Scientists send and receive tens and tens of emails a day. If these email messages are not formatted according to strict rules, email management becomes a major part of the daily work of a researcher. But researchers should be in the lab, or should be performing a calculation, or should be writing a paper.

Face to face or by email

For a number of human interactions the best way of communication is to go to each other's office, or to go to the cantina, or to get in touch by phone. However, oral transfer of information is often confusing and marred with misunderstandings. Different parties remember different interpretations of the conversations; in all cases these – unintentional or deliberate – variations of interpretation are to your disadvantage.

Email is in writing. It can immediately be put on your To-Do list. It can be communicated to other people quickly, and your email will be archived by both sides.

Confirm by email

If you suspect that the agreement you just settled orally with your manager, dean, or head of department, will not be upheld in the future, confirm the agreement by email. They will hate you for it, but they will have to respect the agreement.

If your relations have indeed cooled below freezing point, you might even have to confirm by fax.

Educate the world

Colleagues

If you receive an unclear, cluttered email from somebody who, you expect, will send you more email messages in the future, point out to him that you did not like his email. You could refer him to this Email Guide, possibly with explicit reference to the numbers of the items they violated.

If he keeps on sending those inefficient emails, reply stating that you will delay answering his email, or that you will refrain from answering his emails at all.

Educate secretaries

When I see how often emails sent by managers or their secretaries are violating my basic rules, I get depressed. It could be done so much more efficiently.

You must be very careful when telling secretaries how to do their work. They see scientists as Sunday's children: always traveling to exotic destinations, always arriving late at the lab and always making much more money than they do.