[Report] Collaborative research skills have become essential to scientists

Research collaborations have become more common, larger and more international over time. The incentives to collaborate are considerable – for example, collaborative papers tend to receive more citations and be discussed more widely on news and social media. Collaborative projects are also eligible to apply for bespoke funding opportunities. In a small, global survey of academics by Nature Research, we found that two-thirds of academics felt that training in collaboration in research would benefit their career development.

Research collaboration demands a diverse skill set including interpersonal skills, project management and administration and our survey indicated that only 20% of academics had accessed training in collaboration through their institution or externally.

Higher education institutions, scientific organizations and research funders can help to support collaborative research by providing training, giving recognition for collaborative research in promotion decisions and institutional evaluations, or by offering seed funding tailored to helping collaborations get started. To meet this training need, Nature Masterclasses has developed an online course for researchers on ‘Effective Collaboration in Research’.

To download the Survey Report, go to the Nature Masterclasses website.

Nature Masterclasses is a service developed by Nature Research to provide professional development training to researchers via online courses, workshops and webinars.