Need advice on difficult situation

[secret_santa]

Hi everyone,

I'm a longtime follower/poster on SDN, but made a new account for this question for anonymity sake.

I have been working with a professor on an article for publication for more than a year now. The work started when I was in my master's program. Based on life circumstances, I ended up moving away prior to finalizing the article (after graduation), but we agreed on finishing the project the best we could through email, etc. I am currently pursuing a different career position that would be greatly boosted by this publication. However, I have not been able to get in touch with my professor for almost 6 months now, despite repeated (and very respectful) emails. Other colleagues on this same project have also been unable to connect with the professor to try and finish the last steps.

At this point, I don't really know what else to do, as the project has just stalled. I'm frustrated by the situation, as I feel like I've done everything I can. What other steps can I take at this point to try and get this article moving towards publication?

P.S. - to clarify, the data/analysis/writing stage of the article is finished. We are pretty much sitting at final edits

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[Therapist4Chnge]

Have you tried contacting their program office/admin or someone else in their dept/practice? Maybe they are out on sick leave, died, left, etc?

 

[secret_santa]

Have you tried contacting their program office/admin or someone else in their dept/practice? Maybe they are out on sick leave, died, left, etc?

As far as I know, they are still there, and alive and well Former classmates from my program, who are now in the doctorate stage, are using this professor for their dissertation chair. Some of them are away on internship and are also having great difficulty connecting through emails right now for their own dissertation projects.

I may try the general office, as I had not done that yet. And maybe some other faculty who have offices nearby. That's a good thought.

 

[EmotRegulation]

I have definitely experienced this problem. Have you tried calling this person at different times throughout the day, and potentially blocking your number at some of them? Sometimes people pick up the phone when they do not respond to an email. When I've done this, I don't leave messages, I just keep calling at different times.

Also, what is the author order, has that been decided upon? I've worked with people where I've had to say "If I don't hear back from you in one month, I'm submitting this, with you as X author." Now, if this is your former mentor's data, that's probably not advisable (I've only done it when it's my data and I technically don't *need* the other person to contribute, even though the collaboration roles were decided upon early in the process).

 

[clinpsyc87]

Do your coauthors work with him? I've been in situations where I've had to get ahold of my second author and make it their job to put the draft on the chairs desk every week

 

[secret_santa]

I have definitely experienced this problem. Have you tried calling this person at different times throughout the day, and potentially blocking your number at some of them? Sometimes people pick up the phone when they do not respond to an email. When I've done this, I don't leave messages, I just keep calling at different times.

Also, what is the author order, has that been decided upon? I've worked with people where I've had to say "If I don't hear back from you in one month, I'm submitting this, with you as X author." Now, if this is your former mentor's data, that's probably not advisable (I've only done it when it's my data and I technically don't *need* the other person to contribute, even though the collaboration roles were decided upon early in the process).

At this point I am 1st author, as I did all the data gathering and 90% of the leg work to get the article to a manuscript form. But my professor certainly put quite a bit of time and input into some of the interpretation nuances and helped with pointing me in the right direction for the more detailed statistical analysis. At this point I am tempted to just move forward, but I for sure don't want to burn any bridges!

 

[secret_santa]

Do your coauthors work with him? I've been in situations where I've had to get ahold of my second author and make it their job to put the draft on the chairs desk every week

Yeah my co-author cannot get a hold of the professor either, unfortunately. My co-author is away on postdoc though, so we are both stuck here!

 

[cara susanna]

Hi everyone,

I'm a longtime follower/poster on SDN, but made a new account for this question for anonymity sake.

I have been working with a professor on an article for publication for more than a year now. The work started when I was in my master's program. Based on life circumstances, I ended up moving away prior to finalizing the article (after graduation), but we agreed on finishing the project the best we could through email, etc. I am currently pursuing a different career position that would be greatly boosted by this publication. However, I have not been able to get in touch with my professor for almost 6 months now, despite repeated (and very respectful) emails. Other colleagues on this same project have also been unable to connect with the professor to try and finish the last steps.

At this point, I don't really know what else to do, as the project has just stalled. I'm frustrated by the situation, as I feel like I've done everything I can. What other steps can I take at this point to try and get this article moving towards publication?

P.S. - to clarify, the data/analysis/writing stage of the article is finished. We are pretty much sitting at final edits

What I've done with missing co-authors is to work on the manuscript without them, email them the final version, and tell them "I'm planning on submitting this to (Journal) on (date). Please let me know by then if you have any changes."

 

[deleted343839]

At this point I am 1st author, as I did all the data gathering and 90% of the leg work to get the article to a manuscript form. But my professor certainly put quite a bit of time and input into some of the interpretation nuances and helped with pointing me in the right direction for the more detailed statistical analysis. At this point I am tempted to just move forward, but I for sure don't want to burn any bridges!

First, get the manuscript to the point that you are happy with it and ready to submit. Formatting, title page, abstract, references, everything. Create a final-final version. Assuming this faculty member has decided that s/he can't be bothered with any further effort on the paper, you can make it easy to just say "yes" to a pristine-looking final draft.

Then, you and your co-author(s) should both make a last effort to try to reach this faculty member by telephone. Leave detailed messages. If you don't get a response, try to recruit someone who is physically near this person to help deliver your message.

Then deliver a copy of the completed manuscript, by certified mail, with a polite note saying something along the lines of, "We have tried to contact you by email and by telephone on [date], [date], and [date] to finalize the manuscript, but have not heard back from you. Per the suggestions in your most recent correspondence of xx/xx/2015 we have made the following changes [X, Y, Z]. The manuscript is now ready to submit. In acknowledgement of your role in the conceptualization of the study and data analysis, you are listed as [position] author on the manuscript. Would you please indicate your final approval of the manuscript, or suggest any further revisions, as soon as possible either to myself (phone xxx-xxx-xxxx, email [email protected]) or to [Colleague's name] (phone xxx-xxx-xxxx, email [email protected])? We plan to submit the paper on xx/xx/2015 to [name of journal]. If we do not hear from you by that time we will assume that no further changes are necessary from your perspective. We appreciate your valuable advice and feedback on the manuscript."

 

[secret_santa]

Thank you all for this input! I greatly appreciate it. This is good advice for sure

 

[PBCocce]

Phone call?

I find that that can be surprisingly effective, especially since most people do not anticipate.

 

[WisNeuro]

Message in a bottle?

 

[AcronymAllergy]

Phone call?

I find that that can be surprisingly effective, especially since most people do not anticipate.

Agreed--I'd try a phone call first and foremost, then would try contacting someone else in the department (either a student you know or administrative staff) to get your message there by proxy, and then would consider a certified letter.