Making an Author in Radically Collaborative Research

Abstract

Collaborative authorship is the overwhelming norm in science. Yet philosophical issues that arise in this context have received little direct attention. The chapter examines several difficulties inherent in establishing authorship in the context of collaborative research. Using case studies, the chapter considers collaborative research that relies on multiple authors, collaborative research with a single author and many collaborators, and radically collaborative research that is distributed widely over disciplinary expertise, time, and space. The chapter argues that the first two types of collaborative research leave a standard understanding of authorship untouched, while the third yields a novel class of significant challenges for our common understanding of authorship.