Saturday, December 01, 2007

Request for Pre-Prints

Yahoo! I received my first request for a pre-print of my first published article and I haven't even received it from the publisher yet.

I found out late last night when I was up late from having slept most of the afternoon because of the flu. I can't quite recall why I checked the email that I provided as contact info for the article, I think it was because I thought some of my etsy street team email had been going there too. Well, lo and behold, there it was - a request for my work!

It was/is so validating. It makes me want to revise and submit my dissertation for publication right away because it is a much stronger piece of research than my earlier work. I love my research. No one in the world is doing it but me, and it is such an interesting topic that more people should be studying it. I wish I could tell you all about it but I want to stay pseudo-anonymous for a while.

The researcher who contacted me isn't in my exact field so that is exciting too. He studies a different species - Barbary macaques I think. They are so neat. I would love to see them in the wild someday when I go to Morocco. He attached his own paper to the request for the pre-print, which was something I hadn't thought of doing before, but it strikes me as a great way to get your research "out there." That's another reason to revise and submit the Diss!

I am really hoping this might lead to some research collaboration. I would love to have access to people and equipment for fecal sample analysis of glucocorticoids.

Collecting poo samples is the real dirty work of any good primatologist. I won't be a real one until I get my hands on some fresh dung.

6 comments:

CSS said...

Hahaha! Well I sure have not met a lot of people who can't wait to dig in poo :) Glad you are looking forward to it :)

I was looking for that post on why to finish the dissertation, but decided to first congratulate you on having your paper noticed and in demand. Congrats! Use this boost to revise the dissertation, don't let it burn out.

My PhD topic too is unique in the sense that there is no one in the world who is working on this but me. Although I suspect someone could but haven't published yet. Let's hope not for the sake of my sanity :) I wonder how many of us (grad students) are working on things that are unique. It is rather fascinating to think about...

Field Notes said...

Being the trailblazer can be daunting and liberating at the same time.

A mentor type once told me (not too long ago) that hiring committees don't really like innovators (or something like that) because maybe people haven't studied it for a reason. Why should they believe you have figured out how to study it? If no one but you has studied it before, maybe that's because "it isn't important" and other hooey.
She made good points.

Those of us who are venturing out into uncharted territory need to take extra care to convey our work's relevance.

yellowfish said...

ha... I also finished my dissertation this year... there is that joke that PhD stands for "piled higher and deeper" but that takes on a whole new meaning when you're looking forward to digging in poo! ;)

Field Notes said...

no sh*t !

Congrats yellowfish on finishing yours!

LeaKarts said...

Congrats on the article!

B said...

Yay what good news!