July 29: Nurse Liz Charalambous has shown how a Facebook group can really help boost writing (careers, June 3). We would like to take this idea one step further and argue that, contrary to a commonly held notion, ‘too many cooks do not spoil the broth’ when it comes to group writing. Instead, this approach fosters collaboration between writers, as Ms Charalambous suggests, and which has also been our experience.
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The University of Limerick and University College Dublin primary mental healthcare research writing group recently skyped bimonthly to discuss a short piece of research written by one of four post-doctoral members.
The group read the sample in advance and discussed it with the author, facilitating her to think through her ideas in a supportive environment. Once the group reviewed and discussed the text, the author revised it, combined it with the rest of the article, and emailed it to the principal investigator.
The principal investigator and the author then finished the paper and emailed it out for review to all named co-authors. This way, the authorship was clearly defined, managed and assigned as per the necessary guidelines. The broth was ready and we had all helped to cook it.
J Klimas, D Swan, G McCombe and AM Henihan, University of Limerick, University College Dublin, Kings College London and University of British Columbia
Read the article in the Nursing Standard Volume 29, Issue 48, 29 July 2015 at: http://journals.rcni.com/loi/ns