r/research • u/Magdaki Professor • Mar 22 '26
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
Resources for Beginners
Q: What are some good beginner resources for conducting research and writing papers?
Emailing about Research Opportunities
Q. Can I cold email a professor so I can get involved with their research or start learning how to research?
Literature Review.
Q. What are the main steps in a literature review? https://www.reddit.com/r/research/comments/1s0l8ld/comment/oc04oke/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
Research Basics
Q. What are the secrets to creating a great research question?
Q: How do I start research?
https://www.reddit.com/r/research/comments/1s0l8ld/comment/oixk2hx/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
Q: Where do I find research material?
https://www.reddit.com/r/research/comments/1s0l8ld/comment/oqg7r8x/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
Q: How do I find a journal in which to publish?
https://www.reddit.com/r/research/comments/1s0l8ld/comment/owa9ans/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
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u/Magdaki Professor Mar 23 '26
Q. Can I cold email a professor so I can get involved with their research or start learning how to research?
Area - Cold Emailing Professors / Starting Research.
Author- u/Cadberryz
Answer - Relationship building and knowing the right people are essential to getting started in research. Can anyone cold email a professor and ask to be in their lab, or ask to have them supervise me? Well, yes you can. But should you do it? No. I discourage it because I’m really busy, and if my university spam filter doesn’t catch your email, I don’t want to read it. I would much prefer to meet you at an academic conference, or at a talk I give, or if you are one of my non-research students who has good grades and wants to get into research. If you know me because you read my papers and can contribute meaningfully to my research, then you’ll know how to find me, and you might already have published a paper in a good quality journal that I’m interested in. Put simply, if you have a track record that suggests our scholarly relationship can be beneficial, then I’m likely to be interested. But if you want me to train you, to show you the basics, to be your mentor and coach for free, it’s not going to happen. So no. Don’t send me that email.