Collaborative writing in the context of science 2.0

The increasing number of co-authored academic papers points to the importance of collaborative writing in contemporary research. Digital technologies add a new dimension to collaborative writing by providing co-authors with access to the same document and enabling co-authors to edit the shared text at the same time. The availability of web-based tools for collaborative writing prompts the question of the extent to which researchers incorporate these tools into their scholarly practices. Based on my statistical analysis of the data from the Science 2.0 Survey (2014), conducted in cooperation with the Leibniz Research Alliance Science 2.0, I examine the usage of digital technologies in the process of collaborative writing among researchers in Germany. I use the concepts of asynchronous and synchronous modes of writing, derived from the field of Computer Supported Cooperative Work, to discuss collaborative writing strategies in the context of Science 2.0. My study shows that researchers use a mixture of different writing strategies and that they tend to use the same tool for different writing strategies. Moreover, I discuss researchers' attitudes towards online text editors. In reflecting on collaborative writing, I consider both the technological and social aspects.