Cold emailing has worked out well for me in a research context. I needed help and some leads from a couple archaeologists and linguists, reaching out directly,

Cold emailing has worked out well for me in a research context. I needed help and some leads from a couple archaeologists and linguists, reaching out directly, yet demonstrating knowledge of their research in the area worked out well. I'm not an archaeologist, myself, at the time I wasn't even with the Ronin Institute, I was just a Barista with an interest in their field, but each got back to me within 24 hours with the information I needed to move forward in my research. Conversely, the cold emails I've received have always been very welcome, though I do encourage people to reach out to me for expert opinion or whatever else. Finally, the cold phone calls I've received have always been a very negative experience for me. A lot of that is on me, but the immediacy of the phone is a major inconvenience most of the time, especially when there are so many time-delayed methods of robust communication now.