Co-writing a paper, especially beyond one or two co-authors, can become a protracted process. If, on top of that, you try to have multiple feedback cycles (as we recommend), co-authoring a paper can feel like swimming in molasses. This brief post describes how the most effective PhD students I know handle this kind of feedback situation.

See if this scenario sounds familiar. You send out an outline or a draft of your paper to your five co-authors, and then wait, and wait… and wait until everyone can finally look at it and tell you something. You make some corrections, then send it back to them. And wait again. Months pass, but you don’t know how many more iterations like this will be needed to finish the d%$&ed paper. You start wondering if the paper will ever be submitted… let alone accepted and published.

To ameliorate this problem, when sending out your materials give people the option to provide feedback (and say how and about what you expect feedback, with a clear but reasonable deadline), but also lay out the next steps you’ll take if there is no feedback (also with a clear timeline). This means their feedback is not a checkpoint that needs to happen before the process continues. You will feel less stalled by others, and co-authors will still feel included in the process (probably, also relieved to know that things will progress even if they cannot contribute at this particular moment).

I recently heard this tactic given a name, and suddenly realized that I had been using it for years… and that the more effective doctoral students I know were using it to deal with my (sometimes erratic) feedback response times. Try it out in your collaborations and give people the option to tell you if they were bothered by it, or felt included and relieved. YMMV!

Was this quick technique useful? Was it obvious? Do you appreciate more this kind of tiny advice, or the longer, well-researched pieces? Let us know in the comments section below! (or leave a voice message)

Header image by DALL-E 3, via Bing Chat¹.

• Writing
• Research
• Papers
• Communication
• Feedback