Dilemma: With a little help
I am on a tenure-track position, and my mid-term review is within a month. I really need to submit a manuscript before the deadline. Today in a group seminar, quite a few people were critical about the working paper I presented. After the seminar, a colleague tells me that he thinks that the chance of publication is much bigger if I let the area chair professor co-author the paper. The professor is well known in her field and is also close to the editors of the journal in question. What do I do?
A: I am not going to invite the professor to co-author and submit the manuscript for publication.
B: I ask the professor if she is willing to be a second author and submit the paper when she agrees.
C: I postpone the publication to improve the quality of the paper. I do not ask the professor to co-author.
D: I postpone submitting the paper and plan to talk to the professor in a few weeks’ time. Then, I can hopefully list a working paper, also under her name, in my mid-term application file.
(We gratefully acknowledge permission to reproduce this dilemma from the “Dilemma Game. Professionalism and Integrity in Research” as developed by the Erasmus University Rotterdam (link to the game) in this tool.)