Writing collaboratively

Last year 22 of us from 15 of South Africa’s 26 universities collaborated on a joint paper about the pandemic in South African universities, from an equity and inequality perspective. Many of us had never met one another but we all agreed that it was a serious issue which we could all contribute to from a range of context-specific experiences and varied perspectives. We think the paper was richer because of the multiple voices.
 It was my wild idea but of course nothing would have happened without everyone’s enthusiastic participation. One of the co-authors, Matete Madiba, suggested we talk with her and colleagues at her university about collaborative writing. For us this was a positive experience, which is not automatically the case. These are the thoughts I shared….
 Why write collaboratively?

1. It is interesting. It really is interesting. You learn so much from your colleagues. And when it goes well, the whole really is greater than the sum of its parts.
   
2. It builds community. It brings together people with shared interests and a shared project. Then through those shared projects, connections get made that lead to further projects.
   
3. It is a good way to ensure that you actually do the work. When you write alone, it is too easy to prioritise other things. When you write collaboratively, you have obligations to other people so it is harder to give up.
   
4. It can improve quality, because there is so much more brainpower to draw on. But also because people can take different roles and bring specialist expertise.
   
5. It can change dynamics so that everyone becomes a co-creator, or a participant, rather than an object of study.
   
6. It can build confidence for people with less experience or confidence, especially if there is a mixture of experience working together.
   
7. It increases visibility. With more authors there are more possibilities for discoverability.
   
8. It might be the difference between published and not being published. Given the pressures on academics and educators, the fatigue and the lack of time to think, let alone write, this may be the only way to get something written and published.
   
9. Your university will get some funds if the journal is on the DHET accredited list. In some cases, some of this funding will accrue to the author.
   
10. It might mean early publishing advantage.
    

Types of collaborative writing
Of course, there are different kinds of collaborative writing.
In the first case, there is a shared issue which will be grappled with; the explicit aim is for the whole to be greater than the sum of its parts. There is a shared problem, probably with multiple sites. This works best when there is no intention to resolve the issue in the sense of coming up with a single solution, but to demonstrate complexity. In the case of our paper, it was consciously a process of collective meaning making.
In the second case, there is a skeleton developed and a division of labour where different authors write different sections.
A variant of this second option might involve an expert brought in to write specific sections.
Some principles . Let’s not pretend. Collaborative writing is not a walk in the park. It makes  a difference if there is a shared understanding. Here are some principles we have found useful.

1. Keep everything transparent. Everyone need to be able to see everything. Err on the side of inclusion.
   
2. Be organised.  Have a shared folder which everyone can edit but one person manages. Keep drafts, resources and so on which everyone can contribute to and use.
   
3. Give and take feedback respectfully. Maybe this one is super obvious? I hope so.
   
4. Be open minded. Writing together is a learning experience. Your starting point is that you don’t know everything, otherwise why would you be doing this? Collaborative writing also works best when you are not aiming for one fixed “answer’.
   
5. Be flexible. The process will change as you go along and that is OK.
6. Be clear which of your words and ideas you are adamant to keep and which you can let go of. In other words, there will be compromises, so be explicit about what is non-negotiable.
   

Agree a process. Even though it is a collaborative document, it is important to make some key decisions upfront.

1. Agree on first author before you start. This person may need to play a mediating or co-ordinating role depending how it goes. But even if they don’t need to (if you are lucky), first authorship can be so political, it is better to get this one out of the way before you begin.
   
2. Agree on how authors will be listed after the first author. The easiest is alphabetical order but you may also decide to do in terms of how much work each person has contributed.
   
3. Decide upfront on roles, who might draft, review, and edit.
   
4. Make sure that every named author signs off on every version of the paper- the one sent for publication, the revised version and the final version.
   

 There has been a lot of collaborative writing happening during this pandemic period, and it would be great to hear of other experiences too.

Image: Faelle @deviantart CC 3.0