Department of Life Sciences
Ben Gurion University of the Negev
Beer Sheva
Israel
Arte,
Dear Frank,
here I disagree. I think it is bad practice to complain to the editors or start naming and shaming before asking the authors first. Only if they do not want to cooperate, it would be time to bring the flame-throwers in position.
However, I think the situation is more subtle and that that is the reason Artem wrote his email: He wants the data, but does not want to reveal his identity to his competitors, who apparently made a significant effort not to reveal any useful details.
Here I would let me guide by the (perceived) commercial interest: if it is not gigantic, then I would contact the authors to prevent a wasteful duplication of research efforts.
If there is a significant commercial interest, it would probably be better not to contact them and go the hard way of solving the structure yourself. A thing to consider is also what would happen if the authors still would refuse: they know the identity of the competitor and you still do not have the data.
An alternative may be to ask an academic friend who also works on sausage esterases to inquire with the authors…
Good luck with your decision!
Herman
Von: CCP4 bulletin board <CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK> Im Auftrag von Frank von Delft
Gesendet: Dienstag, 7. April 2020 17:19
An: CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK
Betreff: [EXTERNAL] Re: [ccp4bb] on-topic: your opinions requested!
EXTERNAL : Real sender is owner-ccp...@jiscmail.ac.uk
Write to the editor - that's their job.
Though they may also see it as their job to ignore emails like yours because that's far easier than dealing with them.
Alternatively, go the Rupp Route: Name and Shame! ;)
On 07/04/2020 16:08, Artem Evdokimov wrote:
Dear CCP4ers,
I would like to solicit your thoughts on the following (this is a real situation, but salient details are changed):
Imagine that you're an industrial scientist in a small company, working on the Bavarian Sausage (Weisswurst) Esterase project. The overall structure is previously unknown, with no good homologs in the PDB, trying to model is "OK not great" so the structure is really needed...
Then, you find an article from a large commercial competitor, that somehow managed to solve the Stadtwurst (Saxony Sausage) Esterase structure (which is a very close homolog to the one you need!).
Sounds good - but as you read the paper you realize that the authors managed to find a journal that allowed them to publish their work without disclosing neither the coordinates of the model, nor even the crystallization conditions of the protein - all that's available is a tantalizing still picture of the active site in surface mode, with a ball-and-stick ligand positioned such that it is impossible to say what it interacts with.
So you sit and ponder - whether to write to the Editor, or maybe to contact the authors directly (but then they would know that you're working on this, which is not necessarily great since you're competing), or to just buck up and do the structure on your own (which feels a bit wasteful). Then, you realize that your friends at CCP4 have a lot of wisdom to offer, so you sit down and pen an email...
Any thoughts?
Artem
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