Help Me Find a Researcher to Work on a Book Project

October 6, 2008 9:43 AM

I'm working on a book about depression, and need to hire a researcher to go through previous literature and summarize previous thinking on what depression is (such background is not directly pertinent to the thrust in the book, so I'd feel ok "farming out" this background work).

While I don't need detailed material on the perspective of a given author or school of thought, I do want really apt and thoughtful synopses, preferably drawn directly from primary sources. Obviously, it would be best to hire someone who's already read widely in the field, otherwise it might take a prohibitive amount of time.

I'd pay decently, and give credit in the book. And any researcher who'd previously read widely on the topic would likely be a sufferer, and so might enjoy seeing my (fresh) perspective ahead of the reading public.

So....how might I find such a researcher? I think I'd rather work closely one-on-one with a given researcher than farm it out to, say, uclue, but I'm certainly open to any unconventional strategies or suggestions.

posted by jimmyjimjim to grab bag (8 comments total)

Define 'previous literature': are you talking about a broad historical sweep on the phenomenon that is now DSM-designated as major depressive illness, or focusing on the last half-century or century? In both regards, you're likely looking at people in the history-of-science field for focused research.
posted by holgate at 10:01 AM on October 6, 2008

Do you live close to a university? You could always put an ad in their paper looking for grad students (or even some undergrads) to do some research on the side.
posted by greta simone at 10:06 AM on October 6, 2008

A grad student would be the way to go, in that they would like the money, and they would have access to and familiarity with primary sources (articles on depression in medical journals).
I would recommend contacting the department head or administrator from the department of psychology/psychiatry at a local university and talk to them about your request. They would likely forward a message onto PhD students.
Or, look for recent review articles about depression in medical journals, and contact the authors directly.
posted by emd3737 at 10:22 AM on October 6, 2008

holgate, broad historical.

The problem with grad students is that not all of them have the ability to aptly boil down (e.g. no dense jargon), to avoid idealogical coloring, and to, generally, plug usefully into a task such as mine.

There are doubtless some grad students out there who could, but I'm not sure how to vet this in advance. Maybe have them do trial runs, summarizing some given thinker or school (in any given subject) in 1000 words and see how they do.

I'd rather have someone suited to the task approaching the literature, in other words, than have someone suited to the literature approaching the task. The latter requires flexibility, while the former requires smarts, and my experience is that smarts are more common than flexibility.
posted by jimmyjimjim at 10:41 AM on October 6, 2008

> There are doubtless some grad students out there who could, but I'm not sure how to vet this in advance

I think you're going to have this problem with all candidates, not just grad students.

As with any job, I think the thing to do is look for previous experience (e.g., as a research assistant), ask for references, and conduct an interview that will let you assess the skills you're looking for (ability to hone in on the relevant issues, avoid jargon, etc.).

The interview(s) will be especially important because (based on my own experience as an RA, long ago), a good interpersonal fit between you and your assistant will be paramount.

I like the idea of students because they're (relatively) inexpensive and have access to great resources (not so important if you can provide access to PubMed and med school libraries, but not everyone can). That said, you don't have to restrict yourself to psych grad students.

Most universities will have a job board where you can post your position.
posted by CruiseSavvy at 11:40 AM on October 6, 2008

I'm going to disagree with your characterisation of smarts/flexibility, simply because sending a psych grad student familiar with contemporary, DSM-shaped definitions of depression to dig out and summarise early modern (say, 1650-1900) material is like sending a grad biologist to assess work that precedes Mendelian genetics. Early-modern psychology is a primordial soup of terminology and concepts, and sending someone into the archives who's relatively unfamiliar with the material, but has been briefed by you, is likely to result in a confirmation bias. In general, history-of-science people will be better suited to the task, even if the material is unfamiliar, because they'll grasp the intellectual and cultural contexts of what they're reading.

Now, there's lots of well-referenced secondary literature on early modern mental illness -- Roy Porter, G.S. Rousseau, Kay Redfield Jamison among the most prominent authors -- along with good source primers like Hunter and Macalpine's Three Hundred Years of Psychiatry that largely avoid teleological or disciplinary bias. If you want to vet potential researchers, throw those works at them, and see if they can assemble a primary reading list.
posted by holgate at 3:27 PM on October 6, 2008

I think there is an easier way to quickly assess your potential candidates rather than go through a series of interviews.

Give the person a writing test similar to the job. At my work place, they gave us a writing test pertinent to the job before we were hired. We had to read an assigned review article and then condense it down to ten topline bullet points within a given amt of time for a fictional client (someone who had a year of biology, but no more). Several of my supervisors have stated that just by reading the results from the writing test you can weed out people who do not understand the material, cannot explain things in simple terms, etc. If you saw potential you could state what you wanted and give the person a chance to modify it.

Anyway, I think you can make something similar for this job. Find a journal article that pertains to this time period or materials that you would like to research further. Describe in a succint written paragraph what you want the candidate to produce. I would also time the test or give the person limitted time to complete it (eg, an hour) so you don't hire someone who takes 10 hours to read 1 joural article.

Good luck.
posted by Wolfster at 5:20 PM on October 6, 2008

Thanks, all.
posted by jimmyjimjim at 7:34 PM on October 6, 2008