Collaboration is a cornerstone of modern science, but it also raises a vari-
ety of ethical problems and dilemmas. This chapter explores a variety of is-
sues related to scientific collaboration, including authorship and credit al-
location in science; the sharing of data, results, tools, reagents, equipment,
and resources; and mentoring responsibilities. The chapter discusses some
of the moral dimensions of collaboration, such as trust, accountability, and
collegiality. It also considers some reasons why collaborations sometimes
fail in research and addresses polices designed to promote collaboration,
including policies on authorship, and to promote effective mentoring.

Contemporary research requires a great deal of collaboration among scien-
tists. Although many people still retain the image of the isolated researcher
toiling away in the laboratory, modern science is a highly social activity.
Archimedes, Galileo, Newton, Harvey, Lavoisier, and Mendel managed to do
a great deal of work without collaborating significantly, but today's scientists
often must work with many different colleagues. Researchers share data, data-
bases, ideas, equipment, computers, methods, reagents, cell lines, research
sites, personnel, and many other technical and human resources. Collabora-
tion takes place within a single institution and among several institutions; it
occurs within a particular discipline and among many disciplines; it takes place
within the academic realm, within the private sector, or between the academy
and industry; and it happens at local, national, and international levels. Col-
laborators may include graduate students, postdoctoral students, junior and
senior researchers, basic scientists, and clinical researchers. Some research proj-
ects, such as the Human Genome Project, involve thousands of researchers
from dozens of disciplines working in many different countries (Grinnell 1992,
Macrina 2000).

Successful collaboration cannot occur without a high level of cooperation,
trust, collegiality, fairness, and accountability. Cooperation is essential to col-
laboration because researchers cannot collaborate if they are not willing to en-
gage in activities that require a great deal of cooperation, such as sharing data
and resources or coordinating activities, experiments, and tests. Trust is im-
portant in collaboration because researchers need to trust that their collabo-
rators will keep the agreements, will share resources, will disclose important
information, will not lie, and so on (Whitbeck 1998). Many different factors
can undermine trustworthiness, including selfishness, incompetence, negli-
gence, unfairness, careerism, and conflicts of interest.

Collegiality, one of sociologist Robert Merton's (1973) four norms of sci-
ence, is important in maintaining a social environment that promotes coop-

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