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March 2, 2023

How to Turn Your Team into A Collaborative Research Engine

Executing complex initiatives such as pharmaceutical breakthroughs or advancements in medical device technology requires a breadth of knowledge that is accessible, organized, and shared across large, diverse, and often virtual teams.

This can prove challenging, however. With the ever-evolving landscape of teamwork, organizations need to make intentional, long-term investments to foster collaboration and keep teams agile.

This collaboration can help drive creativity and fuel problem-solving capabilities, making it a cornerstone for an initiative or project’s success. But how do you take these theoretical concepts and put them into practice? What are some of the concrete steps you can take today to turn your team into a collaborative research engine?

Benefits of Collaborative Research Teams

While team collaboration is widely recognized as a positive element of an organization and team’s culture, it’s important to remember the very real role collaboration plays as a key factor in improving results.

Increased Productivity

Productivity is a concept many R&D teams wrestle with in a world that increasingly demands more tests, more trials, more communication, more peer review, more information, more sources…the list goes on.

But what we don’t have more of is time.

Team collaboration helps increase productivity because researchers and innovators can share findings, information, insights, and learnings quickly and easily. Working together allows team members to divide and conquer which means you can combine abilities and knowledge to improve workflows and achieve goals. Additionally, team members can provide feedback on projects more quickly when they work together—which prevents roadblocks and potential delays further down the line.

Enhanced Creativity

Collaboration boosts creativity by freeing up resources so researchers can spend more time being effective with findings and results. It also breaks down information silos so different perspectives can be readily shared on challenges or problems that arise during the research process. By tapping into a variety of experiences and backgrounds within the group, solutions become more innovative, as well as practical. This also helps teams brainstorm new ideas faster because they have access to a much larger pool of knowledge than if they were working alone.

Better Communication

Effective communication is the backbone for any scientific advancement. Successful communication doesn't just bring technical know-how to the table; it brings people representing a wide range of backgrounds, viewpoints, and roles together with a common vision. When communication fosters collaboration, fresh ideas are generated that can lead to more productive research and open new doors of discovery. Allowing communication and collaboration to flow creates an environment where progress flourishes through the linking of minds from different perspectives and walks of life; together they create innovative changes that will continue to propel us into the future.

So, clearly collaboration isn’t just a “nice-to-have” or a workplace culture buzzword – it is essential to organizations. But how can you unlock the collective brilliance of your research team?

How To Better Organize Your Research for Team Collaboration

As straightforward as it may sound, the way your team organizes its references and literature can have a big impact on how well they are able to work together. Therefore, we are sharing practical methods and tools to help promote better collaboration through improved knowledge management and organization.

Create a Centralized Hub of Information

The first step towards better organization is creating a centralized hub of information where everyone can access the same data at once. You should have a system of record set up where all individual and team content can be stored in one place. This will make it easier for everyone on the team to access all the necessary information they need quickly and easily. Additionally, this makes it easier to track usage and prevents errors and duplications.

Develop Clear Communication Protocols

Clear communication protocols are also essential for effective team collaboration. This means setting up specific guidelines for how team members should communicate with each other about their research findings and progress on the project. Establishing expectations ahead of time will help prevent any confusion or miscommunication down the line and ensure everyone is on the same page when it comes to sharing information or getting feedback from others.

Encourage Open Sharing of Ideas

A well-organized system for references and literature also makes it easy for team members to share ideas with one another. By saving your notes and making them available for reference during discussion or review, you can make sure that everyone is on the same page when it comes time to make decisions or develop strategies. Sharing your thoughts also helps foster trust and create a collaborative environment where people feel comfortable voicing their opinions without fear of judgement or criticism from their peers.

Streamline Citation Formatting

The fact of the matter is: citation formatting can be a pain. However, when done well, citation formatting helps improve collaboration by organizing citations into easily referenced sections so that teams can quickly access resources and avoid duplication or gaps in their research. Not only does this standardization ensure accuracy and consistency across your organization, but also saves time and improves overall efficiency of your research. Investing in easier citation formatting can pay off big dividends when it comes to your research processes.

Work Better Together

With almost 20 years of helping the world’s top organizations and prestigious universities with seamless access to scientific content and accelerated research, we know that one of the most important things we can do is keep track of our sources.

That's where Article Galaxy References comes in.

With built-in organization, secure sharing, and fast access, our ultimate reference management tool makes it easy to work together more effectively with your team. Article Galaxy References tech solution allows you to keep track of your individual and team content while annotating, citing, and sharing millions of PDFs in a couple clicks.

Designed to scale with your business, our full-service Article Galaxy product suite powers your workflows and positions you for success at any stage of your research process. Combine the convenience of one-click access to all scientific literature with unlimited organizational capacity to accelerate your next research breakthrough and help your organization navigate the complexities of knowledge, growth, and collaboration.

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