【英語論文の書き方】第94回　「謙虚さを学ぶと、より良い研究ができる」について 論文翻訳・英文校正　研究者専門の翻訳会社　ワールド翻訳サービス

第93回では「AI（人工知能）の危険性」を取り上げました。
 
第94回（今回）のテーマは「謙虚さを学ぶと、より良い研究ができる」です。
 
博士課程では、新しい知識やスキルを素早く学ぶ力が養われ、
自立性が高まっていきます。
 
しかし、その一方で、その能力の向上が過度な自信につながり、
自分の知識の限界を見失ってしまう危険性もあると、
筆者のGeoffさんは指摘しています。
 
本記事では、実験計画や統計解析、
コンピュータソフトウェア、技術スキルといった具体例を通して、
短期間の学習だけでは真の専門性に到達することが
難しい分野もあることが示されています。
 
そのため、自分の知識が十分でない分野については、
無理に独力で対応するのではなく、謙虚さを保ち、
他の分野の専門家と協力することが重要であると強調されています。
 
このような姿勢が、結果として研究の質と
効率を高めることにつながるといえるでしょう。

    One of the great gifts of a PhD program is that it teaches you to quickly learn whatever new thing you need to understand before you can complete your research. This creates independence: you don’t have to rely on your thesis advisors for explaining every new thing you must learn. This both frees you from having to wait for someone else to teach you new skills and lets you teach this independence to future PhD students who you’ll be advising.
    Unfortunately, your growing ability to rapidly learn new things can lead to hubris (an inappropriate sense that you’re capable of something), and this can blind you to the limitations of your knowledge. Specifically, it can lead you to forget that understanding something doesn’t mean that you have mastered that subject—or even that you understand it sufficiently well that you have no need for assistance from true experts. (Working with other subject-matter experts is an essential aspect of any complex field of research, which is why most journal manuscripts have multiple authors.) Consider three examples:

Experimental design and statistical analysis

    Most scientists take at least one course in basic experimental design and another in statistical analysis. These courses teach the basic skills required to conduct research that is sufficiently well designed that you can correctly analyze the data to produce valid conclusions. But professional statisticians earn a 3- or 4-year degree to acquire basic expertise in experimental design and data analysis, and spend many additional years of post-graduate learning to fully master these subjects. You won’t achieve similar mastery just by studying the user manual for the R software.

Computer software

    Computer programmers learn to develop reliable computational algorithms and design carefully debugged software through academic programs that require 2, 3, or more years of intense, highly focused study, often supplemented by post-graduate study. Just because you have read and understood the instruction manual for a programming language does not give you a similar level of expertise. You won’t acquire that expertise without years of intense study. Understand your limits and their consequences. Any errors you make will enter the literature, potentially misleading other researchers for years before those errors are discovered. Particularly when you expect many others to use your software, it’s essential to have an expert review it before you use it to support your research.

Technical skills

    During your undergraduate and graduate education, you’ll learn basic skills in a range of skills (e.g., laboratory and field techniques) that are required for your research. Unfortunately, you may spend only an hour or two learning key techniques such as how to use key instruments. As in the two previous examples, expert users of a particular instrument may spend years of intense, repetitive practice under expert supervision while they perfect their skill with that instrument. This is why even the most accomplished researchers rely on field or laboratory technicians for difficult or demanding measurements. An hour of training by your supervisor is often inadequate to give you comparable skills. The same warning applies to techniques: even if you master the equipment used by a technique, it takes a large amount of practice to gain expertise in the technique.

Learning humility

    The lesson of these examples is that we must all learn the limits of our knowledge, and admit to ourselves when we lack sufficient expertise in a subject. It’s always better to work with an expert rather than trying to develop the expertise on your own. After all, some day you’ll be managing your own research program, while teaching undergraduate students and mentoring graduate students. That work generally consumes all your available time, leaving little time and energy to develop expertise in new skills. You’ll almost certainly find that your time is better spent on your research and that working with experts in other subjects will both reduce the burden on your time and increase the value of your research.
    Palmer (2023) provides additional details on why it’s better to learn to recognize the limits of your personal knowledge and rely on the expertise of others when that knowledge and skill lies outside the scope of your true expertise.

References

    Palmer, J. 2023. Engaged in collaborative research? Try a touch of intellectual humility. Nature Career Feature 2 October 2023. (https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03063-w)
 

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