Organization, planning, and inclusive communication among co-authors are the keys to success. Collaboration in writing, presenting, and publishing will flow a bit differently for review papers versus research papers, but the basic principles are the same. In both cases, the co-authors need to agree on the target journal and who will be the corresponding author. For review papers, each co-author is normally responsible for a section(s) and the lead author will do the integration. For original research papers, the sequence is a bit different. The manuscript development and planning has to start with clear and measurable objectives, an experimental design, and a plan for statistical analysis of the data. This should be done before you do the research. In writing, start with a title page, an introduction section with only the last sentence(s) written (i.e., the objectives of the research), and descriptive first-level and second-level section titles for the remainder of the paper. Step 1: Write the materials and methods in complete detail (best if this is done while doing the research). Step 2: Analyze data and make final form data tables and figures with all statistical analysis included. Have all co-authors agree on the main messages from each table and figure. You are not ready to start writing the results and discussion section until step 2 is complete. This is the step where people waste too much time writing before the data (and co-authors) are ready for them to write. Step 3: Write your story about your data (don’t worry about the literature yet). Have all co-authors review and provide input before going to step 4. Step 4: Next, bring in appropriate discussion of literature citations to compare with your story. Some previous work may agree and some may differ. Provide a balanced perspective. Step 5: Write a short conclusion about your results, not the literature. Stick to facts that are statistically significant. Have all co-authors review and revise. Step 6: Write the introduction including only background references that are necessary to understand the topic and to logically lead the reader to your objective statement that was written earlier. Step 7: Write the abstract with the objective(s), a brief experimental approach, and then add the conclusions that match step 5.