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I am investigating properties of some material. However it seems that all of the research is inconclusive and material modified the same way but by different teams have different properties.

Because research teams sometimes did only one or two types of measurement (which does not overlap with other teams' measurements)* , it is difficult to compare and say what may be the reason for different results.

It is known that the best practice is to never throw samples away.

So maybe it would be good to invite all the research teams to send me their samples and make all of the possible measurements to squeeze more data from them. It would not only give the mankind more knowledge, but also it would allow those team to have one more paper from the same, old samples.

However everyone I know tells me, that people will never agree for something like that, because noone trust other people.

So how to make people trust me, and create a huge, multinational study of said material, with a lot of authors and a lot of measurements (carried out in one facility to be sure of identical conditions)?

 * I mean that eg. teams 1 and 2 made the same type of material 
but team 1 did measurements A and B, while team 2 made 
measurement A and C. 
Hard to compare, especially if measurement of A gives different results 
for different team.
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  • 1
    Step one: Make sure that people care about this material and that, therefore, researchers care about looking at it.
    – Dirk
    Jun 8, 2017 at 9:22
  • 1
    Do you mean researchers will never agree to send you their samples? If so, then you could go and visit those researchers and conduct the research in their lab.
    – user2768
    Jun 8, 2017 at 12:34
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    Such 'round-robin' studies have been done in various areas. For the ones that I know of, the community got along well (in general) and they recognized the importance of doing the check of measurements across institutions. You might start with organizing a topical session on the material and measurements at a conference where most of the community attends.
    – Jon Custer
    Jun 8, 2017 at 12:55
  • Set it up as a win-win -- you get something out of the collaboration, and they get something out of the collaboration. // Make a website where you explain some technique(s) that others are interested in learning. If you show that you share information, others will be more likely to share with you. Jun 9, 2017 at 5:23

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