Writing in Teams

Writing in Teams: Enabling Process and Team Dynamics to Get Papers Done 

In this workshop we assist scientific leaders in developing an efficient team culture for scientific paper production, focusing on process optimization and fostering a productive collaborative environment among team members

Did you know that this workshop can be part-funded by FUNDAE? Find out more

Workshop Summary

Title: Writing in Teams: Enabling Process and Team Dynamics to Get Papers Done 

Target audience: Group Leaders and Senior Researchers

Format: In-person

Workshop Goals

Writing and publishing scientific papers is challenging for many scientists, and is often one of the most inefficient steps in the scientific process. However, for senior scientists leading teams of researchers, publishing multiple papers per year is no longer just about the difficulties of writing, but is a rather more complex mix of challenges, including dealing with many projects simultaneously, juggling one’s own multiple roles and responsibilities, and balancing the abilities, needs, motivations and relationships among our team members. This extra complexity regularly frustrates our progress in getting papers done. But surprisingly, writing itself can actually be quite fast; it’s the thinking and communicating in teams that often slows things down.
The goal of this workshop is to help leaders of scientific teams develop an efficient
team culture for producing scientific papers. We will explore the two main challenges of writing in teams: establishing an efficient process, and fostering a productive team culture to support the writing and the writers. Participants will learn some practical, process-oriented tools for developing papers in collaboration with team members, and revisit some core leadership concepts that can help us empower our team and streamline our process to get papers done.

Workshop Content

  • How to write as little as possible: from Writing to Project Management
  • Tools for a more efficient writing process
  • From managing tasks to managing people: training, delegation, roles, communication, and feedback
  • Start with the end in sight: using the paper to guide the science
  • Publishing strategy: planning your papers over time

Workshop Style

This is an interactive workshop with extensive elements of partner work, exercises, group discussion. We use innovative training methods and proven didactic techniques, and place special emphasis on sharing and learning from the participants’ own expertise and experience. To increase impact and applicability, we work with real-life cases from the participants whenever possible. We may ask participants to reserve time for individual preparatory work before the workshop

Our Trainers

All our trainers are scientists with many years of experience as researchers and scientific communicators. Please refer to our teams page to have a more detailed look at the trainers.