Research Guides: Publishing Support: Collaboration

Managing Collaboration in Writing

Collaboration on writing projects involves multiple writers contributing to a common goal.

A good collaboration should allow all parties to contribute and receive appropriate credit. We recommend that all parties involved consider guidelines and agreements before working together.

Paper Craft
A short article from Nature on collaboration by Dmitry Budker and Derek Jackson Kimball

Rules for collaborative scientific writing
From the same authors here are additional guidelines about authorship.

Tools for Collaboration

Collaborative editing

Both Microsoft Word and Google Docs allow for collaborative editing through tracked changes and comments. Editing can be done live or asynchronously. The links below review those tools.

Meeting Schedulers

Scheduling meetings to edit can be done through convenient online tools.

Citation Managers

You can collaborate in citation managers through groups.

Real time meeting software

Connect with other no matter where they are with these resources

Project Management Tools

Manage a collaboration from start to finish using these project management tools

Determining Authorship

Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors
This document defines who should and should not be considered an author on a manuscript, as determined by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.
Tips for Determining Authorship Credit
These tips from the APA cover how to determine authorship and how to negotiate authorship and author order. It includes document for author agreements and determination.

Authorship and collaborating with Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI is a quickly evolving field. When considering using AI in writing medical literature you should first familiarize yourself with the up-to-date guidelines set out by medical editor associations such as WAME and ICMJE, listed below.

World Association of Medical Editors' Recommendations on Chatbots and Generative Artificial Intelligence in Relation to Scholarly Publications
International Committee of Medical Journal Editors' Guidelines on AI
"At submission, the journal should require authors to disclose whether they used artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted technologies (such as Large Language Models [LLMs], chatbots, or image creators) in the production of submitted work. Authors who use such technology should describe, in both the cover letter and the submitted work, how they used it. Chatbots (such as ChatGPT) should not be listed as authors because they cannot be responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of the work, and these responsibilities are required for authorship (see Section II.A.1). Therefore, humans are responsible for any submitted material that included the use of AI-assisted technologies. Authors should carefully review and edit the result because AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete, or biased. Authors should not list AI and AI-assisted technologies as an author or co-author, nor cite AI as an author. Authors should be able to assert that there is no plagiarism in their paper, including in text and images produced by the AI. Humans must ensure there is appropriate attribution of all quoted material, including full citations."

Select publisher's guidelines as examples:

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