How do I get co-authors and/or research help as a new professor?

[Christopher Binetti]

Dear Grad Cafe,

I am a fairly recent graduate but I do not know if new professors are supposed or allowed to post here. I will try once anyway. I am a new adjunct professor who has been published in scholarly only twice in the two and half years after graduation. I want to get a permanent job and publishing is really important for that ,but publishing the breakthrough article is really difficult. I have a project right now that is mostly done but I am having a terrible time doing the citations for it. I am feeling inadequate to the task, but I do not want to abandon the project. I am just a lowly adjunct professor with no budget or research support, so if I want help, like a co-author or a graduate student for a research assistant. How do I go about getting either for this project? In addition to this mostly-done project, I have two other projects, one very early on the process and another in need of major review and citations. I am willing to share equal credit for all three projects but I doubt that I can pay anyone, even a graduate student. Please give me advice.

Sincerely,

Dr. Christopher Binetti

[PsyDuck90]

My guess would be that your best bet is to just ask any students you have that show promise and an interest in the field. Most students would be happy to work on a paper for authorship, as they want to grow their CV. Most students, outside of PhD students, are unpaid research assistants. 

[Mickey26]

As my colleague above reiterated, most undergraduate research assistants are unpaid; rather, they are happy to volunteer as RAs in order to gain much-needed research experience. You may have to teach them the ropes of how research is conducted, citation styles, what have you, but in the end, its a mentor-mentee relationship that is a win-win situation for both. 

(And yes, this forum welcomes everyone, including faculty members!)