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Four Women, One Book: A Distance Collaboration (309558)
Cecilia Martinez, Reh School of Business, Clarkson University*Jane Oppenlander, Reh School of Business, Clarkson University
Mary Ann Shifflet, Romain College of Business, University of Southern Indiana
Shirley Shmerling, Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts
Keywords: Writing, publishing, distance collaboration, project management, quality improvement
The experiences of four women collaborating remotely to write a casebook on healthcare quality improvement are chronicled. The four co-authors have diverse backgrounds, but share a desire to teach statistics and quality improvement in a practical way, by creating case studies targeted toward current and future health care and analytics professionals. The lifecycle of the publishing project is presented, highlighting the planning, organization, and decisions needed to successfully deliver the manuscript and associated products on schedule. Challenges working at a distance, on different academic schedules are discussed. Topics covered will include selecting and working with a publisher, content development, division of labor, and using technology for communication and managing written material. In the spirit of quality improvement, we conclude with lessons learned and recommendations for those wishing to collaborate at a distance on a major writing project. Building this distance-based writing community has prepared us well for the immersive online work environment brought on by the COVID-19 experience.