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A year ago a small team (2-3 prominent scientists) from prominent academic and industrial collaboration published 120+ page long research preprint that could be very important contribution to the machine learning science. I have tried to decipher it and mostly I can grasp the main ideas and this article motivated me to read a lot of books and articles and learn a lot. But still - I can see quite clearly that the hardest part of this particle are not the advanced theory but just some obscure mathematical constructions that are not clearly defined or justified or worked out.

I have contacted authors several times before shyly. They were forthcoming but still I have many more questions left.

What is general practice about such communication between readers and authors? Is such communication the standard practice? Are authors eager to respond and make clarifications or maybe they have no motivation to spend time on such communication?

So - is there some way how I can encourage and motivate authors to respond to my questions?

I can imagine 2 factors that can contribute to their motivation:

  1. This preprint is still not published and quite possibly that it is under the review (my guess is that is rejected as too obscure from the major publication venues). So - such communication can give hints for the improvement of the article. E.g. authors can give response to me and almost copy-paste some paragraphs of the answer in the improved version of the article;

  2. I have honest intention to build my own research work on their article (series of articles). This can be even better motivation for them because the original article/preprint is pure theory but I have applications in mind.

From the other side, point 2 can be quite worthless in my case because I am making only the first steps in the research.

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  • You say the authors have already been forthcoming in prior communications with you. But they are under no obligation to keep doing so and might be busy with whatever they are doing now.
    – Ed V
    Apr 19, 2022 at 13:16
  • What is your current position: student, other?
    – Buffy
    Apr 19, 2022 at 13:38
  • My position - student for the master degree. But I have ambitions to study further and to create my own startup as well.
    – TomR
    Apr 19, 2022 at 13:43
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    "I have honest intention to build my own research work on their article (series of articles). This can be even better motivation for them because the original article/preprint is pure theory but I have applications in mind." - This is likely not as motivating to them as you think, as to them you are effectively: "someone who doesn't understand our work wants our help so they can write a new paper about it."
    – Bryan Krause ♦
    Apr 19, 2022 at 14:21

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I think that in practice, most researchers have an interest in explaining their work to others -- that is, after all, what publication should be about. At the same time, one cannot answer the questions of everyone out there sending emails, and so for most people, there will also be a limit to how much time they are willing to invest in explaining papers to others. That's just being pragmatic.

As for what you can do to encourage them to explain things to you: Literally nothing. Other than doing it out of the good of their heart, there is nothing the authors can gain from interacting with you, and there is nothing you can offer them in return.

(It does occasionally happen that these interactions result in a collaboration, but that is more likely to happen if the person asking is already proficient in the area.)

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    Yes, every interaction is just an interruption unless you have something to offer in return.
    – Buffy
    Apr 19, 2022 at 13:58

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