Don't want to step on any toes...

[unpocorizado]

I wrote an undergraduate thesis and my thesis advisor strongly suggested turning it into a journal article. He helped me pick a journal, but then gave me two options: 1) Publish it by myself and he wouldn't be part of the process (except for maybe slight edits) or 2) Collaborate with him and put him as a second author. He's leaving and taking a new position at a different school and I haven't done much with the material yet. Given the fact that my advisor is starting a new position and I've graduated, I envisioned doing all (or mostly all) of the revision work.

Here's the tricky part: I emailed a POI recently at the program I really want to get into. I told her a bit about my research interests and she was really interested in my thesis and asked to see a copy of it. After reading it she told me she would be willing to help me explore publication options (I hadn't even mentioned that I was thinking about publishing it). I have NO IDEA about the proper protocol as far as my advisor goes. I feel like it would almost be cheating on him to work with this POI at this university, but I also know that my advisor is really busy and he admitted that it wasn't a good time to work extensively on an article with me. How should I proceed? I don't want to burn any bridges in academia so early by going to a different professor at a different university for help, but I also would like a chance to work with this POI. Or is it weird to work with a professor before even being admitted to the program? I'm new to this grad school thing and want to make sure I'm not totally naive going into this.

Thanks so much for any help!

[aberrant]

Just in my opinion, I don't think you should worry at all. The PI in "this university" is offering help by looking at possible publication of your thesis. Question is - is she planning to be the second author just because she helps you publish your thesis as a result? Since she did not contribute any of the work (of your thesis), nor you were working under her guidance, she should not be on the author list. As for your thesis advisor, it is really up to you to choose either option 1 or 2. But if I were you, since I did most of the work and my advisor is willing to edit my thesis (if necessary), I would publish it by myself. If the publication is not good enough (e.g. lack of data/support), the journal(s) will tell you that they can't publish your work until you get more data (or whatever you need to make your publication convincing enough to pass the peer review.)

[ktel]

As long as you don't put this new professor down as a second author (why would you, unless she extensively collaborates with you from this point on), I don't see a problem.