JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Authorship teams in the health professions are typically composed of scholars who are acquainted with one another before a manuscript is written. Even if a scholar has identified a diverse group of collaborators outside their usual network, writing an article with a large number of co-authors poses significant logistical challenges.

Objective:

This paper describes a novel method for crowdsourcing cross-disciplinary collaboration that facilitates the efficient development of diverse authorship teams and high-quality manuscripts.

Methods:

On September 11, 2020, I used the social media platform Twitter to invite people to collaborate on an article I had drafted. Anyone who wanted to collaborate was welcome, regardless of discipline, specialty, title, country of residence, or degree completion. During the twenty-five days that followed, I used Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Forms to manage all aspects of the collaboration.

Results:

The collaboration resulted in the completion of two manuscripts in a twenty-five day period. Forty collaborators met the ICMJE authorship criteria for the first article (“Documenting Social Media Engagement as Scholarship: A New Model for Assessing Academic Accomplishment for the Health Professions”) and thirty-five collaborators met the ICMJE authorship criteria for the second article (“The Benefits of Using Social Media as a Health Professional in Academia”). The authorship teams for both articles were notably diverse, with 17-18% of authors identifying as a person of color and/or under-represented minority, 37-38% identifying as LGBTQ+, 73-74% using she/her pronouns, and 20-23% identifying as a person with a disability.

Conclusions:

Scholars in the health professions can use this paper in conjunction with the tools provided to replicate this process in carrying out their own large-scale manuscript collaborations.