ResearchGate is a great forum for scientists to interact. Researchers may join RG for a variety of reasons such as sharing articles and other kinds of scientific communications, building or expanding research networks and participate in Q/A.

I have actually seen many good responses to technical questions from senior researchers. I do not have any statistics but perhaps it is true that they are less active in more general questions as they have other engagements and are busy with their research work.

ResearchGate is a great forum for scientists to interact. Researchers may join RG for a variety of reasons such as sharing articles and other kinds of scientific communications, building or expanding research networks and participate in Q/A.

I have actually seen many good responses to technical questions from senior researchers. I do not have any statistics but perhaps it is true that they are less active in more general questions as they have other engagements and are busy with their research work.

@Behrouz Ahmadi-Nedushan,

Thanks for contributing and initiating the discussion. 

Dear @Asmat, I think all researchers, juniors and seniors, are usually very busy because they are always trying to catch some date. On the other hand, like dear @Behrouz, I think that RG is a great opportunity to teach, motivate, and learn so it deserves the time spent on Q@A.

Dear Asmat Ali

I was very reluctant to make an answer but in the end I decided to do so simply because I wanted to make a point absolutely clear. Researchers who pose to be busy are not senior. Period. Senior researchers are really busy and this is the reason why you find them inactive for periods of time on RG . They have salaried jobs and therefore have moral responsibilities towards other students and commitments on research projects of their own, supervising postgraduates and some even have administrative work on top of everything else.

I suppose that not only senior researcher almost all the resercher are always busy as they have to design, look after, data collection, analyse the data, interprete, discuss and so on... Apart from all this busy schedule if they participates in RG Q&A it will be a golden chance for all the new learners...

@Abdul Kayum,

Thanks for joining and sharing your experience.

@Dr. Abedallah

I agree with you, time may be the problem. Do you agree,  RG should make it mandatory for researchers to participate in Q&A up to certain numbers weekly. Because they should not only use RG to project themselves but also to share knowledge?

Dear Asmat

It is not fair to cast aspersion on people without really knowing the actual reality. A senior professor is generally very busy particular if he/she is involved in a lot of research projects with many research students. There are many meetings to attend, many periodical reports to presents, sit in a number of important meetings across the country, in addition to the normal teaching. In order to get good funding it is necessary to maintain the network. Naturally they will have tough time to balance many of these things. This is true of many senior research professors who also have to mentor their juniors. There will be some seniors who are not doing much of research but claim as you are suggesting too.

Respected Dr. Rao,

I agree with you but the question is about some senior researchers who have account on RG but seldom or/and never take part in knowledge sharing activities.

Dear Nageswara,

Your opinion is OK but we should employ it also for your comment : do you know what experiences with senior researchers Asmat has got?

Thus, we should deterermine what is the task of a senior researcher? It will be not easy.

Dear All,

By the way, we are discussing again an ethical issue.

Dear Asmat,

You have forgotten to note that some senior “researchers” cannot share their knowledge because they have none of it. These people have but positions.

Dear Nageswara, I have seen some of this kind of senior “researchers”.

The purpose is to get feedback/comments/opinions about observation regarding behavior without causing any conflict.

Dear Andras and Asmat

I know coming from India and worked at a leading research institute (Indian Institute of Technology Delhi) for almost 20 years and seen some of the professor from close range. There are some who are genuinely busy and others who pretended. It is the question of their priorities and as you say ethics. They may have an account with RG but can a busy research professor with all his commitments can spend an hour or two per day? If the research professor thinks that he/she should help others, then certainly would be able to spare some time. Since he/she will not be getting anything in return may or may not be tempted to do so. They have to answer that. In my case, I am not very active in research (since I am close to retirement) so able to spend some time every day on RG.

Dear Andras

What you say is true of those pretending to be research professors, and they reached that position not because of their knowledge or research, by favoritism of some sort. I too have seen and also seeing in this country as well.

Dear Asmat,

The explication of this thread has expressed conflicts.

Respected András Bozsik and Dr. Rao,

Thanks for understanding and endorsing my view point.

Respected András

I see it as difference of opinion/views rather than conflict. And difference of opinion is democratic right of every body?

Dear @Asmat, being a member of RG community is matter of free will. No one can not force members to do Q&A if they do not want or they do not have time for, or maybe they do not have an answers! It is the same that we do have many members without publications, Q&A, just skills.

Personally, I did not have such experience that senior researchers "pose"! On a contrary, I have had a good experience, sometimes bitter discussion, but this is life!

In the developing countries we do not have many senior researchers as is the case in the advanced countries. The few that we have, are tasked with too much work by their institutions, governments and non- governmental organizations. This explains why some of them are unable to share much  with us on researchgate. Some are them too are not computer literate. Among this group,some will not post their work on researchgate because of fear of plagiarism. There are others too who are unable to upload their works because of technical problems that they face when trying to upload them.

Well, some are indeed busy, and some pose that they are busy. We have diverse people all around. 

i think they are really Busy, 

It depends! In any case a senior researcher is busy with a number of organizational procedures, communicating with staff, officials, etc. His/her duties as a researcher may be mostly in the field of "general view" on research, and defining strategy.

Dear Ljubomir,

You are right because “senior researchers” work hard and have a deep knowledge.

I mentioned pseudo senior researchers.

I would like to know how many was the rate of pseudo senior researchers in Yugoslavia whose most important contribution to science was that they were members of the communist party?

Dear Asmat,

Certainly, a discussion is not a conflict, a discussion serves to find solutions for conflicts. I wrote that your question expressed a conflict situation.

Dear All,

If everything is OK with senior researchers why discuss and argue about them. You know we are living in the best of all possible worlds. Are not we?

Dear All,

It is easy to write that senior researchers are talented and hard working people with extraordinary intelligence. They are very modest and ethical relationships among their colleagues are the most important things for them after the scientific merit. Is it the objective of this thread?

Where is the truth in this world where ethical troubles predominate even if some close their eyes.

Dear András Bozsik, good catch. I think this is the whole idea here.

Its really a waste of time to discuss on such topics, because they may hurt many senior researchers who are really busy, also to young researchers who are also very busy in their work. So its better not to discuss on such matters. 

One thing i would like to say is that for many questions related to the subjects I have got very informative answers from both young and senior researchers. So i think, getting good information or giving good information, depends on the individuals interest and expertise in their field of research. Not on  the age...

i think they are really Busy because they have more responsabilté than junior  researchers 

Senior researchers are usually busy in researching and also some of them in other administrative duties. So most of them are really busy and don`t pose to be busy.

Dear KV Arun,

If somebody does the right and just cannot be hurt. We are discussing on attitudes which occurs. To be a senior researcher does not mean that this person is old(er). This means only, s/he leads a research team.

They have to manage salary for everyone under them- They got more painful problem- They worry about more work to be done to achieve that. They are really busy.

Dear @Andras, there was many pseudo senior researchers in former Yugoslavia whose most important contribution to science was the fact that they were members of the communist party, as in Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria....! That was the case for whole eastern block!

Respected András Bozsik,

Thanks for continuously contributing and keep the discussion on the track.

Dear All

The context of the question is two fold i.e. from a student's point of view as well as from a researcher's point of view.

We all have been students and still some of us may prefer to be called student in a sense.rather than a researcher.

Therefore, we may describe our experience/opinion from either student's point of view or a researcher's view point or/and from both angles.

Please feel free and help to determine attitudes/behaviors change.

@Subhash C. Juneja ,

Thanks for interesting contribution. It may hold true every where as you mentioned, "one boss control you till- either he take full advantage of you or you got to leave the job".

no one is busy  - if some one says so he is not having an organized mind

Juneja,

The reasons may be, they can have money from social security and also there is big difference i.e salary in Asia & America. So, they can save for the unemployment period. and last thing is, they (American) take care of themselves only contrary to Asians where a single is responsible to feed 5/6 people or even more.

Good question Asmat, but are you sure, that the primary assumption is right? I really wonder how many seniors we have on RG, and how many of the younger ones. Do we know the proportion of those who bother to think about other scientists' questions? We cannot really know, can we?

Dear Johannes, your thread is very important; i like it as a very thoughtful one. we need to be very clear in our mind while formulating our views about such issues. 

Interesting and important question, Asmat. I would say the "real elite" of researcher, the kind you will find in the news all the time and that spend like half a year each year on conferences, actually do not have the time to participate in stuff like that. At least not on a level that would contribute to anything. "Second level" researchers, that is those who are known in their fields but not the super-stars of the "real elite" would have the time but don't appreciate things like RG as worth spending time. At least in Germany, this groups tends to be separated from the reality of young researchers (for instance, they would just criticize the impact-factor-fever instead of understanding that even if its obviously stupid, it could make the difference for young researchers). And, of course, as Johannes said, there could be a digital divide: older researchers being unable to use or do not understand the sense of using the internet.

@Johannes Wöstemeyer,

Thanks for joining and contributing with good questions. You are right, it is difficult to quantify younger researchers on RG but you can have an idea that most of the questions are being asked by younger ones. And the rest may be categorized as "Senior'.  

Moreover, when ever a question appears on RG, it has certain background that may be the experience, finding or thoughts or even feeling of someone. 

@Philipp Altmann,

Welcome to the discussion. Thanks for introducing the concept of "real elite"  researchers. We all know they do exist. But I see them as "politicians rather than scientists". I agree with your view point as it speaks ground realities.

all of us got only 24 hours/ day

if some one says he is busy  he is not having organized mind - in the world no one is busy--

I could see senior researchers also responding well in RG, though may be not frequent but many times I see their active participation

In practical life and in laboratory few times senior researchers are busy actually

no one is busy ( i feel including President of USA) - If you have organized mind+ delegating responsibilities + sincere working - all problems can be solved  with in stipulated time

@Prof V.S Muralidharan,

Thanks for the very encouraging reply. I appreciate your generous contributions.

Thanks all

They are usually involved in the following projects