Working with Co-Authors
Dividing Work, Ensuring Consistency, and Navigating Publishing Decisions
If you are interested in working with a co-author, consider taking Course 3, Lesson 1: Identifying Collaborators for preliminary tips and strategies on having conversations and creating shared practices for working together.
Working with a co-author can be energizing, motivating, and inspirational. It can also present new challenges and considerations. It’s important to establish a vision for the research project from the beginning so that all authors are on the same page. This is also an appropriate time to discuss timeline considerations and even some of the minutiae of publishing like author order and copyright issues.
Excercise
Complete the following exercise in your LPOL Workbook. This exercise will help you check for learning, engage with the material, and work through new ideas.
If you are planning on working with collaborator(s), use the 4.3.3: Co-Author Agreement Worksheet in your LPOL Workbook to discuss these crucial issues. Try to answer the questions as completely as you can and be honest with each other about your limitations and concerns. It is helpful to record a summary of your responses so that everyone can review the notes in the future.
Larger Goals
Some of these answers may be obvious to you, but discussing them together will ensure that you’re on the same page about the scope of the project and, thus, the kind of work you want to do together.
- What is your research project?
- What is the scope? What might you consider out of scope? In other words, are there “boundaries” or topics that are related but aren’t appropriate for this project?
- How does this research contribute to the field? To professional practice? You might find the prompts from Allison Hosier on LPOL useful.
- Who is your primary audience? Who else do you want to reach?
- What kind of output is most appropriate for this idea? Some options may include a book, book chapter, conference proposal, or journal article (literature review The process of summarizing, synthesizing and/or critiquing literature around a specific topic/idea. This work can help a researcher understand what has happened before and also how past research intersects and or diverges from other research. A literature review can be a full-length manuscript or a subsection within a larger research article., practice article, research article, special column, innovative practices column, etc.).
- Keeping these answers in mind, what is the most appropriate venue for this work? Consider selecting a back-up venue as well.
Publishing Decisions
Ensure that the venue you described matches your other goals for your career and publishing values.
- How important is open access to you? Does this venue offer an Open Access (OA) option and is realistic for you? (OA often refers to the content being published on a platform that anyone can access without payment or institutional affiliation. Some journals offer “green open access” where they don’t allow an OA copy on their site but will allow you to add one to your own repository. Ask about their OA policy beforehand!)
- How important is copyright retention to you? Copyright is best thought of as a bundle of rights, including the right to distribute the work, make copies, etc. Does this venue ask you to transfer retention to them or exclusively license any rights?
- What career considerations do you have (tenure, promotion, job search, etc.), and does this venue seem appropriate for those?
- Author order is generally based on the amount of work that collaborators put into the project, with the first listed author being the person who led the project. Tentatively, which author should be listed first for this project? Does this seem fair to all parties?
Dividing Work
The goal of this section is to ensure that all co-authors feel respected and seen. Discussing writing preferences, timelines, and interests can bring clarity to the project from the beginning.
- How do you prefer to outline, draft, and revise content? Review Concept #2: Writing Strategies in the lesson plan to facilitate this conversation.
- How often are check-ins helpful? When is it useful to work “offline” (commenting in the document or sending e-mails), and when is it useful to work together “live” (via zoom or in person)?
- What other big deadlines or commitments do you have that might impact your work on this project?
- What do you find challenging when working with a collaborator?
- Work together to sketch out a rough timeline working backward from submission. If you need to have the research published by a certain time because of tenure or a promotion opportunity, work backwards from publication anticipating about 4-6 months for peer review and revision. Is this reasonable? What concerns do you have about meeting the timeline? This should not be overwhelming, and it is not set in stone! Making this plan is really intended to help you see the bigger picture. If it’s more useful to break this process down into smaller steps (for example, just the literature review and introduction The start of a research article providing background information and an overview of the research presented in the article.) first, do so.
Sample timeline
- Journal requirements recorded: August 2022
- Outline as group: August 2022
- Literature reviewed: September 2022, co-author #2 requests research leave
- Literature review outlined: October 2022, co-author #2
- Meeting to discuss literature review structure: November 2022
- Introduction and literature review drafted: December 2022, co-author #1 works on this while co-author #3 is doing the methods section
- Methods drafted: December 2022, co-author #3
- Interviews transcribed: January 2023, co-author #1
- Interviews coded: February-March 2023, all co-authors except #2 who will be on leave
- Data analysis, meet as group twice: April-June 2023
- Discussion The section of a research article where the researchers analyze and interpret the findings. This section provides the “so what” for the research conducted. drafted: July 2023, co-author #1
- Limitations and conclusion The end of a research article that wraps up the work presented. A conclusion can also be a spot to discuss limitations of the research or future avenues for this line of research. drafted: August 2023, co-author #2
- Group reads final draft and comments together: late August 2023
- First draft sent to LIS An interdisciplinary field that examines how physical and digital information is organized, accessed, collected, managed, disseminated and used, particularly in library settings. colleagues for feedback: September 2023
- First draft revised for submission: November 2023
- Final edits: meet November 30, 2023
- Submission: December 2023
Keep the following in mind as you’re creating a timeline, from Rachel Miles (2018): “Take a break… I often stepped away from my recently published journal article for a month or more and returned to it with more energy and ideas. At times, I also cut huge chunks out of it.”
- Which areas do you feel are your strengths or areas in which you’d like to take leadership? Where does your co-author(s) most want to contribute? For example, someone might be really excited about and familiar with the literature in this area but not as interested in data clean-up and synthesis.
- Discuss how you’ll ask for what you need. How will you reach out if you need support? How will you show understanding to you co-author(s)?
- Talk explicitly about what you’ll do when life gets in the way, as it inevitably will. What’s the best way to communicate that you’ll miss a deadline?
- Conclude this section by making a plan for accomplishing your first deadline and assigning relevant tasks to all parties.
Ensuring Consistency
One of the challenges of dividing and conquering is that changes in voice, tone, and style can be abrupt and distracting to the reader. While some editing will just be required, having a conversation about tone and voice from the beginning will be helpful. Being on the same page about venue requirements will also minimize the need for heavy remediation before submission.
- What is the appropriate tone and voice for this work?
- What requirements seem especially important to pay attention to (length, citation style, figure design) and how can you do that together?
Continually Checking In
The provided worksheet is a foundational first step, but it isn’t the end of the process. Disagreements, misunderstandings, and tensions will likely arise as you continue to write together. Keep the following in mind as you navigate these challenges:
- If there is an issue at hand, talk about it sooner rather than later, preferably over Zoom or in person so that you can work through concerns efficiently and effectively (Rankin 2001).
- As you’re working together, thoughtfully consider issues that you feel very strongly about (in other words, hills you are willing to die on) and contrast these with issues that don’t matter as much. For example, you may feel strongly about how the methods section is ordered but care less about whether or not a particular article is in scope. Be flexible where you can but also be vocal when it’s important. Try to keep in mind where your co-author might be inflexible and honor that (Rankin 2001).
- Timeline issues are inevitable because life happens! People always come before deadlines. Try to pick up work for your co-author(s) when they have unexpected commitments arise and ask that they do the same for you. If work continually isn’t getting completed or the project timeline you agreed on together starts to become unlikely, revisit this section of the worksheet and try to talk frankly about why you aren’t making progress. While these conversations are difficult, especially if your co-author is a friend or colleague, talking explicitly about them instead of holding in your frustration is more transparent and productive.
- If you start to lose faith in the project, think about why you began it: why is it important? What unique perspectives and skills does your co-author bring to the project, and why do you need to work together to succeed? (Rankin 2001)
Topic 3 References
Rankin, Elizabeth. The Work of Writing: Insights and Strategies for Academics and Professionals. Jossey-Bass, 2001.
Working with Co-Authors
Dividing Work, Ensuring Consistency, and Navigating Publishing Decisions
If you are interested in working with a co-author, consider taking Course 3, Lesson 1: Identifying Collaborators for preliminary tips and strategies on having conversations and creating shared practices for working together.
Working with a co-author can be energizing, motivating, and inspirational. It can also present new challenges and considerations. It’s important to establish a vision for the research project from the beginning so that all authors are on the same page. This is also an appropriate time to discuss timeline considerations and even some of the minutiae of publishing like author order and copyright issues.
Excercise
Complete the following exercise in your LPOL Workbook. This exercise will help you check for learning, engage with the material, and work through new ideas.
If you are planning on working with collaborator(s), use the 4.3.3: Co-Author Agreement Worksheet in your LPOL Workbook to discuss these crucial issues. Try to answer the questions as completely as you can and be honest with each other about your limitations and concerns. It is helpful to record a summary of your responses so that everyone can review the notes in the future.
Larger Goals
Some of these answers may be obvious to you, but discussing them together will ensure that you’re on the same page about the scope of the project and, thus, the kind of work you want to do together.
Publishing Decisions
Ensure that the venue you described matches your other goals for your career and publishing values.
Dividing Work
The goal of this section is to ensure that all co-authors feel respected and seen. Discussing writing preferences, timelines, and interests can bring clarity to the project from the beginning.
Sample timeline
Keep the following in mind as you’re creating a timeline, from Rachel Miles (2018): “Take a break… I often stepped away from my recently published journal article for a month or more and returned to it with more energy and ideas. At times, I also cut huge chunks out of it.”
Ensuring Consistency
One of the challenges of dividing and conquering is that changes in voice, tone, and style can be abrupt and distracting to the reader. While some editing will just be required, having a conversation about tone and voice from the beginning will be helpful. Being on the same page about venue requirements will also minimize the need for heavy remediation before submission.
Continually Checking In
The provided worksheet is a foundational first step, but it isn’t the end of the process. Disagreements, misunderstandings, and tensions will likely arise as you continue to write together. Keep the following in mind as you navigate these challenges:
Topic 3 References
Rankin, Elizabeth. The Work of Writing: Insights and Strategies for Academics and Professionals. Jossey-Bass, 2001.