I am a first year graduate student in a completely theoretical field. How does one go about collaborating online or otherwise with researchers from other institutes/universities? In particular, if I am interested in a problem or an area which is not very well represented at my current institution, how do I approach researchers from other institutes to start a collaboration assuming I have the basic background to start research? Should I have a very particular problem/idea in mind while contacting a potential collaborator, or is it unusual if I approach a researcher just because I am interested in his work and would like to learn more and work on it with no particular problem in mind?
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I will sound a bit pessimistic about this, but usually professors are very busy to collaborate with unknown people. Also, they have their own students to help. Once you establish yourself as a good researcher (after having a few good publications under your belt) you can try to collaborate with researchers working on a similar area. Before that, unless you are referred by your advisor, I do not believe that cold emailing people will actually work. – Alexandros Jun 19 '16 at 14:28
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@Alexandros How about collaboration with other PhD students? I think two or three PhD students are capable of doing independent research. Of course, their supervisors must be informed if they want to include the work in their thesis. – MOON Jun 19 '16 at 14:39
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Also see How to establish collaborations with academics who you do not know where you contribute to their research projects? and How to ask someone to collaborate on a joint paper? – ff524♦ Jun 19 '16 at 16:49
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I have found that it is very difficult to start collaborating with people who are totally new to you. Some good ways to find people to collaborate with are:
- Tapping into your PhD/PostDoc advisor's existing contact network
- Using your advisor's status/fame to get new collaborators (i.e., the advisor handles the initial contact)
- Giving talks in conferences and getting people excited about your work.
- Talking to people in conferences and finding some common interests for new projects.
I write this as a PhD student with experience in collaborating within physics/chemistry communities.
