Started a project- how to push it forward?

[WingsBelieve84]

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Hey all,
I am sitting on a few projects that I started as a medical student and am finding it very hard to move them forward. I know this is a general, common problem in research. I have never been published and would love to bring these projects to publication, even if in lesser known journals. I have worked on them in several different stints, progressing them, but am dependent on others to help contribute to it and get it to a point where I could write it up. That of course, I am really struggling with. Besides asking these colleagues if they have worked on the project, has anybody found good strategies for helping to move projects along? When do you decide to just drop it? Looking for any tips, thanks!

 

[Ombret]

It sounds like you need more mentorship from your research mentor. (Alternatively, if these are projects that you have hatched yourself, you need to find some kind of mentor to help you out.) See if you can meet with whoever was going to be the senior author and gauge their level of interest. It also sounds like you have some slow collaborators and a more senior voice would probably do more to get them back into the loop. If all of these people are just not interested anymore, then maybe they would let you take the projects to someone else to complete them.

Some projects just don't fly and that is part of research too. It might be worth asking yourself (or others who are knowledgeable in the field) if that is the case here. You might then do best to cut bait and move on to something else.

 

[Insig]

I think your question is simply too-far-removed for anyone here to contribute an accurate and meaningful response.

First off, why are these project(s) not moving forward?
1. Data not interesting? (negative results?)
2. Having trouble interpreting data (ie: you said you rely on others -- perhaps their knowledge?)
3. Technical/Technological problem? (ie: assays not sensitive enough? or substantial optimization (time) required?)
4. Don't know which question to ask?

Secondly, science is approached differently from one field to the next. Of course, the scientific method is preserved; rather, what is considered an interesting question and how to probe the answers to the question require training and background knowledge of the field.

So, whats the problem you face?

Also, maybe you should ask your PI the same question you've posted above? Isn't that what he or she is there for?

 

[WingsBelieve84]

The project is a clinical research study with a very straightfoward question. The problem I am having is that I am relying on collaborators to gather all of their data - more specifically it is just one collaborator. I can't really get a sense of their interest in the project as I was not the one who recruited them into our study, my PI did. I have spoken with my PI about this, and he seems somewhat interested in progressing the project. I just have a feeling that he may not really make the push to progress it enough to actually get this data that we need. So essentially I am sitting with a large amount of data that I have collected, and dont know how to move forward. Thanks for the responses

 

[Ombret]

So you have some data that you collected, and you need some more data from this collaborator to complete the project (maybe they control the follow-up or something). This is the "lazy collaborator" problem and by encountering it, you are unfortunately learning an important lesson.

No one else has as much buy-in as you do. The collaborator doesn't care about being a middle author on this study. The PI is game but has a longer time horizon and maybe has many irons in the fire, or is at a career stage when this is not all that important to him. Meanwhile this is one of your only projects at the moment and you need it done by a specific time, for applications or because you are leaving, etc. So you are going to have to be the one to push the collaborator by suggesting a timeframe for completion, finding some way to make the collaborator's job easier (maybe s/he can get a trainee to retrieve the data or give you access to the database... hard to say without more specifics), obtaining some money to fund their expenses in gathering the data, arranging a more prime author order (but do not give up first author obviously), or just being a bigger pain in their neck. If they have any interest in this project at all, they will respond.

Another option would be to redirect the project so that you don't need this collaborator's data, if that is possible.

 

[Insig]

With the data you have already collected, can you find some interesting phenomenon (without data snooping)? Or perhaps some correlation that you can follow up with an experiment? (in order to re-direct your project slightly?)