Cutting ties with old research projects

[Epi_Catherine]

Hey y'all,

 

I got my Masters of Public Health back in 2012, but continued to do part-time work for my faculty advisor doing analyses/writing manuscripts that stemmed from my master's thesis project. I officially stopped being employed by him in August 2014 because I started a PhD program at a different school/different state. One of the papers we had submitted for publication got rejected, and he's now asking me to help revise it and send it to another journal.

 

This is my first semester as a PhD student, so naturally, I'm busy. I have a research assistantship position on top of classes. And honestly, I'm just sick of working on a project that I started all the way back in 2011 for my thesis. 

 

Is it rude or unadvisable to try to cut ties with this project? Obviously, I respect my old advisor and his support definitely helped me get into my PhD program so I don't want to disappoint or upset him. It's just too overwhelming for me to work on this project in addition to everything else, not to mention that I'm just not motivated to work on it...

 

I'd appreciate any input! 

 

Thanks,

Catherine 

[Eigen]

I would think if you want to tell him you no longer want to be an author on the paper, he would probably accept it and move on, but that seems like a poor idea for many reasons. 

 

It's very common to keep working on projects after you've moved institutions- things like publications aren't really tied to employment, it's your scholarship and you should want to get it out. 

 

If you co-authored a paper and it got rejected, you can either choose to completely drop yourself off of the project, or help with the revisions. 

[ginagirl]

I am in the same position, so I get how you feel. I am currently working on finishing a manuscript for some research I used to do full-time. I am currently a 1st year MS student. 

 

The reason I am continuing to work on the manuscript is because 1) I told my boss I would, 2) she is being flexible about a deadline and is leaving it to me to finish or not (I don't think she would care honestly whether or not it got written), and 3) if it gets published, it's another thing for my CV.

 

I think my best advice is to weigh what you hope to gain vs what you are sacrificing. If you decide to finish what you've committed to at this point, in the future it might be a good idea to think more carefully about what you will agree to take on. If you set clear boundaries from the start, it will be much easier than feeling like you are "giving up" or "flaking" on something you don't have time to commit to. If you don't feel like you can set aside the time to produce something of quality, it is probably best to just say so.

[bsharpe269]

I agree that if you can find the time then it would be good to help get it ready to be resubmitted. It is easy to be frustrated and over projects at this point but you put a lot of effort into that work so wouldnt it be nice to get something out of it? Publications arent that easy to come by and if you have one almost ready to go then I think it would be worth the small amount of work needed to revise it. Also, it would probably be beneficial to stay on good terms with this professor for networking opportunities. I think that it would be perfectly fine if you agree to help but let him know that since you are really busy, your progress on it may be a bit slow. At the very least, you could make some time over thanksgiving or winter break to work on it for example.

[fuzzylogician]

If the plan is to have a career in academia, then peer reviewed papers are crucially important to your success. Stopping all work on papers from an older project just because you've moved on to a new position seems like a bad idea to me. You could, if you want, tell your advisor that you're no longer interested in being a co-author. I assume he would be ok with that, though possibly pissed or disappointed, and he'll just move on. However, given that the majority of the work on the project is done and revisions are likely not to be all that time consuming (compared to starting a new project from scratch), it's probably a wise investment to give it another shot and get a publication out of this. You could try and be very honest with your advisor about your current priorities and when (and how much) you can work on this project. Maybe you could work some arrangement out where either the advisor takes on more responsibilities or he could bring in someone new as an author who could take care of the changes. Might be worth a try if you think it's too much work or you don't care anymore, but would still like to get some kind of publication out of it.

[Epi_Catherine]

Thanks, guys. I appreciate all your comments and I think you're right. The revisions that are being requested don't seem so bad, so I'll try to get it done even if that means possibly dragging this out until Thanksgiving or winter break. We did get one publication out of the work already, so this one is more of a supplementary/off-shoot type of analysis but it would be nice to add more to my CV. 

[VulpesZerda]

Reading this thread makes me think maybe I made a bad choice a few weeks ago. I was in a similar position - except I'm an undergrad and the person asking me to do the work was a fellow from an internship that ended in April. He wanted to start a review paper with me; I sent him an outline before leaving to fly across country for an 8 week intensive summer research project. I told him that I *might* be able to start actually writing the paper when I returned... knowing that I would be taking a full course load. Well, things got really busy because I'm right in the middle of the application process, plus I picked up a second job. I told him that I'm sorry but I just don't have the time. I was extremely polite and apologetic in the email but he simply never responded. I know opportunities like this are important so maybe that wasn't smart of me?

[ginagirl]

Reading this thread makes me think maybe I made a bad choice a few weeks ago. I was in a similar position - except I'm an undergrad and the person asking me to do the work was a fellow from an internship that ended in April. He wanted to start a review paper with me; I sent him an outline before leaving to fly across country for an 8 week intensive summer research project. I told him that I *might* be able to start actually writing the paper when I returned... knowing that I would be taking a full course load. Well, things got really busy because I'm right in the middle of the application process, plus I picked up a second job. I told him that I'm sorry but I just don't have the time. I was extremely polite and apologetic in the email but he simply never responded. I know opportunities like this are important so maybe that wasn't smart of me?

If you think you can make time for it, maybe it's not too late to email him saying things have freed up for you, and ask where things are and if he's still wanting to write the review together? You did produce the outline so you have contributed solidly up until this point. 

I know sometimes it seems like a lot of work but I think as has been said above, there are benefits to following thru with these things, and especially since the fellow asked you to work on something with him, that's a great (and flattering) opportunity. But ultimately it's your decision.

[VulpesZerda]

If you think you can make time for it, maybe it's not too late to email him saying things have freed up for you, and ask where things are and if he's still wanting to write the review together? You did produce the outline so you have contributed solidly up until this point. 

I know sometimes it seems like a lot of work but I think as has been said above, there are benefits to following thru with these things, and especially since the fellow asked you to work on something with him, that's a great (and flattering) opportunity. But ultimately it's your decision.

 

Thanks...yeah, I dunno. It's not doing a lot of work that I mind at all -- I just really have never been this busy in my life, lol. Anyway, I wasn't a fan of the topic, plus even though I found about forty references to start the outline and was supposed to do the bulk of the writing, he was only planning to give me third author. Not sure what he and the other author were planning to do, but oh well, doesn't matter anymore.