Resource of the Week: Stephen Heard on why we should all have a “publication power-of-attorney” lined up

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In a thought-provoking post about a problem few of us likely consider, Dr. Stephen Heard encourages us all to establish a power-of-attorney authorizing co-authors to proceed with publishing if we are unavailable (but not dead).

He writes, “If a coauthor is unavailable for a few weeks, there’s rarely any harm in simply waiting for their return. However, when unavailability is open-ended or stretches beyond a month or two, it can matter much more. In particular, delaying even a single paper by a few months could damage career prospects for an early-career scientist coming onto the job market, applying for a first big grant, or coming up for tenure.”

Read the full post, including a template for your own power-of-attorney assignment statement, here.