18 February 2013 5:10 am
Part of being a scientist is being so excited that you bite off more than you can chew. You’re busy working on a current project, but there’s another that needs one more analysis, or the grant just needs some polish – or the right preliminary data. Maybe you’ve got a great find but you can’t find the hook to sell it. Sometimes, a project is 98% done. And that 2% is a huge stumbling block, especially when it’s something not yet in your expertise.
If you don’t have a postdoc at hand, you’ve got two choices. A: Let it linger, until you find the spare time, momentum or resources to get that done at some undefined point in the future. B: Call in The Wolf.
Faculty at teaching schools are isolated. You can’t drop by a neighboring department, or look down the hallway, to see if someone might want to join you on an endeavor. There just isn’t anybody there who can help you. If you’re not finishing it after, say, several months of lingering, then call in the finisher who’ll get the job done. Somewhere, out there, exists a person who can deliver what you need, and would benefit from delivering it for you. You need to call in The Wolf.
A finished project is better than any unfinished project. If I’ve done a project, I want it to be done. The “done” part of the prior sentence takes precedence over the “I” part. My guideline is: if bringing someone in will get it done, wonderful! The more the merrier! While projects overweighted with personnel are hard to manage, it’s a mistake to let a project grow stale for lack of attention.
There are people out there that would give up a couple days of their time, to become coauthor on a paper or a collaborator on a (very promising) grant. Even if you just contact them out of the blue. (As long as your website/CV vouches that you’re bona fide.)
So, this is all well and good, but you make it sound so easy! But how do you get The Wolf’s number? People are so busy, who has the talent and wants to take on more work? There are a few avenues. They all rely on your professional network.
There are a few subspecies of Wolf:
If I’ve needed a little something to get a project done, I’ve found that reaching out to new people has always been helpful. If the person I’m contacting isn’t available, interested or prepared to do it, then they inevitably refer me to the right person. Just be sure to explain up front what you propose, and clearly specify, timeframe, authorship, funding, and so on.
Posted by Terry McGlynn
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: collaboration, grad students, postdoc, productivity
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Great post. I especially like the image of your potential collaborator in a tuxedo at a black tie party at 8 am when he gets your call. Although I would suggest that, when you do “call in The Wolf”, that your research project not be in as messy a state as Jules’ car was. ;-)
By Jeremy Fox on 18 February 2013 at 10:15 am
[…] about your research may actually be a bad idea, to writing papers with undergrad co-authors, to finding collaborators who can quickly help you finish off a project. Plus, he throws in fun (and sometimes amusingly cranky) asides about everything from how his dean […]
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Another excellent post. I certainly have projects like this at the moment that I’d love someone to finish off for me! That last 2% is always so painful.
By jdtonkin on 01 March 2013 at 11:48 pm
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