Collaboration in Research for Psych

I wasn't sure what other thread to post this in, but I assume there might be around here!

My primary research background is in Psychology, and one of my key frustrations in this field was the following:

1- How can I find the best experts in my specific field in order to get their guidance on an important study?
2- How can I determine who is ALREADY working on a similar project, and so pool ideas, concepts, and best practices from them?
3- How can I find experts, grad students, and resources from outside of my university to work together with me on a project of common interest (in order to make a more robust and meaningful study)?

In Psych, there is no such platform that I ever learned about... and it was kinda frustrating (I just see so much potential with great connectivity).

Is there a platform like this in the PSY world? How might you answer the questions above?

All the best, back to research!

Is this really any different from any other academic field?

You need to know people who know people. If you don't, attend seminars and meet some. Get their attention somehow.

Indeed!

However, is there any better place for people to find experts in a certain research domain? Is there anywhere other than Google where you can simply find people with specific degrees or experience and connect them in a new way?

I'm thinking of creating some kind of platform where people can search accurately for:

1) Who has the kind of experitise they're looking for / what kind of experience they have
2) Not only search through really important PAST data, but search through CURRENT research happening right now in order to access that's going on presently and potentially collaborate with researchers on existing projects

Is there anyone out there walking around who'd be interested in this in the Psychology world?

I don't know if its a PRESENT, burning desire (neither was LinkedIn, for example), but I believe it would be a tool of tremendous value if people could leverage it to make a greater impact in their research. I could be 100% wrong, tho:)!

I'm not sure you're in the right place to ask this question. There are professionals at PsychForums, but as far as I can tell the vast majority of us are not [or are professionals in other fields.] And those who are in Psych as their day job are still at a peer support level here, no-one is acting on a professional basis.

Do you have the IT skills to build what you're envisaging? If not, you might want to look for partners who do have them. Do you have support from others in your Uni and from your contacts at a few other institutions? If so, build it, seed with those details. Then send it viral, ask each of them to pass it on to others who are interested. If someone else is already working on similar, you'll run into it sooner rather than later by this measure. And if not, then it's the kind of idea that people will want to be involved with.

If you don't have support / contacts, then I think it is unlikely that you will succeed in getting this off the ground. I'm not in academia myself, but I do know that there is a substantial amount of politics involved at every level. Unless you can get a critical mass [like Facebook did and others didn't] then this won't work for you.

Also re. internal politics, I am unsure how funding and attribution will work across institutions. There's such a fight to publish and attract money for research, that it's possible some people would not want to be listed in such a directory, as it may negatively impact their work. So exclusivity and privacy before publication may be a factor. And while that seems sad, if people don't have tenure, for instance, then it's much harder to do a substantial amount of research or build from study to study. So it is relevant. I don't know if this is at all true, it's just a thought.

^ What Ada said.

I was involved in academia for a while. For all I know about it, politics trump efficiency at almost any level and circumstance. Funding is the number one concern behind the whole machinery.