How to ask politely and professionally for clarification in a journal article?

Discussion in 'Physics & Math' started by Secret, Jan 22, 2015.

  1. Secret Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    299
    Use this for example:

    http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v517/n7535/full/517444a.html

    Say if after reading the journal I have some points that I found not clearly explained and I want to ask the authors for clarification, how should I ask them so that it does not sound like an unsolicated message or spam?

    PS The actual jounral article I have confusion on is not this one, but using that link instead will make this thread not belong to the physics and maths subforum since that one is a biotechnology article
     
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  3. Farsight

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    You want tashja to tell you that.
     
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  5. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    Have you tried discussing it with other people who have read the article?
     
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  7. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    How about writing a letter? On paper.
     
  8. GeoffP Caput gerat lupinum Valued Senior Member

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    "Dear spastics,"
     
  9. someguy1 Registered Senior Member

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    727
    You're asking the people in this forum for pointers on politeness?
     
  10. przyk squishy Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    3,203
    Mostly common sense things:
    • Preferably, use an email address based on your real name.
    • Put something like "On your article [Nature X, YZ (2014)]" in the subject line.
    • Do your homework and try to keep the email itself short and to the point (researchers are busy and less likely to read your email if it's excessively long or if you give the impression you're going to need a lot of background material explained to you).
    • If the paper has multiple authors, think a bit about which one would be the best one to contact. It's probably a good idea to look up a bit about the author's backgrounds and research positions and see if you can guess who contributed what to the paper. (A typical pattern is that a more senior researcher will have initiated and supervised the research project while a PhD student or postdoc carried out the day-to-day research and wrote most of the paper.) If you're not a researcher yourself, something to keep in mind is that the authors might view replying to you as a form of "public relations"; more senior researchers will tend to be more comfortable and experienced with this.
    Beyond that, I wouldn't worry too much. Asking the authors for clarification on some specific point in their article will already show that you've read the article and you're genuinely interested in its contents. That alone will distinguish your email from spam.
     
    Last edited: Jan 24, 2015
  11. Secret Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    299
    (P.S. I have not wrote an email to ask about the biology article (that I have used as an example) yet, but I have wrote an email on asking about an article in theoretical physics)

    Crap, I might have screwed it up:

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!


    (NB My real name is used in the blue rectangle. It is bolted up here to protect my privacy)
    http://iopscience.iop.org/0143-0807/36/2/025005/pdf/0143-0807_36_2_025005.pdf
    (Email sent at 24/1/2015 via my uni's microsoft outlook)
    (The grey box that showed the wikia comments is not part of the email. It is there in the pics to illustrate how it motivates me to send the email after reading his article in detail)

    I can think of 6 possibilities (besides business) for the lack of reply :
    1. I forgot to include the article, thus he was confused on which article I am asking about
    2. "Thank you for your recommendation on 8/1/2015 on the insights on negative mass for my science fiction." might sound more like an advertisment thingy, thus considered spammy in attitude, despite I just want to acknowledge him for recommending me that when he left the comments in the wikia page
    3. The word "already" in "Have the Kerr metric analogue for negative mass been worked out already?" might cause it to be misinterpreted as some kind of rhetorical question rather than a true question, thus might be perceived as impolite
    4. My email revealed my undergraduate status in my uni and possibly cause it to be pushed behind the queue in the answering list
    5. The user who first recommend this link might not be Richard himself, thus me sending this email my caused him to become confused
    6. The email end up in the junk email folder on the other side, hence not picked up

    I was thinking that 1 and 2 might be the most probable reason, but I am not sure how to fix it/send a follow up clarification email by putting in the article without possibly offending the professor further, because I don't personally know him thus this is sort of a cold call and that makes me nervous
     
    Last edited: Jul 10, 2015

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