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I started a research project in pure math with a coauthor while we were overlapped during my first postdoc and his graduate program. We then moved on to other institutions but have ended up at the same institution again, as second postdocs for both of us.

In the first three or so months of collaboration, we proved several results but not enough for a full paper. After the initial bout of results, which I feel like were primarily my input, he seemed to withdraw from the collaboration, e.g. repeatedly rescheduling meetings or only engaging in the material during the meeting instead of thinking about the problems leading up to the meeting. I set the project aside, but since we're at the same institution again, I figured we could pick it back up. However, throughout the last academic year, I have asked him several times about meeting, and he keeps putting me off, but assuring me we'd find time to work on it again.

I want to finish the project, but because of his repeated delaying, we have yet to meet seriously about it even once since the initial discussions, so I feel like it would be best if I continued it on my own. I also have a sensitive career reason to pursue the topic solo.

Does anyone have any advice for politely broaching the subject of continuing the project on my own? I plan to invite him to look over the file and remove anything that he feels is mainly his contribution, and assure him that I am interested in collaborating with him in general even if I want to pursue this one alone, but I wanted to seek advice on any other way to approach the discussion.

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    I understand that you are having trouble arranging a meeting, but still, is it possible for you to raise this with him in person? It is notoriously easy (for both of you) to misjudge another person's intended tone over email. Commented Apr 1 at 17:52
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    Maybe a better fit for the Interpersonal Skills stack? Commented Apr 1 at 20:01
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    @Aruralreader It seems to me that this is asking academics for specific advice about an academic situation that would not be in the general sphere of interpersonal skills. But, if you think it is more appropriate there, feel free to vote to close. Commented Apr 1 at 20:49
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    Having crucial conversations is a life skill, not peculiar to academics. Commented Apr 1 at 21:33
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    Is "sensitive career reason" something more touchy than "I want quick publications for my CV so I can get a good permanent job after the postdoc"? Commented Apr 2 at 2:19

3 Answers 3

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This is a common problem: collaborators with different levels of urgency/interest in a given joint project. A few things to think about:

  • In my experience of writing joint math papers, it's pretty common for one person to take the lead and do most of the work after a certain point. This isn't the ideal way to collaborate, but it's what a lot of people do. It tends to even out over the long run, especially if you write multiple papers with the same people. (And if it doesn't even out, you should find different collaborators.)

  • The norms around authorship in math are pretty generous. Some might even say too generous. People who semi-bail out of a project halfway through are usually included in the author list, as long as they did a nontrivial amount of work for the project at some point.

  • If your collaborator has already done enough to warrant authorship, then there is probably no ethical way to remove him at this stage, unless he volunteers to remove himself.

  • The only exception to the previous point would be if there's a conceptually clean way to separate his contributions from yours. In that case, your suggestion of removing his parts and publishing your parts is okay ethically...but on the other hand, that stuff is probably in the draft for a reason. Removing it would most likely make the paper weaker, which is obviously not an ideal outcome.

  • Related to the last point, if you're thinking of removing his contributions from the draft and re-doing a version of them yourself, that would usually not be considered okay.

  • Having said all that, a lot of this depends on details that are hard to assess from a distance, like the specifics of what you've each done so far, how close the paper is to being finished, etc.

  • Solo papers certainly look good on your CV, but at the same time, plenty of people have gotten great jobs on the strength of a very impactful two-author paper.

Finally, what I would do in your shoes: tell him that you're going to start working on the paper again, with or without him, and invite him to join you. When the paper is done, err on the side of offering him authorship, unless the facts on the ground at the time make this notion ridiculous.

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    Thank you for your response. I think you make a lot of sense, and I see what you mean that the distance does make it more difficult to evaluate. I especially appreciate your final paragraph with your personal perspective -- it seems like a really good alternative to directly asking to work solo. Commented Apr 2 at 2:04
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The comments @user1149748's are good, but to more directly address your question of how to approach this, here's my suggestion, assuming that you still want to proceed:

Go talk to your collaborator in person. Explain that you understand if he's busy focusing on other projects now, and you'd like to continue collaborating with him. But you would also like to complete this project by [insert timeline.] (Hopefully you have a compelling reason for this that you can communicate to him also.)

Then you can propose a couple of ideas, and see what he thinks or if he has other suggestions, and then negotiate about this.

  1. You focus on the project now and he can contribute whatever he feels time to. Then you can write a joint paper as planned and you're not booting him from the project. (Warning: there is still the possibility that he could delay things inevitably, say wanting to review the paper before submission etc but being very slow about it. Some collaborators are like this, and if you do co-author the work you will need his final approval before posting/submitting. This is something you need you need to assess based on your interaction/knowledge of him.)

  2. You write a solo paper about this now, possibly with his contributions as a (joint or solo by him) appendix or separating out your joint work to finish in a separate paper later.

It's also possible that he convinces you to be happy with the status quo:

  1. You proceed at his pace, or somewhere in between, and you continue waiting to focus on this project till later. Then you focus on other projects now.
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  • Thank you for your perspective. I do think talking in person is a good idea. Commented Apr 4 at 1:42
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Dr A, there is the possibility that Dr B himself has some ideas on this very project and may steal the thunder of your planned paper if you delay engaging with him much longer.

That aside, you are the senior researcher here. You have a life and a career to crack ahead with. This other guy can't seriously expect you to allow him sit on the combine indefinitely while he shows no urgency in harvesting your common fields.

Show more determination to engage on this matter.

If Dr B is evasive, I see little wrong in seeking support from your Dean of Research in getting a meeting to resolve this. A breakdown in relations with someone evasive is no significant loss anyway.

Good luck with your plans.

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  • Thank you for your well-wishes. I am not particularly worried about this guy trying to scoop me, he wasn't willing to work on the project together much and him working on it alone seems less likely. Also, this hardly seems like the kind of thing to involve university admin in... Commented Apr 4 at 1:42
  • Great. In that case user1149748's final view of going ahead with or without him is viable. Anyways, here's hoping you tie up the matter quickly and move on to your next development. Commented Apr 4 at 11:07

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