4 Group Work Agreement

4.1 General information

We use the group work agreement to outline how you and your group will work and communicate with each other, and ensure you are engaging in the group work process for the stage 1 group report. Groups typically experience problems when communication and task responsibilities are built on unspoken assumptions. As you probably do not know the people in your group when we make the allocations, we start the project by facilitating a discussion with you and your group so you can openly outline how you will communicate, respect diversity, and split tasks.

This is a formative task and is not part of the summative assessment for the course, but everyone must complete the task. We use the group work agreement as a way of identifying engagement and potential problems as early as possible. The course or programme leads will contact students who do not submit their group work agreement and students will potentially be placed on an individual submission if they do not engage with their groups.
The deadline is October 10th 2025, where everyone in the group must submit an individual copy of the agreement on Moodle.
Although you will agree on the document as a group, each group member must then individually sign (electronic or a printed name, you do not need to physically sign it) and upload a copy to the submission portal.
You should submit a single Word document (.docx) or PDF document to Moodle prior to the deadline. The submission link is open from when the group allocations are available in week 2. You can find the submission portal in the Formative: Allocations and group work agreement submission tab.

4.2 Group agreement items

The group work agreement template (available for download in the RM1 Formative: Allocations and group work agreement submission tab) contains five points that we have set, but you may add any additional points that the group agrees.

The mandatory points are:

As a student of the University of Glasgow, I will treat all members of my group with dignity and respect.
I have read and agree to abide by the Student code of conduct and the Dignity at work and study policy.
We all agree to communicate with each other openly and tell the course leads well in advance should any issues arise.
We all agree to use a group chat on Microsoft Teams as our main electronic channel of communication.
We all agree to contribute to the group project and complete the assigned tasks by a deadline agreed by the group.
We all agree that if AI tools are used in any part of the Stage 1 report, this will be discussed within the group, acknowledged transparently, and each member will take responsibility for ensuring that the final submission meets academic integrity standards in line with the University of Glasgow’s policies.

In addition, there may be other elements of group work that you and your group want to include. You are welcome to create your own additional items but here is a list of potential items you may want to discuss with your group and add to the document:

We all agree to establish a common timeline for the project and discuss any deviations from the timeline together as a group.
We all agree to communicate with each other openly and honestly about the project and get in touch with the course leads in the event of an unsolvable group conflict.
We all agree to respect each other’s individual ways of working and discuss these openly as a group.
We all agree to respect diversity in our group. This includes cultural differences, neurodiversity, different work/life situations and may manifest in different ways of working/approaching tasks. We agree to discuss our strengths as a group and divide tasks accordingly.
I agree to stay in touch with the group and communicate as established by the group. If I am struggling and I do not feel comfortable sharing that with the group, I will get in touch with the course/programme leads for support.
We all agree to meet on a regular basis as established by the group. If I cannot make a meeting I agree to communicate this openly with my group and get in touch to catch up about things I have missed.
We agree to plan out the individual contribution of each team member in advance before group work starting and openly communicate any changes that may arise during the project.
We agree to establish the best method of communication for our group that’s inclusive and takes into account everybody’s individual needs.

4.3 Effective group work advice

Below are some suggestions to organise and manage your group project for the stage 1 report. You are welcome to adapt some of these guidelines to suit your group and the nature of the project. Group work is a critical part of the BPS standards and every workplace will involve some element of splitting a larger output into smaller components for each member to work on. We use the group work agreement process and these guidelines to suggest different ways of working and you can choose the most effective set that suites your group. However, in the event we need to mediate difficulties, this will involve you providing evidence as record/evidence of collaboration (or lack thereof). Please be mindful of this when conducting your project.

Set up your group Teams chat/channel and a Microsoft Planner for your group

Create a Teams chat for communication with your group. This part is non-negotiable as it is the university approved communication system which all students have access to.
Consider creating a Microsoft Planner with all members of your group to assign individual tasks.

Coordinate work schedules/calendars

Be open about when you can meet/study, if you have a busy period coming up, or might be unavailable.
Schedule a regular ‘check-in’ time. This does not need to be a live meeting but stay connected regularly.

Agree on document collaboration platforms

We recommend having a shared OneDrive folder or sharing documents within your Teams channel using the files tab.
Consider using track changes and comments on shared documents when editing to avoid immediately overwriting other people’s work.
Think about a shared Zotero library to organise papers from your literature review.

Work back from the deadline to create milestones

Agree on specific dates to complete your responsibilities. Life happens though, so make sure you communicate with your group if you are falling behind and you can discuss revised deadlines.

Determine strengths and assign roles

Consult the Stage 1 group work contributor section below to identify the strengths/preferences of your team.
Remember though: we expect most of the course content to be new or you would not be enrolled on this degree. You will often need to go outside your comfort zone to develop.

Assign tasks/milestones to roles

Attach names and dates to tasks and assign milestones using something like Microsoft Planner.
Reassign tasks/adjust deadlines as the project progresses if you need to.

Communicate, communicate, communicate

Check-in regularly. Everyone will understand if there was a delay in completing a task but the most problematic thing for group dynamics is not keeping everyone up to date with progress and delays.
Agree to action points at the end of meetings and put these in writing (e.g., in a shared document / to-do list). It is super easy to forget what you discussed, so make sure you keep a note to refer to after meetings.
The content is new for everyone and you have a lot to learn in a short space of time, so be kind and compassionate (to yourself and others).

Submit your assessment

Assign one person to prepare and submit the final documents when everyone has approved them. Remember to turn off track changes and delete any comments.
Give yourself time to look at the Turnitin Report and factor in editing time.

4.3.1 Points about inclusivity

Language: Many/most students in this programme are studying in their second, third, or even fourth language. Consider the challenges you might experience if you were studying beyond your first language and be mindful of making implicit judgements about someone’s writing or communication.

Timing/working patterns: Be mindful that everyone’s work/life balance and commitments are different. Some people prefer studying during traditional working hours, some in the evenings, and others on weekends. Communicate your preferences openly and as a group be as flexible and accommodating as you can. Can the times/days of meetings be flexible if this helps everyone contribute and feel engaged?

Technology: The technology/platforms we recommend might not be your favourites, but we recommend them for a reason. These are things we can directly support, and they are the things that we make sure all students in different countries can access. Using some apps/tools can explicitly exclude some members that want to engage and contribute.

Neurodiversity: Different people work and think in different ways. If someone discloses that they find particular things challenging, or that they are at their best with a particular type of task or activity, consider how you can support/reflect this in the allocation of roles and tasks.

4.4 Stage 1 group work task sharing advice

As you start working in your groups, one key decision will be sharing out the tasks equitably. In the stage 1 report template, there are several sections and sub-sections to complete, and there is a lot of hidden ground work that goes into writing those sections. For each component, try to summarise the following when you first meet with your group:

What information have you already established in that section?
What do you still need to think about for that section?
How are you going to find answers to the things you do not yet know?

For example, you might say for the rationale, research question, and hypothesis component of the introduction:

What have you already established?: So far, we know the research question and the hypothesis, and we have a general summary of relevant papers written by the team.
What do we still need to think about?: We do not yet have a fully formed rationale or a solid understanding of the general overview.
How will you find answers to things you do not yet know? Helena, James, and Ashley will read the papers that have already been collected and the general literature review. From there, they will try to summarise the rationale so that it builds on what previous research has found. They will then present that to the group for further revision and discussion.

Once you have done that for each section, go through and answer the following question: Who will lead on each section?

Each group member should make an equal contribution, but this does not mean every group member works on every section. Some sections might work better with one person leading and another editing, while other sections might work better with several people leading and editing.

The introduction is a larger section with fewer clearly segmented tasks, whereas the method is shorter with clearly defined sub-sections. It is important you understand all aspects of the project, so we recommend if you work on writing the introduction, you edit or at least proof-read the method, and vice versa.

For example, you might separate the tasks as:

Introduction literature review: Phil, Helena, and Ashley will lead on this section.
Introduction rationale, research question, and hypothesis: Helena, James, and Ashley will lead on this section.
Method participants: James and Phil will lead on this section.
Method materials: James and Wil will lead on this section.
Method procedure: Ashley and Sarune will lead on this section.
Method design and data analysis: Sarune and Wil will lead on this section.

You might choose to separate the tasks differently, but this is one suggestion to work through. For this separation or another approach you agree in your group, question what you know, what you still need to think about, and how you will fill in the blanks. If it helps, you can download this template to structure your group discussions.

4.5 Developing a CRediT statement for your stage 1 report

The CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) was developed to make individual contribution more visible, reduce disagreements over authorship, and encourage fair contribution (Brand et al., 2015). Since then, it has been adopted by a range of academic publishers as a standard way to describe author contributions, such as Elsevier, Wiley, and Taylor and Francis. For example, Stevenson et al. (2025) includes lecturers from the School of Psychology and Neuroscience and you can see a CRediT statement before the reference list.

CRediT provides a structured way of describing the specific roles people take on within a project. Each group member’s contributions should be listed under the appropriate categories, and individuals may appear in more than one role. The group shares responsibility for ensuring that these descriptions are accurate and agreed upon by everyone.

The CRediT statement should be included on the title page of your report, underneath the list of group members. Each contribution should be identified using student IDs rather than names. This ensures clarity and fairness while keeping the report consistent with submission requirements.

Term	Definition
Conceptualisation	Ideas; formulation or evolution of overarching research goals and aims
Methodology	Development or design of methodology; creation of models
Writing - Original draft	Creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically writing the initial draft (including substantive translation).
Writing - reviewing & editing	Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work by those from the original research group, specifically critical review, commentary or revision – including pre- or post-publication stages.
Project administration	Management and coordination responsibility for the research activity planning and execution.

Note: This table shows the CRediT categories most relevant for the Stage 1 report. Some categories (e.g., Supervision, Funding acquisition) have been removed because they do not apply at this stage. For the full list of CRediT roles, please see the references above. However, if there are other roles in the CRediT taxonomy that are relevant to your Stage 1 report but not included in this table, please feel free to add them.

4.5.1 Breaking down CRediT roles into specific tasks

The CRediT statement is designed to show how each group member has contributed to the Stage 1 report. To make contributions clearer and fairer, we have adapted the standard CRediT roles into smaller, more specific tasks that reflect the work you are doing at this stage (Introduction and Method section only). Use these granular tasks as a guide when assigning roles, and feel free to adapt them further if it better reflects your group’s work.

Conceptualisation

Contributing ideas for the research question or hypothesis
Refining aim(s) or hypothesis
Suggesting relevant literature, theories, or frameworks
Searching for and selecting background literature
Summarising and evaluating relevant research
Collating references into a reference list (APA 7th edition format)

Methodology

Deciding the content for the Participants, Materials, Procedure, or Design and Data Analysis

Writing - Original draft

Writing the Introduction section (specify component(s) if applicable, such as rationale, hypothesis, etc.)
Writing the Method section (specify which component(s) if applicable, such as participants, procedure, etc.)

Writing - reviewing & editing

Reviewing and revising drafts written by group members
Editing for clarity, structure, and flow
Checking APA style and formatting consistency

Project administration

Organising meetings and keeping meeting notes
Managing deadlines
Allocating tasks within the group
Submitting the final report

4.5.2 What will your group do?

Step 1. Learn the roles

Review the adapted CRediT categories listed above, including the granular tasks (e.g., Conceptualisation – suggesting relevant literature, Methodology – deciding content for participants/procedure/design, Writing – Introduction/Method, Writing – Review & Editing, Project Administration – organising meetings).

Step 2. Discuss contributions

Discuss who is responsible for each role, or who has already contributed to the Stage 1 report submission.
Be fair and honest. Keep in mind that some members may be listed under more than one role.

Step 3. Assign roles

Decide which member, identified by their student ID, should be listed under each chosen role.

Step 4. Write the CRediT statement

On your title page, include a section titled “CRediT authorship contribution statement”. In the template we provide on Moodle, we have already included a CRediT section for you to complete.
Write the CRediT statement based on the roles you selected and the contributions of your group members.

4.5.3 Example of a CRediT statement

Example 1

ID 12345678: Conceptualisation (literature search and summarising), Methodology (deciding content for Participants and Procedure), Writing – Original Draft (writing the Introduction section), Writing – Review & Editing (editing for clarity, structure, and flow).

ID 23456789: Writing – Original Draft (writing the Method section), Writing – Review & Editing (checking APA style and formatting consistency).

ID 34567891: Conceptualisation (contributing ideas for the research question or hypothesis), Methodology (deciding the content for the Materials and Design and Data Analysis).

ID 45678912: Writing – Original Draft (writing the Method section – Procedure).

Example 2 (with degree of contribution)

ID 12345678: Conceptualisation (lead: literature search and summarising); Methodology (lead: deciding content for Participants and Procedure); Writing – Original Draft (equal: writing the Introduction section); Writing – Review & Editing (equal: editing for clarity, structure, and flow).

ID 23456789: Writing – Original Draft (lead: writing the Method section); Writing – Review & Editing (equal: checking APA style and formatting consistency).

ID 34567891: Conceptualisation (supporting: contributing ideas for the research question/hypothesis); Methodology (supporting: deciding content for the Materials, Design, and Data Analysis).

ID 45678912: Writing – Original Draft (equal: writing the Method section – Procedure).

Notes on levels of contribution: The levels of contribution (Lead, Equal, Supporting) are only suggestions to help you decide how to describe your group’s work. Use them if they are useful for clarifying contributions, but you do not have to apply them to every task.

Lead: You took primary responsibility for this role or task.
Equal: You shared responsibility equally with one or more group members.
Supporting: You contributed but another group member had primary responsibility.