StatGuy2000 said:
I find it disheartening that you are recommending the OP to seek an unpaid position. Frankly I see this is an act of exploitation on the part of the employer on students.
I have collaborations with lots of colleagues in which research is produced without the exchange of funds. Many of these are with me mentoring the research of students, in other cases, they are collaborations with more established colleagues. Many of these collaborative relationships with students begin when we connect with the idea that I can help them with a science research project (either to fulfill course requirements or to compete in a science fair, or both). My usual practice is that I will neither charge students for this service nor pay them for working together on research projects unless the work is pursuant to something my small consulting company is getting paid to do, in which case everyone on the project is usually compensated.
But keeping the colleagues (including students) unpaid on unfunded "side" projects gives me great freedom in many ways:
1. I can work with students regardless of their citizenship or residence status.
2. I can collaborate with students on projects of most interest to them, not just paid projects which tend to be less interesting to many students.
3. Bureaucracy and paperwork are greatly streamlined.
4. I can work with students under 18 on a variety of weapons-related projects that would not be allowed otherwise by child labor laws.
If you look at my research history with student collaborators, you'd be hard pressed to find any exploitation, even though the vast majority were unpaid. A few cases in point:
https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1811/1811.05797.pdf
The above paper was an unfunded side project with two college students. Neither was paid in money, but all parties felt that the value of the publication on their CVs and ability for me to provide letters of recommendation was more than worth the effort. Exploitation? Hardly.
https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1508/1508.05843.pdf
Another unfunded side project. This one came about when a senior physics major at a CA University contacted me regarding research opportunities for her senior thesis, because she was unsatisfied with the opportunities available in her home department. I never actually met her in person, but she did very good work both earning a good grade on the academic project and my favorable recommendations for grad school and employment. Correspondence and collaboration was via internet and phone.
https://www.mdpi.com/2306-5729/2/3/31
Yet another unfunded side project. I met the first author right here on PF. He was a high school junior needing a project for his local science fairs and to strengthen his position for college. He really was the best student I've ever worked with, even though I've never met him in person either. I did invite him to my lab in Lake Charles, but he was less interested in our blast and ballistics work. Together with his other achievements, his work with me and my recommendation paved the way to research opportunities very early in his undergraduate career. He was the freshman physics major all the faculty at an R1 institution were drooling over to have in their labs. Other students I've mentored have had similar outcomes.
Yes, in a perfect world, all students involved in research would get paid. But the outcome of that would me far fewer research opportunities for students. From a practical viewpoint, I want students I advise or mentor to have ample research opportunities in their college years, and I strongly recommend that all of them value the opportunities for scientific growth, publications, and favorable recommendations much more highly than $7-$10 /hr. The sum of all the potential hourly wages is worth far less than the growth, accomplishments, and recommendations at the next step. None feel exploited, nor have I every felt exploited by a research collaboration for which I was not paid.
My ability to mentor student research would be reduced by 95+% if I had to pay them and meet all the silly bureaucratic requirements of an employer. Additionally, several of the students I mentor who have paid campus jobs are limited by a stupid bureaucratic mandate (related to Obamacare) limiting work hours to 19 per week. The ebbs and flows of campus life often make students more available for research over breaks, and yet there is that stupid 19 hour limit. Similarly, some students have jobs as resident assistants that max out the 19 hours per week they get paid by the university. Their university will simply not allow any lab on campus to pay them for additional hours. Likewise, I've also mentored research with NCAA athletes. Between the NCAA and the school athletic departments, there are strict rules limiting campus employment for these athletes, but collaborations are unrestricted if they are not paid.
The false dichotomy between payment and exploitation will only work against the goal of students having ample research experience when they graduate. It's hard enough finding resources and jumping though the other bureaucratic hoops to make these projects work. Demanding payment would simply close lots of doors better left open.
See:
https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/science-love-money/
