Research Assistant Onboarding
Welcome to the SAGE Lab! Our lab manual lives in focused website pages. Read the essentials below, then return to the relevant page when you need it. You do not have to memorize the whole site.
This guide is for people starting an agreed research role. If you are exploring opportunities, begin with Join the Lab.
Your first readings
Follow this order and tick each box after reading. These boxes are a personal aid, not a form sent to the lab; they reset when you reload the page. Note questions for your first project meeting.
SAGE Community
Peer learning and mutual help. Community participation and research roles have different responsibilities.
Skills for Research at the SAGE Lab
Choose a realistic first learning goal for your role. You are not expected to master every skill before starting.
Projects
Explore existing studies, tools and manuscripts before proposing something new. Confirm a project’s current status and supervision before joining it.
Choosing a Student Project
Use the decision tree to connect your goals with available data, funding and supervision. Prepare the project discussion before starting new work.
Idea Garden
An archive of ideas to revisit or combine. If you have a similar idea, we can check what is already in the bank and build on it. An entry does not mean a project is active, funded or ready to launch. You can start your agreed role without reading the archive.
Advice for flourishing at the SAGE Lab
Planning a PhD or PsyD application? Our graduate application guide brings together advice on grades, research, helping experience, funding and publications. If you need to explore other research opportunities, see accessing research experience.
Protect your academic record
Aim for the best grades you can in every course, ideally A+, while protecting your well-being. Keep time for studying before adding research commitments. Strong academic results matter for many doctoral admissions and scholarships. For example, UQAR’s professional doctorate in psychology considers academic results alongside research experience and other criteria. Grades strengthen a dossier without guaranteeing admission.
Apply for funding
Look for every funding opportunity you are eligible for and aim to apply to each relevant one. Check eligibility, fit, documents and deadlines early so applications fit alongside your courses and well-being. Start with the UQAR scholarship directory and ask about the lab’s student-funding resources.
Funding can support you financially, make research feasible and strengthen your CV. Awards also count among the achievements considered in some admissions and funding evaluations, including the FRQ doctoral scholarship criteria. Criteria vary by program. We want the SAGE Lab to build a strong funding record by sharing what we learn. Funding applications are one of Rémi’s strengths and a skill we can develop together. Bring a prepared draft and specific questions when asking for feedback.
Develop autonomy and ask for help thoughtfully
Look for ways to learn and move projects forward with limited demands on Rémi’s time. Consult documentation, try a bounded first step and seek suitable peer feedback. When asking Rémi for help, summarize what you tried, what remains unclear and which decision you need. More autonomous contributions can make it feasible to support more people.
Ask early when you are genuinely blocked or a decision affects ethics, data access or scientific validity. Autonomy includes recognizing when supervision is necessary. The research supervisor remains responsible for the guidance and review agreed for your role.
Help bring research to publication
When you start or join a research project, commit to helping bring it to scientific publication, including careful revisions when the work takes time or becomes challenging. Agree on your role, the intended manuscript, your deliverables and a continuation plan. Publication is a shared goal.
If circumstances change, discuss them early and arrange a documented handover. Protecting well-being may require rescoping or ending participation responsibly. Keep your contribution usable by the next person. Publication depends on the work and journal decisions, and authorship depends on actual contributions. A bounded training exercise does not automatically become a paper or an open-ended obligation.
Choose projects that fit our resources
Consider existing grants, data and supervision before proposing new data collection. Options requiring little or no additional spending still need expertise, time and review. Examples to discuss include:
- Analyses of suitable public or existing data, including material on the Open Science Framework (OSF).
- A carefully scoped meta-analysis or theoretical review.
- Metascience research, such as a question connected with the Missing Majority Dashboard, if its data and methods support it.
- Reproduction or replication work, potentially with the Institute for Replication, when skills and supervision fit.
These are possibilities, not approved projects. A useful proposal identifies the question, available materials, likely output and help required.
Before your first project meeting
Bring your questions, realistic availability and one skill you want to develop. Together, confirm your supervising contact, first deliverable, feedback arrangements and where to save your work. Identify the key papers for your project and agree on a useful stopping point and handover plan. Document files, scripts, sources, decisions and unfinished work from the beginning.
Our common aim: warmth and competence, self-compassion and excellence. We want you to learn, do work you can trust and build a sustainable place in research.