Q: Can a husband and his wife from different institutions but the same area of specialization co-author manuscripts?
I would like to know if a husband who specializes in an area (language assessment) which is similar to his wife's area of specialization can co-author manuscripts? Would that be considered unethical? I personally think there is nothing wrong if significant contributions are made by both parties. In Asia, some may have negative views about such collaborations.
It is fairly common for a husband and wife to be co-authors on manuscripts if they belong to the same fields or closely related fields. In fact, it is often more convenient for a husband and wife to collaborate as communication is easier. However, the only problem that can arise here is of reputation: if one of the spouses is much more well-established than the other, it might give off the impression that the majority of the work has been done by that person. This is usually not the case if both spouses are well-established and have quite a few publications to their credit. However, to avoid raising eyebrows, make sure you don't collaborate exclusively with your spouse; it's nice to have some publications with other co-authors as well.
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This content belongs to the Conducting Research Stage