Many co-authors back out just after ethical approval, a day or week before presentation, or just at the time of paper submission! Is it not unethical and such practices should be discouraged? Specifically when you are relying on them for research design and analyses which are the backbone of your research! How can one cope with such shocking situations?
When people withdraw at the point of submission, they may have second thoughts about quality or accuracy. However, you can still acknowledge their specific contribution in a footnote or in the acknowledgements section provided you make it clear that you are solely responsible for the use you've made of their contribution, especially any conclusions drawn.
https://prawfsblawg.blogs.com/prawfsblawg/2011/06/all-errors-are-my-own.html
However, when they back out in the middle of things, leaving you in the lurch regarding essential input from them on which you were relying, well, if there are no legal contracts involved, there's not much you can do to cope other than accept it as a lesson learned 😞 and moving on.
Karl Pfeifer has pretty much said it all...there are ethical and unethical reasons for withdrawing from a collaboration and regardless of the motive, there is usually nothing you can do about it. If you are still enthusiastic about the project and able to complete it on your own (acknowledging your collaborator's contribution, such as it is), then it is worth asking your publisher for an extension on the deadline. If you cannot complete the project on your own, I would consider either (1) trying to find a replacement collaborator who can pick up where the previous one left off or (2) changing the project output/s from a monograph to one or more papers. Each comes with its own set of problems, but they may be preferable to publishing nothing at all.
While I agree with the excellent comments made by Karl Pfeifer above, to take a different approach the co-authors may not be happy withy you/other author(s) etc. because of the nature of the research carried out or a suggestion that negative results are being excluded. They may have made the point at an earlier stage but it has been ignored and therefore feel obliged to withdraw. Having made a substantial contribution most co-authors are reluctant to let all the effort go to waste therefore their objections should be of some concern. MJB
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Philosophy
- Ethics