How do we collaborate?
In the previous sections, you walked through modular thinking, how to create a module, and what research steps are absent from the regular documentation process. In reality, you will rarely do this on your own - so let us figure out together how to collaborate on ResearchEquals.
Who is a collaborator?
When working in a team, it is always important to consider who your collaborators are. It helps you understand who you need to consult on important decisions, and who to give credit to.
In our experience, being generous about who is a collaborator helps people feel included. People are very sensitive to feeling socially rejected - and inviting them in can help prevent that feeling. If somebody handled the output at some point, they’re probably a collaborator and should at least receive an invitation.1
Inviting a collaborator to author a module
We’ll assume you still have a draft sitting in your workspace (if not, create one similarly to the previous sections).
When you have a module you are co-authoring, you can invite your collaborators in. Note: Co-authors are directly involved with the work. If they are involved in the larger project, but not the module itself, we recommend to focus on whose figurative hands are touching the outputs.
First off, make sure they have a ResearchEquals account. You can check this by clicking the + Add Authors button.
Here you can search for the name of your collaborator - you can invite one at a time.
Once you invited collaborators to the module, all authors must sign off on the current version of the module to be able to publish it. This will also be displayed at the top of the draft window:
You can approve the module from there yourself, and afterwards you will need to wait until the other authors sign off as well. Note that if anything is changed, everybody will need to approve again. You can always check the status of the approvals by clicking the Manage Authors button.
This way, you and your collaborators always know who consents to publishing, and who is not ready yet. Better to check in once too often, than once too little!
In the Manage Authors window, you can also adjust the authorship order. This is relevant to assign credit, and you get to decided what standards to use.
Summary
Inviting a co-author and managing the publishing of a module is a bit more intricate than doing it on your own. This is because you want to be sure to be in agreement - ResearchEquals cannot ensure that but helps you manage active consent. Indirect collaboration is also possible, by building on each other’s modules - but we focused on direct collaboration in this section.
Which they can then choose to decline 😊↩︎