The concept of collaboration seems to be on everyone’s mind these days, especially as research becomes more and more transdisciplinary in nature.  What *is* collaboration? How do I find collaborators?  How do potential collaborators find me?  What should I look for in a potential collaborator?

Steven Wiley, a Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Fellow and director of PNNL’s Biomolecular Systems Initiative discusses collaboration in The Scientist:  “Collaborations: Challenging, but Key“.  Definitely worth a read.  You might want to check out the related content:  Tips for Collaborating,  What’s the Value of Conferences?, and Academic Medicine to the Rescue.

There’s been a big push in the last few years to develop applications and platforms that allow potential collaborators to find each other.  In fact, this very concept was the topic of an RFA from NIH this spring. Some of the most well-known social networking platforms include LinkedIn and Facebook – but there are some that are more focused on scientists:

• VIVO – VIVO brings together publicly available information on the people, departments, graduate fields, facilities, and other resources that collectively make up the research and scholarship environment in all disciplines at a number of institutions.
• Epernicus – A professional network for scientists, started at Harvard and MIT.  (here’s my profile)
• Profiles – Profiles is the social networking website of the Harvard Catalyst. It not only shows traditional directory information, but also illustrates how each person is connected to others in the broad research community.
• 2collab – an online collaboration tool from Elsevier for researchers that enables to share, connect and discuss research.
• BioMedExperts – A scientific social network where you can research, collaborate, and connect with researchers and medical experts worldwide.
• ResearchGATE – A scientific network that connects researchers. Find research partners, collaborate with scientists and explore journal articles.

Another interesting point to note is that the connections and conversations that were only available at conferences are becoming easier thanks to advancements such as GoToMeeting and similar services.

EDIT [10/12/09]:  Cathy Sarli has a couple of related resources from the Office of Research Integrity at DHHS which are also great: Silence is Not Golden: Making Collaborations Work and Preempting Discord: Prenuptial Agreements for Scientists.

Want to read more about collaboration?  Take a look at these papers:

The eScience revolution: Creating semantic web platforms for massive scientific collaboration.

Science wikinomics. Mass networking through the web creates new forms of scientific collaboration. Rinaldi A. EMBO Rep. 2009 May;10(5):439-43. No abstract available. Erratum in: EMBO Rep. 2009 Jul;10(7):797. PMID: 19415079 Related Articles

UK should foster scientific collaboration outside EU. Brown H. BMJ. 2007 May 19;334(7602):1027. No abstract available. PMID: 17510137 Related Articles

Scientific collaboration results in higher citation rates of published articles. Figg WD, Dunn L, Liewehr DJ, Steinberg SM, Thurman PW, Barrett JC, Birkinshaw J. Pharmacotherapy. 2006 Jun;26(6):759-67. PMID: 16716129 Related Articles

Guidelines for negotiating scientific collaboration. Smalheiser NR, Perkins GA, Jones S. PLoS Biol. 2005 Jun;3(6):e217. Epub 2005 Jun 14. No abstract available. PMID: 15941361 Related Articles Free article in PMC | at journal site