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I gave a manuscript to my advisor while ago but he doesn't read it, what is the best action to do cause I need to publish it fast?

Peter Jansson
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Katekalle
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    Why do you need to publish it fast ? is there a conference deadline ? or a journal final version deadline ? or something else ? – Suresh May 31 '14 at 22:58
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    This is one of the positive proportion of questions asked here that makes me wish we had a Talk to your advisor! banner as a site feature. How about you take the time and effort it would require to explain the particulars of your situation to a bunch of random internet academics and use that to have a discussion with your advisor: why hasn't he read your paper? Does he intend to read it soon? Does he understand and agree that you need to "publish it fast"? If you have this conversation and run into a specific wall, then maybe we have something to talk about here. – Pete L. Clark May 31 '14 at 23:45
  • I have to publish it, because other people are publishing around it! He is telling me we are going to submit it soon. I have to graduate and there is a chance people will publish similar work. I cant publish on my own, he funded the project. I sent him many drafts!! Nothing works, talking, sending email,... He says we ll do it and just postpones... I dont want to do anything bad to relationship! – Katekalle Jun 01 '14 at 02:47
  • How long ago was a while ago, to be precise? – adipro Jun 01 '14 at 05:48
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    I dont want to do anything bad to relationship — If asking your advisor to do his job is going to damage your relationship, your relationship is already damaged beyond repair. – JeffE Jun 01 '14 at 07:29
  • @JeffE, I think what the OP means might damage relationship is to publish on her own. – adipro Jun 01 '14 at 10:59
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    @Katekalle Could you expand your question? Is it a paper with your advisor, or without? How long did you wait? How does he respond to reminders? – Piotr Migdal Jun 01 '14 at 14:04

3 Answers3

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If talking to your advisor doesn't work, I would suggest emailing your advisor with the draft, saying that you plan to submit it to XXX on such-and-such a date and that you would be grateful for any feedback he or she can provide you before then.

As mentioned by amirg, you might also run it by the head of your lab, if that's the standard in your field. (It's not in mine: computer science.)

Ellen Spertus
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  • @ espertus; @amirg; @ RoboKaren; @Pete L. Clark; @Suresh; I have to publish it, because other people are publishing around it! He is telling me we are going to submit it soon. I have to graduate and there is a chance people will publish similar work. I cant publish on my own, he funded the project. I sent him many drafts!! Nothing works, talking, sending email,... He says we ll do it and just postpones... I dont want to do anything bad to relationship! – Katekalle Jun 01 '14 at 03:01
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    I would talk to your department head. Something is not going well in your department. – RoboKaren Jun 01 '14 at 04:39
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Since, you are near your graduation, that means not only you know whether your research results are publishable or not but where to publish those results as well. Consequently, similar to what Suresh suggests, one of your problems is not only to publish those results but publishing them on a suitable venue which is a) close to your area of interest b) it is a high-profile journal of conference c) your paper has a lot of chances to be actually accepted. So, it is part of your job to actually find such a venue to stress the urgency of your publishing those results.

In this sense, have you checked the nearby CFPs (call for proposals) for related conferences or journals? Perhaps your advisor plans to submit your paper to an event which is 2-3 months from now and is already confident enough for your draft, so there is no immediate hurry to do the final changes now. Many advisors are very busy and allocation for their various tasks is done according to their deadlines, so perhaps this is the reason he has postponed providing feedback. If you have found an alternative venue for publishing those results with a closer deadline, it will be easier for you to convince him to check your manuscript ASAP.

But in the end, we are just random Internet strangers and the most proper solution is (as others have suggested) to TALK TO YOUR ADVISOR.

Alexandros
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Original Answer: If you are submitting to a journal, you do not have to have your advisor's approval (unless you are using his dataset or it is coming out of his lab). If it is based on your own research findings, publish it as single-author.

Editorial Note: You did not indicate your discipline. As state in the original response, this answer is only applicable for disciplines where your research is independent of your advisor's research, lab, or research grants.

RoboKaren
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    Be very careful, though, if you follow this advise, for you might needlessly damage your relationship. If you are a part of a lab, the lab head has contributed to the science the very least by getting the funds and probably by suggesting the line of research. There are many sad stories on this website alone where going single author, even when partially substantiated, have lead to probes into research integrity and other unfortunate incidents. – alarge Jun 01 '14 at 02:01
  • Oops, responded on wrong comment.That's why I added the disclaimer bit to not do this if you are in a joint lab project. – RoboKaren Jun 01 '14 at 04:40
  • This is not a good advice. Especially when the OP is near graduation. For example: http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/21710/how-to-respond-to-allegations-of-misconduct-in-authorship-dispute – Alexandros Jun 01 '14 at 07:36
  • I agree that this is terrible advise. Look over the question linked by Alexandros for the possible outcomes of the "ignore the advisor" approach. (-1) – xLeitix Jun 01 '14 at 08:44