Coauthors and Collaboration in Scientific Publication.

From habit, we scientists tend to count, and nowhere is this more in display than when a curriculum vitae is in hand. I had occasion recently to look over my cumulative publication list, starting with the first entry in 1984. I was startled to see that I have had 117 coauthors during the course of my career to date. This fact prompted me to give some thought to aspects of coauthorship and share them with you. Collaboration in all aspects of scientific work is increasingly common and of increasing importance to success across the research process, from problem formulation to dissemination and application (Sonnenwald, 2007). Writing for publication creates potential entries to the permanent record of a discipline. The writing-for-publication phase of research is the nub of science, because it exposes and documents ideas, structured observations, interpretations of findings, gaps in knowledge, and avenues for future work. Because writing is a high-stakes endeavor for the individual scientists involved and for the field (Biscaro & Giupponi, 2014), attention to issues involved in collaboration is paramount. Coauthors work together to create success in communicating their work and advancing their scientific ideas. Writing a manuscript is an extension of the collaborative work that supported the research, but with a marked change in task from carrying out a project protocol to creating expression via the written word—an activity that is unfortunately often thought to be difficult or unsatisfying (Medawar, 1979; Saver, 2014). This negative point of view brings special challenges to the collaborative efforts of coauthors. Deliberate actions should be used to overcome the barriers. Project manuscript plans should be developed. Writing timelines should be set out, just as they are for project management. Authors need to commit to the group effort and be willing to set aside competing demands on their time in the interest of moving each manuscript forward to completion. A plan for the actual composition— getting the words on “paper”—and for review and revision by all coauthors is needed. The byline lists the authors of the paper. Authors are individuals who have made significant contributions to the research and to the writing of the manuscript and are distinct from others whose support is recognized in the acknowledgments. Practices for ordering authors in the byline vary by discipline. In nursing science, the order of names in the byline generally reflects the relative contributions of coauthors. Thus, it is critical that research collaborators discuss authorship and