Writing Workshops

As the crow flies, approximately 9,000miles separates my home from my closest collaborators. 

Any reader of my blog will likely already be convinced that ecology research is an immense team effort. The majority of my research involves fieldwork in Madagascar, where I work in large, multidisciplinary teams. The bulk of my year, however, is spent in Durham, North Carolina. Sustaining effective collaborations across so many miles and time zones presents quite a few challenges. Missing my team and persistent FOMO (fear of missing out) are non-trivial. But the focus of this blog post lies in the challenge of writing academic papers while oceans apart. 

Luckily, most of my collaborators are accessible online. We regularly exchange emails and Facebook messages, and even chat via Zoom. There is a never-ending stream of news to discuss, from updates on the status of the seedlings in our experiments to the latest outreach event successes. Sharing jokes and research updates reliably brings smiles bright enough to reach across our 9,000mile divide. ​

I am also fortunate to partner with Dr. James Herrera from the Duke Lemur Center, who helps facilitate manuscript writing workshops even when I am in Durham. Recently, our team got together in Sambava, Madagascar, to discuss an academic paper we are working on with 23 co-authors, 19 of whom are Malagasy. The meaningful participation of each co-author is critical for ensuring that our science is accurate, effective, and ethical. Writing a paper in a large teams requires time and dedication everyone. For example, while I took the lead on implementing network analysis, Edouard Mahazandry focused on providing new insights for the plant functional trait results, and Dr. Marie Rolande Soazafy ensured that our human-use metrics were meaningful. Details of the manuscript discussion are also a product of countless fire-side conversations in COMATSA and Ambodivoava. Of course, after a diligent workshop session, the team winds down over a forest walk or delicious dinner.

​Misaotra ny ekipa manontolo!