Collaboration

For me, working with others is simply more fun than working alone, so as a scientist, I collaborate at every opportunity. From my experience, this team working is more robust, invigorating, and creative, and as a result, I always welcome collaboration opportunities. However, over recent years (as an early career scientist), I have been burnt. These burns fall into two groups: omit - where my contributions towards work have been ignored; and neglect - where other collaborators have failed to complete agreed upon work. These burns have been frequent and harmful to my career, and so I here describe what you (as a potential collaborator) should expect of me, and what I will expect of you.

What should you expect of me?

• I will meet the deadlines we agree on.
  
• If I am unable to meet the deadline, I will not accept the task in the first place.
• I will fairly reward contribution, if any author meets the ICJME authorship guidelines, they will be considered an author. However, from my experience, authorship rules harm early career and minority group scientists, so going further, if the work has been particularly reliant on any individuals contribution, they will also be considered an author. This additional rule rewards data collectors, whose vital contributions can quickly be forgotten. Of course, there are exceptions here, for example, authorship will not be considered for already published data, who instead would be rewarded with a citation. Furthermore, for those individuals which fall between the lines, I will personally discuss this dilemma with them to reach authorship agreement.
  
• My science will be conducted transparently, and I will take responsibility for this science.
  
• I will not over-exaggerate my capabilities.
• I will respect ethical procedures.

What do I expect of you?

• Firstly, I expect you to be a kind, hard working and honorable scientist.
  
• To meet agreed upon deadlines and contact me promptly if these deadlines need to be re-negotiated.
• I expect my contributions to be fairly rewarded (as specified above), and if authorship is unclear, I expect that position to be declared early and so I can determine whether I wish to engage further.
• I expect your science to be transparent and honestly described.
• I expect you to fairly describe your capabilities.
• I expect you to follow ethical procedures.