I have learned over the past 7-ish years that I finish projects I work on with other people. So my top collaboration rule is just that: collaborate. To give that some guardrails, I do a lot of background work to understand people's motives before inviting or joining. And, I have a one-strike rule: burn me only once. It's sobering how many people will actively (and even transparently!) exploit my expertise and time because they see me as a grunt (no PhD, not on the tenure track, not and ecologist per say). I will no longer re-expose myself to that treatment. Other rules: early career people must be co-authors on all projects (HT Nyeema Harris); we will always use the CreDIT taxonomy and state such from the beginning, but also calibrate with Max Liboiron et al's guidelines for authorship equity; collaboration is for blending areas of expertise and disparate disciplines, so I do not apologize for skills I don't have and others need not either...that's why we are collaborating! I do not work for free anymore, either. Sometimes compensation is a paper, but I reserve the right to determine if that is sufficient now (rarely is). Clearly I have thoughts on this, Terry! I think I'll pull this over to my space (https://schoolofgoodtrouble.substack.com) and build this out into something something more fully thought through. Thanks for the nudge! :)
My number one rule is I don't work with jerks. Life is too short and there are way too many brilliant people in science to spend 1-3 years working with someone brings you down.
Also, I know this is counter to what is ideal, but I tend to work with people where I have partial overlap in skill sets. I have had two projects were I relied 100% on someone with super specilized skills and in both cases they had things pop up (graduating, switching institutions, etc) and failed to deliver. Things like that come up all the time in academia. I may not be a GIS whiz, but if my GIS whiz can't finish their tasks becuase they are on paternity leave until the end of the project or what have you I make sure the deliverables are something I could do to a lesser level with my own team.
I have learned over the past 7-ish years that I finish projects I work on with other people. So my top collaboration rule is just that: collaborate. To give that some guardrails, I do a lot of background work to understand people's motives before inviting or joining. And, I have a one-strike rule: burn me only once. It's sobering how many people will actively (and even transparently!) exploit my expertise and time because they see me as a grunt (no PhD, not on the tenure track, not and ecologist per say). I will no longer re-expose myself to that treatment. Other rules: early career people must be co-authors on all projects (HT Nyeema Harris); we will always use the CreDIT taxonomy and state such from the beginning, but also calibrate with Max Liboiron et al's guidelines for authorship equity; collaboration is for blending areas of expertise and disparate disciplines, so I do not apologize for skills I don't have and others need not either...that's why we are collaborating! I do not work for free anymore, either. Sometimes compensation is a paper, but I reserve the right to determine if that is sufficient now (rarely is). Clearly I have thoughts on this, Terry! I think I'll pull this over to my space (https://schoolofgoodtrouble.substack.com) and build this out into something something more fully thought through. Thanks for the nudge! :)
My number one rule is I don't work with jerks. Life is too short and there are way too many brilliant people in science to spend 1-3 years working with someone brings you down.
Also, I know this is counter to what is ideal, but I tend to work with people where I have partial overlap in skill sets. I have had two projects were I relied 100% on someone with super specilized skills and in both cases they had things pop up (graduating, switching institutions, etc) and failed to deliver. Things like that come up all the time in academia. I may not be a GIS whiz, but if my GIS whiz can't finish their tasks becuase they are on paternity leave until the end of the project or what have you I make sure the deliverables are something I could do to a lesser level with my own team.