/sci/ - Science & Math » Thread #11132242

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Anonymous Sun 10 Nov 02:46:22 2019 No.11132242 View Reply Original Report

Quoted By: >>11132244 >>11132253 >>11132258 >>11132265 >>11132359

I've sent an email to 5 authors to ask for experimental advices on a topic they have experience with.
I'm just an undergrad, but they should answer, right? Usually how much time does it take?
I sent the emails 3 days ago, I really hope I'll get the replies by next week so I can start my project

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 10 Nov 2019 02:47:50 No.11132244 Report

Quoted By: >>11132296

>>11132242
what technique?
try the grad students too maybe

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 10 Nov 2019 02:52:50 No.11132253 Report

Quoted By: >>11132296

>>11132242
>but they should answer, right?
I wouldn't. I would just flag your address for spam.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 10 Nov 2019 02:53:40 No.11132258 Report

Quoted By: >>11132296

>>11132242
Email them again, oftentimes people are really busy.

Or call them. Just be aware not to overload people with information and at least have some inkling of what you're talking about. Oh and don't bother people with mundane questions you can easily find the answer to.

On top of that, depending on the field, some people can be huge tossers (not that I've really experienced that, population genetics seems to attract very helpful people), so you have to consider the possibility you might not get a response because the person is a raging autist.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 10 Nov 2019 02:55:11 No.11132259 Report

Quoted By: >>11132296

Why should they need to help every undergrad that has a question? Your OP post kind of sounds a bit entitled. I'm sure you were more polite in your email, but if you gave off any of that tone at all, they especially wouldn't want to answer.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 10 Nov 2019 02:58:58 No.11132265 Report

Quoted By: >>11132296

>>11132242
In my experience it's hit-and-miss. I'm not an academic. as an amateur scientist I don't have access to a lot of papers so what I'll do is reach out to authors by email if their online and often times they'll reply back with the paper if requested but a lot of times you get no responses as well.
especially when there's a shared interest on the topic there will be many academics that are interested in discussing it further. But if you're just asking for ideas you may not get many responses back. Ideas are the bread-and-butter for some of these people

Anonymous

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Anonymous Sun 10 Nov 2019 03:15:24 No.11132296 Report

Quoted By: >>11132360 >>11132391 >>11132433

>>11132244
Not really a lab procedure, I need to know the quantity of samples necessary and a proper way to store them.
I think I already know the answers but my predictions are based on papers about general topics not about these exact samples, emailing authors was my prof's idea
>>11132253
Rood and unprofessional desu. Why have university emails available to the public then, some of them had it on their paper too
>>11132258
Can't call them, 3 of them are japs, 2 are Koreans (i lost 90 mins to figure out which were the koreans' last names). I'll wait another week but idk, how can I email them again without sounding pedantic?
>>11132259
Oh no, it was formal as fuck and even slightly flattering , I let my prof write it to make sure.
>>11132265
How much does it take them to reply normally?
Also use scihub to get access to papers if needed

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 10 Nov 2019 03:39:30 No.11132359 Report

Quoted By: >>11132390

>>11132242
What the hell are you asking about

It's super vague

I'm a 5th year grad student (defending in a couple months), I've ignored emails from randos before. What is it you are asking about?

The vagueness suggests you think its important to keep secret. I guarantee you are misguided if you think anything is important enough to keep vague.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 10 Nov 2019 03:39:45 No.11132360 Report

Quoted By: >>11132390 >>11132391

>>11132296
>Rood and unprofessional desu. Why have university emails available to the public then, some of them had it on their paper too
For professional reasons. You are not a professional. They don't get paid money to answer your stupid undergrad questions.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 10 Nov 2019 03:52:50 No.11132390 Report

Quoted By: >>11132400 >>11132407 >>11132418

>>11132360
Writing a response would take 10 mins max, 5 if they want to be informal.
And if they do it may results in me publishing results they could find useful sinc it's their filed of research after all.
Also free citations for them if they help, they would benefit from it
>>11132359
I was specific with them, maybe even too much, my professor basically wrote what I'm going to do, hopefully they won't try anything funny

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 10 Nov 2019 03:52:51 No.11132391 Report

Quoted By: >>11132425

>>11132296
>>11132360
We aren't really about professionalism, but I get where you are coming from. I don't bother answering emails unless they are important to me, or I am in a good mood.

>How much does it take them to reply normally?

So I'm a grad student. I deal with this all the time.

It's 100% individual based. I've had PIs/grad students email back within the hour with a full protocol when asked, and I've had colleagues take literally over 2 months to respond, and they are like "sorry writing grant, here's $250 of material you asked for a million years ago for free". It's a crapshoot, and that's when we are collaborating on bullshit.

I can't imagine a cold email being in a better position. Academia is all about freedom of doing what you want, therefore there isn't a "typical" time frame for just about anything. Even journals are fucking bullshit (Cell took like 3 months to tell us no on our paper, Elife took 1 week to respond. Good fucking luck out there).

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 10 Nov 2019 03:54:30 No.11132398 Report

Quoted By: >>11132425

>3 of them are japs, 2 are Koreans (i lost 90 mins to figure out which were the koreans' last names)

Are you sure they can speak English? The journal articles could be in English as they are translated.

>The vagueness suggests you think its important to keep secret. I guarantee you are misguided if you think anything is important enough to keep vague.
Absolutely not. It isn't uncommon to have very good ideas retooled by the academics students have brought to them. Don't be so naive in thinking even a first year undergrad couldn't make an exceptional observation worthy of testing.

>For professional reasons. You are not a professional. They don't get paid money to answer your stupid undergrad questions.
Being rude doesn't get you far in most fields. At the very least most academics will respond to queries - they might not devote much time to it, but they will respond. Being an ass gets you a bad rep and you don't know when the day might come when you're sitting across the table from this person you slagged off for no reason. Doubly so if they're now in a position where they can manipulate purse strings.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 10 Nov 2019 03:55:04 No.11132400 Report

Quoted By:

>>11132390
>Writing a response would take 10 mins max, 5 if they want to be informal.

It may seem that way to you, but I guarantee it's a bit more thinking and resource putting together for them than that. And sometimes, that's enough to just ignore an email.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 10 Nov 2019 03:57:06 No.11132407 Report

Quoted By: >>11132425

>>11132390
They don't give a flying fuck about citations in your shitty school project.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 10 Nov 2019 04:02:38 No.11132418 Report

Quoted By: >>11132425

>>11132390
>And if they do it may results in me publishing results they could find useful sinc it's their filed of research after all.
>Also free citations for them if they help, they would benefit from it
Here's a secret: Thesis projects don't count as published work. If I find a thesis that has something cool but is unpublished, I literally could copy it word for word (roughly) and publish it as my own, and I would be known as the person who discovered "X". How do I know? I certainly did that with my first paper, taking a nice statistical procedure that was expanded and verified under some bullshit ecology for my own research.

This is how all the big name scientists work. Welcome to the world of Wolf vs Sheep.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Sun 10 Nov 2019 04:10:05 No.11132425 Report

Quoted By: >>11132471

>>11132391
Ah that sucks. Thank you anon
>>11132398
>Are you sure they can speak English? The journal articles could be in English as they are translated.
Wait you are telling me someone translated their papers for them? I thought it was common practice to write papers in English.
Now that I think about it Asians have an harder time learning English Than say any European...
I have a friend who studies Japanese, maybe I could try to ask him.
>>The vagueness suggests you think its important to keep secret. I guarantee you are misguided if you think anything is important enough to keep vague.
>Absolutely not. It isn't uncommon to have very good ideas retooled by the academics students have brought to them. Don't be so naive in thinking even a first year undergrad couldn't make an exceptional observation worthy of testing.
Uh-oh...
>>11132407
? I'm taking about publishing a paper on a scientific journal
>>11132418
Again it's not like that. I'm not in the US if that makes more sense for you. In short, I had a little idea, my prof is willing to help me with it, my thesis will be about it but the real end goal is publishing it. I know it may sound weird for an undergrad, I'm lucky my profs gave me this opportunity

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 10 Nov 2019 04:16:14 No.11132433 Report

Quoted By: >>11132447

>>11132296
>3 of them are japs, 2 are Koreans
Well there you go. It's not easy to write an email in English answering questions on experiment for them. That makes it all the more likely you'll be ignored

>I let my prof write it to make sure.
He should have been the one to send it as well

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 10 Nov 2019 04:25:56 No.11132447 Report

Quoted By:

>>11132433
Fugg :( that's really unfortunate, every author about that specific research line is Asian.
I initially asked her to send it for I am a literal nobody but she said I should be the one doing it since it's my project. She's right I think, btw i included her and another prof in the mail receivers

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 10 Nov 2019 04:36:21 No.11132471 Report

Quoted By:

>>11132425
>Again it's not like that. I'm not in the US if that makes more sense for you. In short, I had a little idea, my prof is willing to help me with it, my thesis will be about it but the real end goal is publishing it. I know it may sound weird for an undergrad, I'm lucky my profs gave me this opportunity
Your professor is great for doing this, fyi. It's rare for PIs to care below the graduate student.

That said, as a US grad student, I can't speak for non US stuff. Asia might be way different. That said,

Whatever the field, there are *definitely* more people to ask as well as the authors you've emailed. Doesn't matter what it is.

Literally just ask on this board.

Email whoever works in the field. Easy enough.

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