#EveryLittle Action Counts Week 8: How to create positive co-authorship in academia
This week is dedicated to creating positive co-authorship in academia. Co-authorship brings various benefits such as enhanced creativity, innovation, efficiency, networking opportunities, inclusivity, and the ability to work on more ambitious projects than we could do alone.
“The ability to work together is one of the key foundations of human achievement.”
– Steven Bateman, Jie Zhang
Creating positive co-authorship in academia is everyone’s responsibility and is pivotal to fostering a culture of teamwork, mutual respect, and support among the academic community worldwide. To get you started, here are some posts that provide you with some food for thought on co-authorships:
- Sian Stephens talks about the joys of working with friends as co-authors: https://harzing.com/blog/2022/04/friends-and-co-authors
- Seven signs it’s time to get out by Martyna Śliwa approaches co-authorship from another angle, namely how to spot toxic collaborations: https://harzing.com/blog/2023/01/seven-signs-its-time-to-get-out-spotting-toxic-collaborations-in-academia
- How to be a good co-author and find even better ones by Sebastian Reiche provides a nice 5C framework of connection, competence, complementarity, commitment and conferences: https://harzing.com/blog/2023/10/on-how-to-be-a-good-co-author-and-finding-even-better-ones
- Steven Bateman and Jie Zhang share advice on keeping collaborative work on track: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/coordinating-coauthors
- Ethical co-authorship is rarely discussed by authors and publishers, and even more rarely by research ethics committees. Yet co-authorship is a notorious site for unethical practices such as: plagiarism, citation manipulation, and ghost, guest, and gift authors. Helen Kara provides some key insights and advice for authors looking to co-write and co-publish in an ethical way: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2021/03/29/a-simple-guide-to-ethical-co-authorship/
We would be very happy to learn about your suggestions on how to create positive co-authorships.
Anne-Wil Harzing & Christa Sathish.