I am not sure how many times I have heard or said this myself, but research is an iterative process. In fact, I remember the first time my mentor stated that to me. At the time, I interpreted it to mean I had done something wrong and this was his nicer way of letting me down easy. My interpretation was correct (I did need to work at something; my submission was not 'perfect'...whatever that is), however I did come to realize that my doing something wrong or not entirely spot on would be a likely recurring theme in research and that I should get used to submitting and resubmitting. Iterations. True, I don't typically get the *same* things wrong that I did when working back with my mentor, but I still need to do iterations. Recently, in fact, I have been working on my part of an article. A colleague provided me with some feedback on my section and I reviewed it, put it away and just now, went back to review the feedback, again. I realized that part of my 'putting it away' was likely due to my resisting seeing areas in this article upon which I might improve. This realization was humbling for me, as I like to think myself open minded ;-) All of this is to say, that these iterations are part of human nature and therefore part of research. Last week (week six) I asked several (almost all) students to resubmit part of their work. I am still waiting on a few students to do so - but was pleased to see the resubmissions thus far that show learning and even a little gratitude for the feedback.
Great job, students!
AES
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