Open AccessStrategies for effective collaborative manuscript development in interdisciplinary science teams
Author(s) -
Oliver Samantha K.,
Fergus C. Emi,
Skaff Nicholas K.,
Wagner Tyler,
Tan PangNing,
Cheruvelil Kendra Spence,
Soranno Patricia A.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
ecosphere
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.255
H-Index - 57
ISSN - 2150-8925
DOI - 10.1002/ecs2.2206
Subject(s) - creativity , productivity , team composition , collaborative writing , team effectiveness , psychology , power (physics) , knowledge management , engineering ethics , public relations , political science , sociology , computer science , engineering , pedagogy , social psychology , physics , quantum mechanics , economics , macroeconomics
Abstract Science is increasingly being conducted in large, interdisciplinary teams. As team size increases, challenges can arise during manuscript development, where achieving one team goal (e.g., inclusivity) may be in direct conflict with other goals (e.g., efficiency). Here, we present strategies for effective collaborative manuscript development that draw from our experiences in an interdisciplinary science team writing collaborative manuscripts for six years. These strategies are rooted in six guiding principles that were important to our team: to create a transparent, inclusive, and accountable research team that promotes and protects team members who have less power to influence decision‐making while fostering creativity and productivity. To help alleviate the conflicts that can arise in collaborative manuscript development, we present the following strategies: understand your team composition, create an authorship policy and discuss authorship early and often, openly announce manuscript ideas, identify and communicate the type of manuscript and lead author management style, and document and describe authorship contributions. These strategies can help reduce the probability of group conflict, uphold individual and team values, achieve fair authorship practices, and increase science productivity.