This paper by Patel et al. offers a concise and practical introduction to starting collaborative projects across disciplines. It is especially useful because it focuses on the early design choices that often determine whether interdisciplinary work succeeds: building the team, assigning roles and responsibilities, agreeing ground rules, discussing authorship, and creating the conditions for trust and psychological safety. For established researchers – who are often at the point of convening interdisciplinary work rather than simply participating in it – the paper gives a clear basis for thinking through the practical mechanics of collaboration, rather than treating interdisciplinarity as an abstract aspiration. What will you take forward? One thing to try: Notice where in your current collaboration there are assumptions about roles, language, or authorship still implicit rather than properly discussed. Make a commitment to raise them at your next meeting, or arrange a review of how things are going.

This practical guide to big team science by Baumgartner HA et al. is particularly helpful for researchers beginning to work in larger collaborations that need more deliberate leadership than a small project team. It addresses issues such as leadership, governance, team design, communication, decision-making, collaborative writing, and infrastructure. For established researchers stepping into more flexible leadership positions, the value of the guide is that it treats leadership as a set of practices rather than simply a formal role, helping you create structures that allow collaboration to scale up without becoming fragmented. What will you take forward? One thing to consider: Which part of your current leadership approach would need to change if your project team doubled in size or complexity over the next year?