\documentclass[10pt]{article}

\usepackage{fullpage}
\usepackage{CJKutf8} 
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{setspace}
\usepackage{parskip}
\usepackage{titlesec}
\usepackage[section]{placeins}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{breakcites}
\usepackage{lineno}
\usepackage{hyphenat}





\PassOptionsToPackage{hyphens}{url}
\usepackage[colorlinks = true,
            linkcolor = blue,
            urlcolor  = blue,
            citecolor = blue,
            anchorcolor = blue]{hyperref}
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\makeatletter
\patchcmd\@combinedblfloats{\box\@outputbox}{\unvbox\@outputbox}{}{%
  \errmessage{\noexpand\@combinedblfloats could not be patched}%
}%
\makeatother


\usepackage[round]{natbib}
\let\cite\citep




\renewenvironment{abstract}
  {{\bfseries\noindent{\abstractname}\par\nobreak}\footnotesize}
  {\bigskip}

\titlespacing{\section}{0pt}{*3}{*1}
\titlespacing{\subsection}{0pt}{*2}{*0.5}
\titlespacing{\subsubsection}{0pt}{*1.5}{0pt}


\usepackage{authblk}


\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage[space]{grffile}
\usepackage{latexsym}
\usepackage{textcomp}
\usepackage{longtable}
\usepackage{tabulary}
\usepackage{booktabs,array,multirow}
\usepackage{amsfonts,amsmath,amssymb}
\providecommand\citet{\cite}
\providecommand\citep{\cite}
\providecommand\citealt{\cite}
% You can conditionalize code for latexml or normal latex using this.
\newif\iflatexml\latexmlfalse
\providecommand{\tightlist}{\setlength{\itemsep}{0pt}\setlength{\parskip}{0pt}}%

\AtBeginDocument{\DeclareGraphicsExtensions{.pdf,.PDF,.eps,.EPS,.png,.PNG,.tif,.TIF,.jpg,.JPG,.jpeg,.JPEG}}

\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}










\begin{document}
\begin{CJK}{UTF8}{gbsn}

\title{Online Collaboration}



\author[1]{David Banys}%
\author[1]{Alberto Pepe}%
\affil[1]{Authorea}%


\vspace{-1em}



  
  \date{April 25, 2026}


\begingroup
\let\center\flushleft
\let\endcenter\endflushleft
\maketitle
\endgroup








\sloppy


\section*{Online collaboration is a requirement for modern scientific
research, but web-based tools are lagging other
industries}

{\label{576220}}

To John Sexton, the 15th president of New York University,
\href{https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/science-now-vast-global-enterprise/?wt.mc_id=SA_AD-SM_SPRINGERNATURE_GlobalScience_SCA_v1_CVP_display_SM_2017-04-18_}{Science
is Now a Vast Global Enterprise}~-- one that requires substantial
international cooperation and modern tools to accomplish this
cooperation. The internet age has brought collaborative advancements to
many technical fields -- but the tools to write research have been
puzzlingly left behind.

\par\null

As we questioned in
\href{https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/how-to-bring-science-publishing-into-the-21st-century/}{an
essay in Scientific American} last year:

\par\null

\begin{quote}
How come the internet age has yet to deliver a collaborative writing and
publishing tool for research?
\end{quote}

With research papers
\href{http://http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21710792-scientific-publications-are-getting-more-and-more-names-attached-them-why}{gaining
more coauthors each year}, it's important to have tools that support
collaborative technical writing in an environment that is native to the
web.

\section*{}

{\label{685695}}

\section*{Is research becoming more
collaborative?}

{\label{832995}}

According to
\href{http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21710792-scientific-publications-are-getting-more-and-more-names-attached-them-why}{The
Economist}, the answer is a firm yes.~

\par\null\par\null\selectlanguage{english}
\begin{figure}[h!]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=0.70\columnwidth]{figures/papered-over-(economist)/papered-over-(economist)}
\caption{{Papers are gaining more coauthors
{\label{533751}}
Source:~\url{http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21710792-scientific-publications-are-getting-more-and-more-names-attached-them-why}
{\label{533751}}%
}}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

\par\null\par\null

Of special note from The Economist report:

\par\null

\begin{quote}
To investigate the matter, The Economist reviewed data on more than 34m
research papers published between 1996 and 2015 in peer-reviewed
journals and conference proceedings. These were drawn from Scopus, the
world's biggest catalogue of abstracts and citations of papers, which is
owned by RELX Group, a publisher and information company.~Over the
period in question, the average number of authors per paper grew from
3.2 to 4.4.
\end{quote}

\emph{Source:~\url{http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21710792-scientific-publications-are-getting-more-and-more-names-attached-them-why}}

\par\null

In other words, papers are almost universally gaining more co-authors
over time!

\par\null

\section*{Can we improve the tools to make online collaboration
easier?}

{\label{424769}}

There are an increasing number of
\href{http://connectedresearchers.com/online-tools-for-researchers/}{digital
tools}~available to researchers. These tools range from reference
management and data sharing to grammar-aware content editing and
dissemination. Most importantly, many of these tools are specifically
designed to help researchers work together to produce collaborative
articles.~

\par\null

\section*{Some of our favorite digital tools for online
collaboration:}

{\label{694843}}

\href{https://benchling.com/}{Benchling} - for managing a life sciences
lab in the cloud

\href{https://www.kaggle.com/}{Kaggle} - for data science teams

\href{https://www.mysciencework.com/}{MyScienceWork} - for promoting
published scientific work

\href{https://paperpile.com/}{PaperPile} - for managing references and
storing articles from the web while using Google Docs and Word

\href{http://www.authorea.com}{Authorea} - ~for writing collaborative,
data-rich, and dynamic research documents online

\par\null

\section*{Further Reading}

{\label{455049}}

\href{https://www.authorea.com/users/2/articles/25891-why-should-i-use-authorea-to-write-my-paper/_show_article}{Why
Should I Use Authorea to Write My Next Paper?}

\selectlanguage{english}
\FloatBarrier
\end{CJK}\end{document}

