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up vote 2 down vote favorite

I want to email the author to get the complete paper. He's published a version with proof sketches, but I need the whole proofs. My draft:

Subject : Paper Request

Dr. .....

I've read your paper entitled ............. and would very much like to acquire the complete manuscript.

In case you have not written it yet, I would appreciate it if you could send me the complete proofs of the theorems.

Looking forward for your reply,

Regards,

Do I need to add anything?

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Could you provide some context? Are you a student of this person? How did you get an incomplete copy of a paper, and when would a complete one appear? Where would it appear? What are you going to use it for? Is the author getting paid for the publication of the paper? – Lauren Ipsum Sep 28 '12 at 17:22
@LaurenIpsum No I'm not a student of his. Found it on a journal. I don't know whether it's going to appear or not. I will use it to conduct my research. How would I know if he's getting paid for publishing it? – saadtaame Sep 28 '12 at 17:29
If he's going to be paid for it because it will appear in a publication, he may not want to release a draft copy to some random person who asks for it, for free. I don't know the rules of academic publication so I can't tell you how to determine that other than asking. Also, is your research going to contradict his? Complement it? Compete with it? – Lauren Ipsum Sep 28 '12 at 19:25
@LaurenIpsum No! He proved something. It's a proof; can't disprove that :) I want to generalize his result. Is the e-mail ok? – saadtaame Sep 28 '12 at 19:28

2 Answers

up vote 4 down vote accepted

Lauren Ipsum gives a good answer. I'll guess at the purpose of your query and suggest a message along these lines:

Dear Dr. X,

I recently read your paper, Y, and I was very interested in the proofs you sketched. My research is in a related area: (here you describe your research).

Would it be possible for you to send me the complete proofs of the theorems? I would use these proofs to... (here you describe what you'd do).

That is, Dr. X might be planning to do exactly what you'd like to do, so it would be useful to let him or her know what that is. You might suggest that the two of you could collaborate, but that depends to some extent on your current track record (i.e., it would be more attractive for Dr. X if your past work indicates that it would be a fruitful collaboration).

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up vote 2 down vote

I don't think this is sufficient. It's polite, but why would this person share anything with you just because you asked?

I think you need to explain who you are, how you found his work, and what you want to do with his work if he's willing to share it with you. Also, if you end up doing something which earns you money from your work which built on his work, are you willing to share that money with him? Perpetually?

I just feel like you're asking a lot and not giving him any reason to say yes.

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