Contacting researchers and collaborating

Often the hardest part is not knowing what happens after you send a message. A contact can be a single concrete question or the beginning of exploring a project together.

Find a reason to talk

Read the person's recent papers, projects, or open calls. Know what interests you, what you have tried, and what you want to ask.

Stanford's guide to emailing faculty offers a useful model. Local instructors, students at other universities, and paper authors can all be people to talk to.

The first email can be short

Adapt the details in this example to your own situation:

Hello Professor, I am an undergraduate studying [subject] at [university], currently exploring long-horizon agents. After reading [paper] from your group, I became interested in its failure-recovery component. I tried the related example and wrote a one-page record.

May I ask whether you have a task suitable for an undergraduate, or time for a short conversation about this question? I can currently commit [time] each week. My notes and CV are attached. Thank you.

With a senior student, a more informal tone is fine. A specific question is often easier to begin with than “Can you mentor my research?” If there is no reply, follow up once after a reasonable interval and continue looking elsewhere.

What to clarify in the first conversation

Ask about the actual task, supervision, communication, data, compute, and time. Explain your aims and foundations so both sides can assess the fit.

For a trial, agree on when to review its outcome. Discuss contribution, authorship, and handover expectations early and update them as the work changes.

How to ask when stuck

Expand “the program will not run” into what you wanted to execute, the environment, where it failed, and what you tried. Research questions similarly need the goal, observation, attempts, and hypothesis.

The information-organization sections of How To Ask Questions The Smart Way are useful. How to work with a professor also discusses records, updates, and collaboration.

Ending a collaboration that does not fit

First consider adjustments. Some informal collaborations also end gradually as contact and tasks decline, with both sides understanding what is happening. You can explore other opportunities and discuss next steps with your direct mentor at a suitable time.

If others await your work, explain progress, code, and handover needs clearly. Switching projects need not damage the relationship; you may collaborate again. See research question 25.

More related questions are in questions 16–25. For how others began meeting people, see experience.

Other accounts of contacting and collaborating

Research conversations includes Chai's FAQ, Jason Eisner's advice, and Stanford's email guide. If you do not yet know which groups exist, follow projects through the lab directory.