I needed this too. It did in fact require a significant commitment, so she became a coauthor, which was fine for my situation.
I wrote a seminar paper that I couldn’t stand by the time I was “done” with it—did some things well and others unimpressively—but the prof pushed me to publish it. (I’ll skip the parts where I was making myself miserable about how terrible it was and the parts where I was running past deadline and agonizing that now it really needed to be good because I was late, so it became even later.)
His research assistant was a friend of mine with complementary skills—I am terrible at details, cleaning up loose ends, making sure ideas aren’t left half-finished and unattached to their surroundings; she is good at taking unpolished idea-dumps and turning them into real papers. So when I dreaded the thought of opening it, she did her first pass. (And, uh, then I dreaded opening it again, thinking “oh no, what if it’s bad and I have to figure out how to steer it back without making her feel bad”. But at least it was a different reason.)
Mostly we exchanged emails and met every week or so, and we finished (and got a publication offer, whee) because I would have felt like a real jerk otherwise for dragging her into it and then flaking out. Also because my role then was mostly reacting to her changes and seeing what they suggested as next steps for me, rather than simply staring at a page I’d already been staring at unproductively.
I needed this too. It did in fact require a significant commitment, so she became a coauthor, which was fine for my situation.
I wrote a seminar paper that I couldn’t stand by the time I was “done” with it—did some things well and others unimpressively—but the prof pushed me to publish it. (I’ll skip the parts where I was making myself miserable about how terrible it was and the parts where I was running past deadline and agonizing that now it really needed to be good because I was late, so it became even later.)
His research assistant was a friend of mine with complementary skills—I am terrible at details, cleaning up loose ends, making sure ideas aren’t left half-finished and unattached to their surroundings; she is good at taking unpolished idea-dumps and turning them into real papers. So when I dreaded the thought of opening it, she did her first pass. (And, uh, then I dreaded opening it again, thinking “oh no, what if it’s bad and I have to figure out how to steer it back without making her feel bad”. But at least it was a different reason.)
Mostly we exchanged emails and met every week or so, and we finished (and got a publication offer, whee) because I would have felt like a real jerk otherwise for dragging her into it and then flaking out. Also because my role then was mostly reacting to her changes and seeing what they suggested as next steps for me, rather than simply staring at a page I’d already been staring at unproductively.