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[pintonala]

Hi,

I am a new tenure track assistant prof in my first year. 

One of the senior tenured professors has invited me to collaborate with him on a project.

Although the grant is not my area of interest, my methodological skills/expertise could address one particular questions they wish to address.

I indicated my interest in the project, and I am examining the project documents now to sufficiently gauge how much work is involved.

If the scope is manageable, I am thinking of a way to negotiate the collaboration for two reasons.

-- I want to be able to contribute my methodological skills to the project, without getting too deeply involved -- it is a large project, and not really in my area of interest.  I want to be able to work on my own projects.

-- Hopefully, I can get one or two papers from this project, and move on.

I am thinking of telling the senior professor that I can contribute my methodological skills to the project, in return for a summer salary and co-authorship (with the team) on our work (in fact, he has already promised co-authorship based on our intended work together).  But rumors indicate that this particular prof can be a bully to his RAs and some junior profs, but he is also central in this rather small department.

How do I negotiate this without appearing too obnoxious, unhelpful or dismissive?  Does my plan seem reasonable ?

Thanks in advance for your assistance -- Pinto

[athena1]

Maybe pose those ideas as questions instead of demands, e.g., "tell me how we'd share authorship for manuscripts that come out of this project?"

I'd go ahead and sign on. Unless this person regulalry receives grant funding, chances of it actually hitting may be slim.

[pintonala]

thanks very much, Athena.

The first part of the project is already funded - since 2006.  So they need to begin work right away, hence the request for my assistance.  I agree that i should ask questions instead of demands - it might seem much more polite.

questions like:  chances for authorship for pubs, and how we would share it? 
time requirements, and how we can arrange it to leave time for my other work?

thanks very much - Pinto

[pt767]

Since the project is already funded, I doubt there will be summer salary support in the budget for you, but if you are in the sciences for example, you should still be able to establish how much this will cost your lab so you can tap into the supplies line of the budget if need be.  Just make sure that your time won't be entirely cannibalized by this project. You need to lay down the ground rules of where you can participate and where you see your work fitting into the overall publication scheme of the project. As Athena suggested, you can do this through some skillful discussion with probing questions to the senior PI about where they see the project going with your participation.