# Guide to the RCM paper

This guide maps the sections of the paper *Professionalising Community Management Roles in Interdisciplinary Research Projects* to practical tasks. Use it to find the part of the paper that supports your situation, then read that section for the full argument and references.

> Sharan, M., Karoune, E., Hellon, V., Gould Van Praag, C., Kayumbi, G., Bennett, A., Araujo Alvarez, A., Lee Steele, A., Batchelor, S., Lacey, A., & Whitaker, K. (2024). *Professionalising Community Management Roles in Interdisciplinary Research Projects*. arXiv:2409.00108. [https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2409.00108](https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2409.00108) ([PDF](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2409.00108.pdf))

The paper is a preprint. Section numbers below follow the arXiv v1 version.

## Find the section you need

| If you want to... | Read | Section |
|---|---|---|
| Define what an RCM is, or explain the role to colleagues | [Definition of RCMs](paper-guide/defining-the-role.md) | 1.1 |
| Assess where a community is and plan next steps | [Community Maturation Indicator](paper-guide/community-maturation.md) | 2.1, 2.2, Supplementary 1 |
| Embed good research practice in a project | [Best practices that improve research quality](paper-guide/best-practices.md) | 2.3 |
| See how RCMs work in real projects | [RCM roles in practice](paper-guide/examples-from-the-turing.md) | 3, Supplementary 2 |
| Write a job description or plan team capacity | [Skills and Competency Framework](paper-guide/skills-and-competencies.md) | 4, Supplementary 3 |
| Make a case for recognising or funding RCM roles | [Steps towards professionalisation](paper-guide/professionalisation.md) | 5, 6, 7 |

## Pages in this guide

- [Defining the role](paper-guide/defining-the-role.md)
- [Assessing and planning a community](paper-guide/community-maturation.md)
- [Embedding best practices](paper-guide/best-practices.md)
- [Examples from the Turing](paper-guide/examples-from-the-turing.md)
- [Writing roles and building skills](paper-guide/skills-and-competencies.md)
- [Making the case for RCM roles](paper-guide/professionalisation.md)
- [Supplementary materials](paper-guide/supplementary-materials.md)

## Cite the paper

If you use these ideas or the frameworks, please cite the paper as shown at the top of this page. See also [research outputs](team/research-outputs.md).