I am a young researcher and some times I face an uncomfortable situation : I find an error in a research paper! Of course most of the time, it is all just my misundertanding but it happens that after checking tens of times, there is indeed an error and therefore I am not sure what I should do. "Am I the first one that notice this mistake or someone has already repported it? and then where?" "Does this error have been corrected in a later version? How can I know? ", "Should I send a email to the authors ? But still how could I be diplomatic enough not to bother them (and maybe the mistake is still mine, I am not the expert of the field)? " The situation get worst when

-The paper is already old. Personnally I would find annoying if someone ask me questions on a project finished years ago. And for very old papers the authors can just be retired already.

-It comes from a different field like physics or chemistry. Where they use a different language. How could I explain myself correctly and without creating a diplomatic crisis?

So I am here to ask advices to the experimented researchers how to deal with this ankward situation.

I am a young researcher and sometimes I face an uncomfortable situation : I find an error in a research paper! Of course, most of the time, it is all just my misunderstanding but it happens that after checking tens of times, there is indeed an error and therefore I am not sure what I should do. "Am I the first one that notices this mistake or someone has already reported it? and then where?" "Hass this error been corrected in a later version? How can I know? ", "Should I send an email to the authors ? But still how could I be diplomatic enough not to bother them (and maybe the mistake is still mine, I am not an expert of the field)? " The situation gets worse when

-The paper is already old. Personally I would find annoying if someone asked me questions on a project finished years ago. And for very old papers the authors can just be retired already.

-It comes from a different field like physics or chemistry. Where they use a different language. How could I explain myself correctly and without creating a "diplomatic crisis"?

So I am here to ask advice to the experimented researchers how to deal with this awkward situation.