Kardi Teknomo’s Guidelines on Research and Publication Cooperation

By Kardi Teknomo, PhD.

I remember long time ago when I was wondering on how could several people from difference countries make research cooperation and do some publications together. That confusion has changed now. I am encouraged by several real international research collaborations that I have made and by the several papers that some colleagues and I have published together in good cooperation.

Perhaps the most critical issues on the cooperation are lack of rules and agreement on how to cooperate. It seems several people will have different point of view on the contribution and at the end, they may disagree on each other upon some issues that they should discuss and agree before the cooperation. This may affect their friendship that has been built for years. To avoid those problems, I usually send this guideline as the first draft of agreement in the spirit of mutual trust and good willingness to collaborate.

  1. We can do research cooperation and can publish together the outcome of research. It is not necessary that we are in the same field, but in general, we must have common interests on the field that we cooperate. Because of this, it is not necessary that the research topic be shared among members of research cooperation. Each of us may do our own work and have our own research focus, but we still can cooperate by giving contributions upon other people’s work. In this way, we can enhance our research productivity and publications.
  2. When I send you my work, it shall cover all the main idea, framework, analysis and full writing (from abstract to conclusion). However, it is not necessarily completed. In the same way, I also hope that if you send your work, it may cover the same things as much as possible.
  3. I do hope we can keep close contacts during cooperation and communicate through emails as soon as possible. Daily contact is encouraged. You may feel discomfort if my responds is too slow. In the same way, I think it is not acceptable if you give no respond for more than 2 weeks without any notification or reasonable.
  4. The one who send this almost full work shall be considered as the First author. The First author has the authority to determine who will be the Contributing authors and evaluate the significant contributions of other Contributing authors.
  5. The final order of contributing authors shall be put according to the degree of their contributions. As much as possible, the number of contributing author is not more than 3 (four authors in total).
  6. Non-contributing people name must be strictly removed from the authors name, regardless their positions, or political domination of those people. For example, they cannot become co-author only because they are your supervisor, director, professor, sponsors, close friend, or spouse. Upon request of the contributing authors, the First author has a responsibility to explain honestly his/her decision to put those people name as the contributing authors in the sequence.
  7. The following works shall not be considered as contribution to the research and publication. Therefore, if they only do these works, their name shall not be included as contributing authors. If their works are quite significant, the First author shall thank them by including their name in the acknowledgements.
    • Check English grammar and spelling
    • Give simple review such as critics and pointing the error
    • Checking and adding some references
    • Read the manuscript and discuss about it (reader)
    • Giving data, or help to collect data (surveyors)
    • Give financial support (donator)
    • Administratively/politically support us so that the paper may be published in particular conference or journal
    • Paid/hire programmers or research assistant
    • Help to type the manuscript (typist)
    • Help to make the graphs, picture, figures, tables and formatting them
  8. Any of the following works shall be considered as a significant contribution and the person who does it shall be included in the list of contributing authors:
    • Give detail review, raise questions about critical errors and detail suggestion on how to solve the problem
    • Give idea on more general or more specific framework that lead to better conclusion of the manuscript
    • Help to develop the tools or program or mathematical analysis that quite significant to show the original work of the manuscript.
    • Do some part of the analysis that results may contribute to the conclusion
    • Write or rewrite significant part of the manuscript
  9. The error of the paper, if exist, is the responsibility of all authors. Thus, all authors must carefully examine the manuscript before publication or during the revision.
  10. The First author is responsible to pay the publications and corresponding fee if required. If it is publish as a conference proceeding, the First author shall bear the responsibility to give the seminar. The first author is also the corresponding author for revision.
  11. It is the First author decision on where to publish this work. Other contributing authors may give some suggestions.
  12. If the reprint is free, the first author shall distribute to the other contributing authors. Otherwise, reprint shall be paid by authors who want to obtain the reprints
  13. The first author will give the final draft electronic copy to all contributing authors.
  14. The contributing authors agree not to publish this manuscript as their own work (as the First author). In case the contributing authors want to perform some derivative work later and publish as their own work without including the first author name, they shall put the first manuscript as the main reference in all derivative work.
  15. Should there be concern and issues that you think need to be discussed further, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

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Preferable reference for this article is

Teknomo, Kardi. (2005) Kardi Teknomo’s Guidelines on Research and Publication Cooperation. http://people.revoledu.com/kardi/publication/ResearchCollaborationGuide.html

Bibliography

J. Sylvan Katz and Ben R. Martin (1997) What is research Collaboration?

Jonathan Adams (2012) Collaborations: The rise of research networks, Nature 490, 335–336

Responsible Conduct in Collaborative Research topics (Northern Illinois University)

Robyn Keast and Michael Charles (2016) Ten rules for successful research collaboration

Aijaz A. Shaikh (2015) A brief guide to research collaboration for the young scholar

Sharon Ann Holgate (2012) How to Collaborate, Science