Create a collaboration agreement with your co-author

Collaborating with a co-author on producing a textbook can have many benefits, said Steve Gillen, an attorney with Wood Herron & Evans. “It can diffuse the burden of a large project; allow you to draw on each other’s strengths; create a broader appeal for the work; and give you access to a sounding board for ideas,” he said. “On the other hand, the most bitter troubles and disputes occur between co-authors. Of all disputes, those between collaborators are the worst–they almost never have a happy ending.”

One source of trouble is in the way the Copyright Act deals with co-authorship, said Gillen. “The default positions stated in the Copyright Act with regard to co-authorship are often not those that you would provide yourself,” he said. They include:

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5 Tips for writing a journal article abstract

When writing an abstract, consider its aim. An abstract is intended to tell the reader the basic, most important aspects of your work so that he or she can decide whether or not to read the rest of the paper.

Those five basic aspects are:

  1. What it is that you’re talking about (the subject matter)
  2. Why he/she should care (why the subject matter is important)
  3. What you found (or hope to find out) about the subject matter (what your research question or intention is)
  4. How you learned (or intend to learn) about the subject matter (the research methodology)
  5. What your conclusions were (when appropriate–conclusions don’t belong in the abstract of a dissertation or thesis proposal)

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