Paper Sprint

A thorough and concentrated 4-hour meeting approach to accomplish components of the research paper working simultaneously with team members.

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Resource Type:

Tool

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Paper sprints are focused and intensive meetings that give structure to collaborative proposal or manuscript development over a two-hour period.

Who is involved?

Form your team of 4-8 members, these may include:

Process Highlights

The structure of the two-hour session is organized into two parts:

Hour 1 focuses on outlining the agenda for the day, introducing the paper, and giving background on the sprint process. Next, the team is split into two groups to work on two different components: the abstract, and either the introduction or the methods. The two groups will rotate their content for revision, and then continue editing.
Hour 2 is focused on sketching the components of the results and analysis plans. Next, the team comes together for a debrief session that covers any limitations they may have encountered and develops an action plan for next steps.

Optional next steps:

Gather materials over the course of a month, then the lead can host a 4-hour writing sprint.
Each member is allocated a section of the manuscript to write in a synchronous manner.
The sections are rotated for review and edits are formed.

Templates & Downloads

Find a new location that the team is not used to, this will help with brainstorming. Use two rooms, one room (with a projector, white boards, pens, markers, printer paper etc.) for the discussion aspect and the other room for quiet working time

Consider using a shared document (e.g., MS 365 Word Document) for shared planning with the team. Share materials such as literature reviews, study design, and outcomes before the initial sprint

Last Updated: November 26, 2021
Source:

Sprint. (2017, July). School of Public Health, Center for Evaluating Health Reform, University of Michigan. https://sph.umich.edu/cehr/sprint.html

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