As a nurse author, you've undoubtedly experienced a breach in scholarly manners somewhere along the line. Someone you've never met e-mails a request for a scholarly favor without so much as a how are you or I really admire your writing. You review a manuscript multiple times for a colleague who doesn't acknowledge your contribution in the publication. Or, after writing a letter recommending someone for a scholarly award, you never receive a thank-you for your time and effort.

If this brings back memories that still sting, you're not alone. I used to be taken aback when something like this happened and wonder why colleagues or students didn't know any better. Until I realized that, except for being warned off plagiarism, none of my teachers said anything about scholarly manners. Nor had I, in 25 years of teaching, ever spoken to students about scholarly manners, which meant I'd been carrying around a set of scholarly manners that I'd made up and kept to myself. This also suggested I'd held others to scholarly standards we hadn't talked about, much less agreed upon or written down.

Having spent the last 10 years consulting to nursing faculty groups, I've seen how perceived breaches in scholarly etiquette disrupt collegial relationships by eroding mutual respect. As scholarly joy gets stolen in interactions that run the gamut from unpredictable to unsafe to uncivil, scholarly joy-stealing incivilities quell productivity by robbing individuals of zest, clarity, feelings of worth, and the desire for more connection.1 This explains why joy-stealing incivilities pose such a threat to the future of nursing scholarship.

By contrast, clarifying scholarly contributions and expectations upfront can keep collaborations productive and respectful. To that end, I encourage faculty to negotiate partnership agreements with prospective collaborators that include contracts specifying who-does-what-when as well as covenants delineating how they will treat one another.1

Recently, I added a practice that allows educators to discern right relationship to their own and to others' scholarship before approaching colleagues with partnership requests. This article, after a brief background, shares how 2 educators discerned right relationship to keep their scholarly collaborations polite and productive, shows how completing right relationship sheets upfront might evolve a code of scholarly etiquette, and offers 12 acts of scholarly caring as a starting place.

Background

Civility, according to Clark,2 is an ethical imperative. As proof, she cites the American Nurses Association Code of Ethics holding nurses to treat others with "kindness and civility, [horizontal ellipsis]dignity and respect."3^(p4) Addressing scholarship specifically, the Code stipulates that all nurses participate in knowledge development, dissemination, and application; nurse leaders foster and create an organizational climate that supports scholarly inquiry; and nurse educators transmit moral standards to guide scholarly conduct and research dissemination.

Moral standards notwithstanding, the Code does not address scholarly civility, respect, or kindness. While much attention is paid to scholarly ethics such as plagiarism in editorial and academic circles,4 scholarly etiquette is rarely discussed. Scholarship aside, what is etiquette? Some experts distinguish between etiquette meaning rules and manners situated in relationships that emanate from empathy, compassion, and a concern for others.5

Pagana,6 a nurse author and etiquette expert, makes no such distinction. "By using the guiding principles of kindness, consideration, and common sense, etiquette can help you initiate new relationships and enhance established ones[horizontal ellipsis] guide you in unfamiliar situations and help you know what to expect from others." Therefore, scholarly etiquette is defined herein as acts of caring, consideration, and civility in scholarly interactions and relationships.

Discerning Right Relationship Clarifies Scholarly Uncertainties

In mentoring a seasoned educator we'll call Lila, she and I used a template of mine to turn a course she was teaching into a scholarly project. When Lila asked how to cite this template in her conference proposal, I wasn't sure how to answer. Although I'd refined the template over years of helping hundreds of faculty turn teaching activities into scholarship, it was never published.

Without that, was it right to claim credit for a template that synthesized 2 experts' concepts? In the midst of my confusion, I remembered how teasing out what's yours, mine, and ours had helped clarify scholarly contributions in other collaborations.7 So I asked Lila if she was open to figuring out what was mine, hers, and ours in this situation. Our dialogue surfaced another category-theirs-which refers to contributions made by mentors and experts. Here's what we decided:

* MINE (Kathy's) = Expertise as a mentor to teacher-scholars, template

* HERS (Lila's) = the course, the conference proposal

* THEIRS (mentors/experts) = experts Ernest Boyer and Lee Schulman

* OURS = none

Writing and talking this out confirmed that my contribution was a template that translates teaching activities into the scholarship of teaching and learning. Having clarified this, I wrote an article about this scholarship of teaching and learning project template crediting both experts that Lila cited in her proposal and presentation.1

Soon thereafter, I received an e-mail request for advice from another educator who we'll call Kerry, "about a manuscript a senior faculty member has expressed interest in coauthoring. I'm unsure of next steps since I already have a green light from an editor at a journal to write the manuscript and a manuscript draft."

Recognizing Kerry's unsure-ness as scholarly confusion, my response read, "To clarify your next steps in this writing project, would you consider taking a few minutes to tease out who is contributing what? If so, fold a sheet of paper into 4 quadrants. Label the 2 upper quadrants MINE and YOURS, and the 2 lower quadrants THEIRS and OURS, and fill in each quadrant. Note that the YOURS, in this case, refers to Kerry's senior faculty colleague. Here's Kerry's response:

* MINE = the idea, query to editor, manuscript draft

* YOURS (senior colleague) = none

* THEIRS (mentors/experts) = experts in field

* OURS (MINE + senior colleague's) = none

Kerry, seeing none written next to YOURS and OURS, understood why she'd been feeling "so territorial" about this writing project. It was hers! After righting her relationship with her manuscript by owning it, Kerry was able to move into right relationship with her colleague. Kerry asked this colleague to peer-edit Kerry's manuscript in return for acknowledgement in the published article and suggested they explore future opportunities for scholarly collaboration.

Twelve Acts of Scholarly Caring Flow From Right Relationship

In both exemplars, discerning right relationship led to treating self and others with scholarly caring. Could completing a 4-quadrant right relationship sheet convert individual acts of scholarly caring into a code of scholarly etiquette?

To find out, I matched each descriptor pertaining to scholarly right relationship-MINE, YOURS, THEIRS, and OURS-with 3 acts of scholarly caring surfaced from the partnership covenants of faculty with whom I consult. In discerning what's MINE, 3 acts that help faculty maintain right relationship to their own scholarship include the following:

1. Protect time to complete my scholarly projects.

2. Attach my name to my scholarship.

3. Ensure that my scholarly work is properly credited by others.

Discerning what's YOURS, 3 acts that help faculty maintain right relationship to others' scholarship include the following:

4. Honor others by explaining and citing their scholarly work correctly.

5. Appreciate others' scholarly gifts and contributions openly and often.

6. Make my critiques of others' scholarly work compassionate as well as candid.

In discerning what's THEIRS, 3 acts that help faculty partners maintain right relationship with mentors' and experts' scholarship include the following:

7. Credit those whose ideas inform mine, in conversation and in writing.

8. Express gratitude to mentors and experts by being a scholarly guide to others.

9. Acknowledge those who contribute to my work, for example, peer editors, and so on.

Discerning what's OURS, 3 acts that help faculty partners maintain right relationship with partner-collaborators' scholarship include the following:

10. Explore compatibility before committing to scholarly partnerships.

11. Spell out contractual issues, for example, order of authorship, and so on.

12. Specify how you will treat each other; for example, express concerns as they arise with honesty and sensitivity.

Conclusion

Consider this article an invitation to complete a right relationship sheet prior to approaching colleagues with scholarly requests. Discerning right relationship upfront not only clarifies your scholarly asks, but it also sets the stage for articulating acts of scholarly caring that can keep your partnership collaborations prolific, respectful, and kind. Taken together, these 12 acts of scholarly caring hold promise for evolving a code of scholarly etiquette, fostering a culture of scholarly caring, and ensuring the future of nursing scholarship.

Acknowledgments

The author thanks Drs Kim Belcik, Diane Monsivais, and Leli Pedro for their scholarly kindnesses, compassionate critiques of this article, and commitment to evolving a scholarly etiquette.

References