Job:Cancer Genomics Freelance Work

Question

[Jeremy Leipzig]

I am a PostDoc with more cancer genomics projects than I have time to work on. So I would like to find a bioinformatician who can perform some of the analyses on a pay-per-hour basis. I have a 24 core-machine with 192 GB RAM that they can access to analyse the data.

See link for full details:

https://www.elance.com/j/bioinformatics-data-analysis-linux-next-generation-sequencing-bioinformatics/50062039/?utm_medium=partner&utm_source=indeed&utm_campaign=paid

(disclaimer: this is not my job ad)

[Istvan Albert]

Well it has that science / per hour concept going that is likely unfeasible.

Projects like these need to be framed in terms of deliverables - I will run tool A,B,C and give you files X, Y, Z

[JC]

I summited a proposal at Elance, or do I need to apply here?

[Jeremy Leipzig]

elance is the right place for this job (which I did not post), but if you are looking for ongoing freelance work you might consider putting a link to your homepage here

Answer 1

[Giovanni M Dall'Olio]

• Will the work be acknowledged, in case of publication?

• Do these cancer genome datasets belong to projects funded by public money, or do they come from private institutions?

It is very nice to see that offers for bioinformatics free-lancer jobs are being published, but it is also potentially very dangerous. Beware of doing "ghost-bioinformatics" and taking credit for somebody else's work.

[Istvan Albert]

well frankly it is all about the value that one gets from it - being credited on a paper is a form of payment because it benefits me directly as well - but if someone paid me well enough I wouldn't care whether I am on a paper - of course journals might.

that being said a postdoc paying for bioinformatics work does not sound like a goldmine

[Giovanni M Dall'Olio]

the problem is that potentially, this person is getting money from public grants, while trying to get his work done by somebody else. Imagine if you get a grant proposal rejected, and awarded to a person who, after getting the money and the credit, pays somebody else to do the work. How would you feel? I am not against bioinformatics free-lancing, but I think that the offer should always be clear about acknowledging contributions.

[Steve Lianoglou]

Still not sure what the issue is ... presumably the grant is awarded because the results from this proposed endeavor will be important and the recipient of the grant will be using the money awarded to pay the contractor to do the work outlined. How the results are generated (as long as they are not fabricated) is irrelevant, isn't it? As long as you are not violating your institutions policies on data access/privacy/whatever? This could create more time for the person the grant is awarded to perhaps generate more data, or incorporate another orthogonal analysis to that would not have been possible due to time/commitment constraints.