relationships and tasks in scientific research collaborations
Most computer-based aids for researchers and other workers have had individuals rather than groups or teams as their beneficiaries. This is unfortunate, since much work in business, government, and academia is performed by groups of people. In this paper we examine research collaborations as a particularly informative example of group work and propose a model of research collaboration that should provide guidance to those developing technology to support collaborative work. The model is based on 50 semi-structured interviews with researchers in psychology, management science, and computer science. It focuses on the problems in forming and maintaining personal relationships and completing tasks that researchers must solve to have a successful collaboration. These problems occur when collaborators are initiating projects, executing them, and documenting results.
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