Collaborating in Teams

Abstract

You will have no doubt come across two types in your research career: the passionate solo researchers, in the style of Stephen Hawking, who work at a problem day and night largely by themselves, and the team players, who are convinced that challenges are best tackled together. Teamwork is becoming increasingly common in empirical social research. As one example, calls for research proposals often explicitly request multidisciplinary working groups, often in collaboration with various partners. The question this raises is how you can most effectively organize and map out collaborative analysis work involving software. A project not only needs an agreed plan as to who does what and at which point in time; it also demands strict rules and guidelines—to avoid chaos ensuing. It may be, for example, that not every team member is allowed to delete codes, reorganize the category system, or change memos. Rules like these require a user management system, in which project leaders can define detailed permissions for each team member.