It’s my 2nd week back at work in 2020. This is my 1st thread for the yr and is on collaborations. It’s not restricted to scientists, hopefully it is useful to many. Feel free to add anything I miss when finished. 1/n
2/n Definition of collaboration: “the action of working with someone to produce something.” Collaborations are not just about working together to help produce, eg data for a paper, etc, they include ppl helping with grant proposals and other initiatives.
3/n There is a wise saying (I don’t know the original source!) that collaborations are like relationships. Some work very well, others fail dismally. It doesn’t necessarily mean that either party is at fault, they just don’t work well together. Very sage advice to keep in mind!
4/n The best collaborations that I have had are with ppl who I know well and trust. There is often a two-way street involved where each party helps the other in their research. Expectations need to be upfront, don’t make assumptions (assumptions are the cause of many issues!).
5/n In establishing a new collaboration, it is very impt to recognise that if anyone is helping you with your research (or whatever the collaboration is for) that they also have their own careers/research/goals to simultaneously attend to. They are not merely a service provider.
6/n It is also impt to recognise that you may want to collaborate with someone who has skills/expertise that will greatly enhance your research/goals but they will decline. This doesn’t necessarily mean they are “competitors”, they may not have the resources (time, ppl) to help.
7/n In any collaboration, treat it like a business arrangement. Have agreements upfront- who does the work, who pays, who is involved in the IP that may come out of it, who gets authorship. It may change during the collaboration but get it in writing, promises are just that.
8/n Recognise the IP upfront. In any experiment, the most impt contributor to the expt is the person who conceives the expt and designs the expt. Without an appropriately designed expt you will not get the data you need and often the data will be uninterpretable.
9/n This also applies to grant proposals- if anyone has helped you significantly to write a grant proposal and is not a named investigator on the grant, remember this when you write a manuscript based on their input (I am a co-author on a recent paper due to this exact scenario!)
10/n If you are helping anyone with a grant proposal, etc, protect your IP by keeping copies of every draft (with your tracked changes/comments visible). You may need it one day to prove your input if a collaboration fails (this is the best advice I was given by a former boss!).
11/n If someone approaches you asking for your help in collaborating and you cannot help due to time restrictions, etc., let them know why. If possible, suggest an alternative collaborator or offer to train someone from their lab in the techniques they are seeking.
12/n If you are the lead investigator of the collaboration, make sure you are treating your collaborator fairly and respectively. This esp applies to collaborators who are in minority gps- we tend to be treated very unfairly at times, often due to conscious or unconcious bias.
13/n If you are treated unfairly by a collaborator, try and point this out. Sometimes they are not conscious of what they are doing and will appropriately change eg authorship to accurately reflect your contribution. I refuse to collaborate with ppl who don’t treat me fairly.
14/n If you are relying on a collaborator to provide you with data and they are taking much longer than the anticipated time frame agreed upon (or not updating you with reasons as to the delay) it is possible that they are not committed to the collaboration (for whatever reason).
15/n In this scenario, contact them and ask them if they can still contribute or if you should seek another collaborator (or if it is a very specialised technique rethink whether or not it is essential or if you can use a different approach). Try and be nice, don’t make enemies!
16/n Keep in mind that innovative techniques require a huge amount of work to establish in a lab. This investment of time can also slow down the productivity of said lab and once established they have every right to try and get back on track with their own research productivity.
17/n Be respectful. When writing a paper, the most impt positions are 1st, senior and corresponding author. These days it is common to have more than 1 author in such position. It doesn’t matter how many ppl are co-authors, what matters is that they are appropriately acknowledged
18/18 I hope this has been helpful (although I am sure I have missed impt info, pls feel free to add!). Give ppl appropriate credit for their contributions (acknowledging someone in a paper and giving someone co-authorship are two very different things). Treat everyone equally.
