

2. Expectations

Above all else, everyone in the lab will treat each other with respect and dignity. Everyone will pursue science with integrity in an ethical manner. We can all work towards a positive, thought-provoking, equitable and rewarding lab together by prioritizing the items below.

2.1. Big Picture

• Do science you are proud to share with your chosen family and friends. If you don’t feel that way, we can work together to find a solution.

• Do science with care and attention. Your work will eventually join the collective knowledge of science and is worth checking and double checking.

• Mistakes happen. Alert those you are working with immediately and start thinking of solutions.

• Do your science. You are the main driver of your projects and are expected to work independently when possible.

• Collaborate with other members. Science is collaborative and you should be open and willing to share your expertise with others in the lab. This does not mean doing their projects for them.

• Keep a work-life balance. This can be especially difficult in science because you will have very demanding weeks (leading up to publications or defenses) and you will have slower weeks (data running). A work-life balance should be achieved over time.

• Your mental health is important. I am here to support you if you are facing challenges in any arena of your life. I am not a trained social worker or therapist. I may suggest that you seek out additional support from the University. You may also want to deal with issues in private: I legally cannot check to see if you have accessed mental health resources at the University.

• This is a job. You are expected to treat this position with the respect you would any other position. You are also expected to separate yourself from your work.

• Communicate. You should expect me to communicate clear expectations of your work. You should communicate your needs, concerns, and progress with me.

• You are a person. Life happens. If you need additional resources or need to discuss a leave from lab please communicate with me as soon as you can.

• Your goals will be respected. We will support and respect your career goals regardless of the field you want to work in.

• Experiments fail. That’s life. I consider digital work to be experiments as well. Installing a new software? Did it ultimate not work. That’s just a failed experiment and not a waste of time.

2.2. Small Picture

• If you are sick, stay home! We share lab spaces with each other and with other groups. If you are not feeling well you should stay home and let me know you will not be in lab.

• Vacations and Travel As an enrolled student the handbook states that "Students are expected to limit personal travel to academic breaks and to be in attendance from the first day of each semester". Please discuss any personal travel or time off that occurs outside of University holidays with me at least two weeks in advance.

• Clean up after yourself. You are expected to keep a neat and clean workspace. You are also expected to dispose of food and beverages in a timely manner.

• Use the calendar. Before asking when or where an event is, please check the lab calendar (https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0?cid=Y19qMWs1MGZsdTFtdW5zdGJhbXFyZGE2dnAyOEBncm91cC5jYWxlbmRhci5nb29nbGUuY29t)

• No strong perfume, colognes, moisturizer etc. Be respectful that your coworkers may have different tastes or sensitivity when it comes to smells.

• What you wear is up to you. You are free to express yourself and wear what you wish in lab. There are contexts where I would advise a more professional wardrobe and I am open to discussing this with you.

2.3. PI - What you can expect from me

• Provide a clear vision of the overall goals of the lab.

• Apply for and secure funding to support all members.

• Develop independent research projects for lab members that align with their goals and interests.

• Meet regularly with lab members to discuss goals, projects, progress and wellbeing. Regularly is at least twice a year and can be as often as once a week if needed.

• Support your career development by facilitating collaborations/introductions, conference travel, providing the necessary resources and writing letters of recommendation.

• Support your wellbeing as a whole person.

2.4. Postdocs - What I expect from you

• Develop an independent line of research that both supports the labs research goals and can be used to develop an independent research group in the future (if that's what you want.)

• Mentor students, both undergraduate and graduate. This is an opportunity for you to develop mentorship skills critical for career development.

• Present, publish, and promote your work to the best of your ability.

• Pursue opportunities that will promote your career development. Your career ambitions may require additional training that is outside my area of expertise.

• Apply for funding where appropriate. This includes independent funding and funding led by me. You will receive “credit” for contributing to PI led grants in your CV and in my letters of recommendation.

• Apply for jobs! We will work together to create a timeline for your job applications.

2.5. PhD Graduate Students - What I expect from you

• You are in the weird position of being an employee, student, trainee, and researcher all at once. This is not a time to “pay your dues” or sacrifice everything for science. You are here to gain the skills you need to pursue independent research and to advance your chosen field of science.

• Take your studies and coursework seriously. You must maintain a 3.0 program GPA to advance to your qualifying exam. This is also an opportunity to learn new skills from the talented faculty in the department.

• Develop an independent research project with three research projects/papers/chapters. Keep your thesis chapters in mind at all times. Science is full of tangents and fruitful side projects but be mindful that a complete thesis is your ticket to the next phase of your career.

• Explore your career options. Be open-minded and take the time to examine your priorities and how they line up with various career options.

• Apply for funding where appropriate. Writing grants and receiving feedback is a valuable experience even if you don’t receive full funding.

• Be aware of deadlines from the department. Do you need to have a committee meeting? Are there forms to fill out?

• Mentor and collaborate with other (newer) masters, graduate and undergraduates students. This will get you important mentorship experience and can provide data for your work.

• Present, publish, and promote your work to the best of your ability.

• Balance research with your other responsibilities, such as TAing. There will be days/weeks where TAing takes up the majority of your time. Do not fall behind on your research! Your research is a critical component of your career development.

The BIG graduate student handbook is currently located here: https://cci.charlotte.edu/sites/cci.charlotte.edu/files/media/BCBPhDHandbook-UPDATED%20July%202021.pdf

2.6. Masters Students

• You are in the weird position of being an employee, student, trainee, and researcher all at once. This is not a time to “pay your dues” or sacrifice everything for science. You are here to gain the skills you need to pursue the next step in your scientific career.

• We will work together to develop a project that you can work on. This may include working with a graduate student or postdoc depending on the ongoing projects within the lab

• Present, publish, and promote your work to the best of your ability.

2.7. Undergraduate Students

• You are a member of the lab. We will work together to find a research project with a graduate student or postdoc.

• Work with your mentor to establish a schedule and meet regularly

   

3. Communication

Good communication means not only responding to and sending emails. You should talk to myself and the other lab members about your expectations. An email saying “I can’t get to this right now even though I said I would” is better than leaving people hanging.

• All “official” communications should be professional. I’m happy to look over emails to important collaborators or members of our community. Also, make sure your emails and communications within the lab are appropriate for work. The university has the ability to read your emails.

• Respond to your emails in a timely manner. Everyone is expected to respond to emails within two “business days” unless you are traveling or on vacation.

• Requests for one-on-one meetings with the PI will be scheduled, in person or via zoom, within two weeks of a request.

• Slack communication is important. Slack is a critical way to communicate with members of the lab. Important items, however, like requests for recommendations should always be communicated via email.

• Open door = come on in. If you have a question or idea that will take less than approximately 30 minutes please come on in if my door is open. If you think the discussion will take longer set up an appointment

• Check the lab calendar. My life is ruled by the calendar. Check the lab calendar and my calendar to request meetings and stay up to date on lab meetings

   

4. Lab Code of Conduct

Our lab and the University must be free of harassment and discrimination. Creating this environment requires you to be proactive, support others in the lab, and call out issues when you observe them.

4.1. University Policies

• The full UNCC Policies and Standards can be found here: https://legal.charlotte.edu/policies

• I am a “Responsible Employee”. You may be a “Responsible Employee”, especially if you have been a TA (please make sure you know this). This means that if I hear about an incident of sexual harassment, I am legally obligated to report it to the Title IX office. If you are unsure about what to do, I can point you towards resources where you can discuss options prior to reporting an incident. There are additional resources available at the Title IX Office https://titleix.charlotte.edu/

4.2. Lab Commitments

• All members of the lab are committed to ensuring a safe, welcoming, and accepting environment.

• We will not tolerate inappropriate behaviors in the lab, during lab outings, or during lab-associated events (conferences, travel, or competitions).

Inappropriate behaviors are defined as:

• Exclusion - to block someone's access to resources or opportunities, make someone feel unwelcome, based on their identity or affiliation with a gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, background, religion or membership in any other group
• Belittlement - to treat someone in a condescending manner or with the assumption of incompetence
• Discrimination - to make an unjust or prejudicial distinction in the treatment of someone based on their identity or affiliation with a particular group
• Bullying / Intimidation - to threaten, frighten, humiliate, or intimidate someone with abusive words or actions
• Harassment - to use words or actions that are unwanted, unwelcome, demeaning, degrading, abusive, or offensive, and to persist in such actions despite resistance, protest, or rebuke by the recipient(s) of those actions
• Assault - to make unwelcome physical contact with anyone in any manner, including actual bodily harm and any form of unwanted sexual contact; to threaten bodily harm with an apparent present ability to cause harm

Additional information

• We will respect the chosen pronouns of all members of the community.

• If you are approached about inappropriate or harassing behavior, you must stop these actions immediately. If your behavior continues, you will be asked to leave the lab.

• **If you are being harassed, see someone else being harassed, or have any other concerns you can come to me, speak with the department chair, or access these university resources here: https://dso.charlotte.edu/advocacy-support/report-incident

4.3. Inclusive Lab Environment

• We will do our best to recognize and combat our implicit biases.

• We will recognize and combat microagressions, the perpetuation of stereotypes, and diminishing behaviors.

• If someone approaches you about your actions you should STOP, take the time to listen to them and process the information. It is easy to become defensive. It is possible that your intent and your impact were different.

• We are a team. We stand up for one another. We learn from each other’s experiences. We hold each other accountable.

• As a lab we are committed to expanding the diversity of the sciences because we know that diversity is a central component of excellence.

• If you are struggling financially, with food insecurity, housing or there are other obstacles that are hindering your success in the lab please come to me so I can connect you with resources that will support you.

   

5. Scientific Integrity

5.1. Research (Mis)Conduct

• Our lab and the university have zero tolerance for fabrication, falsification, misrepresentation or plagiarism of data or text.

• The University policies are outlined here: https://research.charlotte.edu/departments/office-research-protections-and-integrity-orpi

• Research misconduct often occurs when there is pressure from deadlines, a desire for positive results, and need to outcompete peers. Research misconduct can also occur from laziness or poor data management. There are NO excuses for research misconduct.

• If you are being pressured by ANYONE to conduct unethical research report that to me, the department or these University resources: https://research.charlotte.edu/departments/office-research-protections-and-integrity-orpi/research-integrity

• Responsible research conduct comes from an understanding that we have a moral and ethical obligation to put forth accurate and true information to the best of our ability.

• Research misconduct has real-life consequences for both those conducting the research and those relying on false information. In the most extreme cases, this can result in loss of life. Even less extreme cases perpetuate mistrust in the sciences.

5.2. Reproducible Research.

• At its core, reproducible research means that any other researcher should be able to replicate your experiment or analysis and come up with the same results.

• To ensure reproducibility, you should document your process.

• Digital work needs to be documented. Just as you would document an experiment in a lab notebook, keep track of your commands, software and pipeline.

5.3 Responsible conduct in AI and LLMs

This policy was adapted from Dr. Morgan Carter's lab handbook (UNC Charlotte).

Part of the work you are doing within our lab is learning how to think critically, write in your voice, develop your communication skills, and logic through problem solving. While large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Bard, etc. can help with this, they are easily used to replace “thinking” in a way that is negative to your professional development at this stage. Yet, LLMs are increasingly integrated into many technologies and can be very convenient tools for a variety of applications that are relevant to your future careers. Taking all of this together, we recognize the usefulness of these tools as well as their limitations and contextualize that with the environmental impact of increased computing power, equitability and access issues, and general ethical questions around their use (training data sets, intellectual property, etc.).

Within your work for the LaBella Lab, LLMs are acceptable to use for

• Coding, eg. “write a basic script to do X in R”, “what is the command to do X in bash,” etc.

• Troubleshooting, eg "Identify errors in the following script"

• Non-scientific questions, eg "What is the hex code for light red?"

However, LLMs should not be used to

• Drafting abstracts, manuscripts, or other technical writing products without consulting Dr. LaBella.

• Scientific background or literature reviews. These models do not provide citations and can give highly erroneous scientific summaries.

• Designing experiments

• Peer review

Cases where LLMs might be appropriate, depending on the context

• Unit conversions. But I highly recommend checking their work

• Grammar & language. Programs like Grammarly can check for grammar errors, but they also generate suggested text. There have been some instances of Grammarly being detected as AI-generated text. I encourage you to check journal policies on the use of Grammarly and also do not accept suggestions blindly

If you are ever in doubt about whether you are using an LLM in a way that is appropriate for your work here, please discuss with Dr. LaBella.

   

6. Lab Notebooks

• Lab Notebooks are an essential part of science, even for computational scientists! As a lab member, you are required to maintain a laboratory notebook for both wet lab and computational work.

• Computational notebooks - These can be any form and on any platform of your choosing.

• Wetlab notebooks - These must remain in the lab and document your work precisely.

• The lab also has a Benchling account where we store protocols - ask for an invitation to join.

   

7. Data Management

• You are expected to maintain all data generated in the lab in a responsible, reproducible, and organized manner

• You are to strive to achieve all aspects of the FAIR Principles https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/ in data management

• Data on the SCRATCH partition on the HPC is not backed up. If there is data that should be archived or maintained in a more secure location, external drives are available for use.

   

8. Publishing, presenting & posting

• Any research you conduct as a part of the LaBella lab is supported by both Dr. LaBella and funding sources like the NIH. Therefore, any research you present, post online, publish, or share must be approved by Dr. LaBella.

• Publishing, presenting, and posting include scientific conferences, UNC Charlotte resources, social media, personal websites, and more.

• Failure to obtain approval from Dr. LaBella for sharing research in the lab can lead to removal from the lab.

• The reasoning behind this is multifactorial. Sharing unpublished work can lead to competition for publication. This also gives Dr. LaBella the opportunity to provide insights and perspectives that you may have yet to consider. Moreover, it allows for a cohesive message to emerge from the lab.

   

9. Conferences

• Attending scientific conferences is an exciting part of participating in research. Below are general guidelines for attending conferences and some additional resources

Who gets to attend?

• All conference attendance decisions are dependent on the financial situation in the lab, which can change rapidly

• Priority is given to Postdocs, PhD students, and students with independent funding sources.

• Postdocs and PhD students should aim to attend one conference per academic year.

How to sign up for a conference

• Dr. LaBella must pre-approve any conference travel in which you will present lab research or utilize lab funds

• Travel authorizations must be set up as soon as possible through our financial administrators.

• When possible, all purchases must be made on the department purchasing card through a financial administrator.

Expectations for conference attendance

• You will adhere to the University, lab, and conference codes of conduct. Failure to do so may result in removal from the lab.

• You will prepare for the conference in a timely manner. If you consistently fail to meet preparation deadlines and/or this results in missing conference deadlines, you may lose support to attend future conferences.

• You will attend at least 80% of the conference presentations. Social and networking events are optional but highly encouraged.

• Attendance at plenary talks takes priority over other events or talks.

• You will report back on what you learned at the conference in a follow-up meeting

More info

If this is your first conference, check out these guidelines! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CdSwFLwTSu0tp3lE9Dn9F9daJA4l8ysW2xx-UhOAmh8/edit?usp=sharing

   

Additional Resources - Coming soon

The Hidden Academic Curriculum

Networking

Starting Collaborations

Finding Funding

Becoming a paper reviewer and reviewing papers

Building a brand