What do I do with this woman? - (Nov/27/2012 )

Probably she is just not there. She has not checked her emails and is totally oblivious to the fact that an event like this has occurred.

Innocent till proven guilty

4-5 months not checked email? ......not innocent

4- 5 months??????? I thought it was something that happened 4-5 days ago....


Guilty!

I once read in Sambrook, Molecular Cloning Lab Manual that do not thank person who is giving you plasmid till you are sure it's right. I think we always take calculated risk when asking something from someone for free. I will say bear with it. Other is fighting for justice of situation, you will need to prove unjust, enough time has been spent curtis why are you risking more.

prabhubct on Fri Nov 30 17:16:11 2012 said:

I agree. You'd first have to prove that she deliberately sent you the wrong sequence. Which would be very difficult. Particularly as the error is some repeats, which seems to me fairly easily explained as a copy/paste type error.

So the worst you could prove is that she ignored your emails. Yes it is rude and annoying for you- but I hardly think it makes her a bad scientist or bad at her job or whatever- and I really doubt her boss or institution will care.
If you take it further, best case scenario, they believe you- then what? You'll get an apology. That's it. I really think you would come out of this worse than she will! And you could kiss goodbye any chance of getting anything from them in the future.

Honestly, it is not unusual for communication with people from other labs to take some time. They are busy, they are doing you a favour and you are not their priority.

I understand your frustration, I really do, but I think you have to let this one go. You don't want to harm your own reputation for something like this.

Thanks leelee, since I respect and like you I will listen to you and forget about this. But honestly I was really lucky to find this error, otherwise I would have screwed up with the RE sites on my primers big time.

Now, it's just difficult to put her name as the source of the plasmid in my article, but what to do...I have to!

Curtis on Mon Dec 3 02:44:53 2012 said:

What did you ask her? Did you send her an email saying the plasmid was not right ? or?

Anyway, you dont need to mention her is she is refusing to answer.

You can send her an email to ask if the plasmid is indeed the right one because it seems something is wrong and that you need to clarify this in order to put her name in the paper etc..
Lure her out to answer...

Its her reputation that is at stake here.. not yours

Curtis on Mon Dec 3 02:44:53 2012 said:

Naw, shucks, thanks

You're just talking about putting her in the materials as the source of the plasmid (and/or acknowledgements) yes?

Did she make it? Or is she just person who was asked to send it by whomever did actually make it? If so, acknowledge the person who authorised you to have it, rather than her.
For example, when I sent some viral DNA to another lab, it was my PI who was mentioned in their paper. His lab, his virus, all I did was extract it and send it.

pito on Sun Dec 9 13:15:53 2012 said:

I disagree. Not acknowledging someone for providing you with a resource such as a plasmid is a far FAR greater crime than not replying to a few emails. I know I wouldn't be sharing resources with someone who did this.

As I mentioned above, the only thing that she has really done wrong is not replying to emails. A bit rude, yes, but people are busy and I think you'll find most academics won't see this as a terrible offence.

The sequence error could have been, for all anyone of us knows, an innocent error (this is actually the most likely explanation). She may have even been given the wrong sequence by someone else. This may also explain her lack of concern with replying. Maybe she's thinking "not my plasmid, not my problem"?

Anyway Curtis, I'm sorry this happened to you!

leelee on Sun Dec 9 13:38:27 2012 said:

I know that I would not want to share anyting/work with someone that does not reply to emails (its not that he just sent 1 email, he even got the retired professor involved...)
+ asking a question is something important, its not a small error or something trivial.
+ I did not say he should not put her name in the paper without asking .. thats why I said he has to lure her out of her silence...
Even better: if you can, call her... You dont blame her right away, you just ask her if its possible something went wrong...
Depending on her reaction you allready know a lot.

I don't know, maybe I try to look for the best in people, rather than suspect the worst. I just really don't see a few unanswered emails as that egregious.

The way I see it, being gifted this plasmid is worthy of acknowledgement (not authorship, obviously) in any publication arising- regardless of any other conduct.

Anywho, either we are misunderstanding each other- or will have to agree to disagree on this one (it happens, no hard feelings )