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Dear mathoverflow community,

I have a junior colleague who will be coming up for tenure and who has written many articles, but all of them as a co-author. I don't see this as a problem (after all, mathematics is increasingly collaborative these days), but other members of the tenure committee might. What are some examples of well-known or prolific mathematicians who, like my colleague, have always and exclusively (or perhaps with one exception) published joint work?

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    $\begingroup$ This question does not quite seem to fit this forum and may be closed. But as far as the impact on tenure is concerned, it is of some relevance who the coauthors are. If there are a fair number of them, you can put a positive spin on it. On the other hand, if it is mostly your colleague's thesis advisor, there may be a problem. $\endgroup$ Dec 3, 2014 at 2:37
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    $\begingroup$ I think that there is a hidden question. Namely: What is a good way of evaluating the contribution of people who write papers in co-authorship? Here are some possible answers: (1) ask the coauthors to comment on their relative contribution (2) ask more senior mathematicians who know the candidate well to comment on her/his merit. $\endgroup$ Dec 3, 2014 at 2:47
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    $\begingroup$ @AndréHenriques Since co-authors are likely to be friends of the person, they are usually happy to claim that they were just in the room at the time, and the candidate had all the ideas (this just for the purposes of the tenure case). As for senior people, they don't know who is responsible for the papers either. My view is that in mathematics, each of the $n$ authors should get $1/n$ credit for the paper. $\endgroup$
    – Igor Rivin
    Dec 3, 2014 at 3:04
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    $\begingroup$ @IgorRivin We must be reading different letters. I've generally found that co-author letters from good mathematicians are quite candid and specific as to what contributions each of the co-authors made to the paper. This isn't universally true, of course, but in my experience, it's true more often than not. $\endgroup$ Dec 3, 2014 at 3:20
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    $\begingroup$ Often it is impossible to separate the contributions of the co-authors to a joint paper, even (or, perhaps, especially) by the co-authors themselves. $\endgroup$
    – anon
    Dec 3, 2014 at 5:35

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