Hi All, I just graduated with my PhD and have the opportunity to submit my papers to journals. It will take some revisions and formatting, but my advisor was INSUFFERABLE to work with. Extremely toxic, the thought of working with them makes me anxious and sick.
Any tips of how to collaborate as a colleague now and no longer a student? If this person is going to give me a hard time, I don’t want to pursue this.
Please any advice or motivation or comments in general on how to approach this?
Comments
It’s your dissertation and work – why do you need them?
Don’t let a toxic relationship influence your future as it has your past. Prepare the publication independently but with your advisor’s name on them. Submit them for their review, not asking for input in an open way, but more carefully worded, saying “I’ll be submitting this on ‘X date’ and appreciate any input you may have.” If they provide comment, great. If they don’t, great, it is tacit approval. If they scream and complain but don’t provide constructive comment, then its “Thank you for your response. I’m sorry that you don’t feel the work is appropriate to carry your name. I will remove your name from the work, but thank you again for considering this submission.” If you wish to remain in academia, publishing is important.
I am doing the same now with a modified version of my dissertation under review for a conference. Good luck!
Hate to break it to you, but colleague isn’t how they are going to see you. If they had no respect for you as a student, it’s not going to change.
Publishing afterwards is tough. What happens when the reviewers want a control experiment? Or a piece of data that you didn’t collect? That could make or break a submission.
You should publish. It is an important accomplishment from your research and will help you open doors. I would discourage you from giving them a deadline in your first email. If a month passes without revisions send a specific date in a follow up email.