Coauthors and Collaborations

Abstract

This personal reflective essay summarizes and explains why the frequency with which I have coauthored research has varied over my career and discusses the reasons that my coauthored publications and collaborations have arisen. The reasons include research that arises from casual conversations with colleagues, the sharing of data both as a donor and as a recipient, invitations to participate in large-scale projects, the division of labor and working with people with complementary skills and personalities, educating graduate and undergraduate students and the desire to give the former a leg up in the job market and to encourage the latter to pursue doctoral study, discussions with my wife about issues she faced as a teacher and administrator in public K12 education, and efforts to magnify my impact on an area of study by convening conferences, commissioning papers, and seeing conference volumes through to publication.