Ask HN: How to lead a paper as an early-career scientist?

1 points by toombowoombo 2 years ago | 1 comment

Hi! I'm leading my first paper that involves managing the work (kind of) of 5 other co-authors (1 from my group + 2 from another group + 2 group leads). It's a multidisciplinary project and we're having a deadline in approx 1 month. I'm having a first draft done, but I'm not sure how much should I delegate vs. how much I'm expected to do it myself.

What's your advice on leading a project where everyone is higher in seniority than me?

Thanks!

KuriousCat 2 years ago |

Keep working in the background and unblock yourself. You should be prepared to do it all by yourself and handle the scenario of rest of your collaborators shelving the paper. You should not be delegating to seniors, that never works. Ideally, I would list things that need to be done. I would have a group meeting and ask what people are excited to do and how I can help them in the parts they are not ready to pick up.