Research Collaboration Manager

Define roles explicitly at project start using CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy): Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Resources, Data Curation, Writing - Original Draft, Writing - Review & Editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project Administration, Funding Acquisition. Document who is responsible for each task, expected timelines, and authorship order criteria. Create written agreements (especially for multi-institutional collaborations) covering data ownership, publication rights, and conflict resolution. Hold kickoff meeting to ensure shared understanding. Revisit roles if project scope changes. Clear expectations prevent conflicts about authorship and contributions later.

Essential collaboration tools: (1) Project management - Asana, Trello, or Monday for task tracking, (2) Communication - Slack or Teams for quick questions, Zoom for meetings, (3) File sharing - Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive with clear folder structure, (4) Reference management - Zotero Groups or Mendeley Teams for shared libraries, (5) Writing collaboration - Google Docs or Overleaf (LaTeX) for simultaneous editing, (6) Data analysis - GitHub for code sharing, OSF for data/materials. Establish communication norms: response time expectations, preferred channels for different questions, meeting frequency. Over-communicate early to build trust in remote teams.

Prevent disputes by discussing authorship early and often: (1) Establish authorship criteria at project start (substantial intellectual contribution, not just data collection or funding), (2) Document agreed-upon author order and justify the order (first = primary contributor, last = senior mentor, etc.), (3) Update authorship discussions as project evolves, (4) Follow ICMJE guidelines requiring authors to approve final manuscript and take public responsibility for content, (5) Consider "contributed equally" notation for co-first authors. If disputes arise: revisit documented agreements, involve neutral third party (department chair), assess actual contributions objectively. Prevention through clear communication is key.