Useful Questions to Ask

As noted in Interpersonal Interaction, team members often have different expectations regarding both the nature of the research project and how research tasks (and credit) will be divided. It is thus important to be aware at the outset of the sort of issues over which team members are most likely to need clarification.

Team members can usefully explore the following questions at the start:

· What are the goals? [On this see also Research Questions for Team Research]

· When is it over?

· Who does what?

· Who writes reports?

· Who makes personnel decisions, and how?

· Who manages data, has access?

· How will publication credit be assigned?

· Who makes presentations, addresses media?

· Who files patents etc.?

· How will team communicate?

· How will decisions about changing directions or new collaborations be made?

· What happens to research materials if someone leaves?

· Are there conflicts of interest?

Notably, these questions address what are believed to be the core sources of conflict in research teams.

From Bonnie Spring, Arlen C. Moller, and Holly Falk-Krzesinski. Teamscience.net. Northwestern University, Apr. 2011. Web. <http://teamscience.net/>. The website has modules that provide answers to many questions regarding team research (its effectiveness, history, challenges, assessment etc.]