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Saturday, October 20
Community
Influence
Knowledge
Sat, Oct 20, 8:45 AM - 9:45 AM
Pavilion Ballroom
Plenary Presentation III

Playing Nice with Others: The Many Benefits of Collaboration (305001)

*Alicia Carriquiry, Iowa State University 

Keywords: Collaboration, communications, information-sharing, big science

Over the last 30 years or so, we have come to understand that teams of scientists with different, but overlapping interests can more effectively address big problems. Collaboration has been part of the culture in business and industry for even longer, but in academia, the image of the independent researcher is still prevalent. Collaboration can take on many forms, can occur between professionals in the same organization or across different organizations, and has become almost commonplace. Nature reported a few years ago, that the rise in collaboration has resulted in a significant increase in the number of co-authors. This explosion in collaborative research is due, in part, to the tremendous advances in communications and information-sharing technologies, and has been fueled by incentives and other programs at the international, national and local levels. In this presentation, we focus on the how’s and the when’s of establishing fruitful collaborative relationships, and provide some “best practices” to guide your interactions with colleagues in other disciplines. An effective collaboration will pay off, but becoming a useful collaborator takes interest, time and dedication.