Authorship

APS Professional Skills Course:

Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals

Authorship Issues

• When is authorship assigned?

• Who is entitled to be an author?

• What are the responsibilities of an author?

• In what order should authors be listed?

• What are the career implications to authorship position?

Authorship Decisions

• Decide on authors and their order as early as possible

• Notify all authors of any changes that occur

• Follow the policies of the specific journal

Why is Authorship an Issue?

• Authorship has value – Researchers want/need credit for their work

• Authorship carries responsibility– Greater awareness and sensitivity to scientific

misconduct

• Authorship describes professional collaborations– Increased number of authors per paper

ICMJE Criteria for Authorship International Council of Medical Journal Editors – ICMJE1) Contributed to the intellectual content of the work– Conception or design of the work– Data acquisition– Data analysis and interpretation

2) Draft, critically review, or revise manuscript3) Approve final version of manuscript for submission

Alternative Authorship Criteria

• Contributorship Model– Explicit disclosure to the reader of every participant’s

contribution to the work and to the article

• Quantitative Uniform Authorship Declaration (QUAD) System – Authors are listed in descending order of total

contributions across four categories• Conception and design• Data collection• Data analysis and conclusions• Manuscript preparation

Authorship is NOT awarded…

• To honor someone for past contributions to the field

• To honor someone for being the senior person in the lab or department

• For political reasons

• To reward someone for service

There should not be “hidden” authors

Key Authorship Criteria

• An author must be willing to take public responsibility for the ENTIRE content of a manuscript

Authorship Responsibilities • Authors must be willing to…

– Defend the intellectual content of the manuscript, including results and conclusions

– Concede publicly any errors– In the case of fraud, state publicly its nature and

extent and account for its occurrence• Authors must certify that…

– The manuscript is original work without fabrication, fraud, or plagiarism

– The manuscript has been submitted to only one journal for consideration

– Any conflicts of interest by any author have been disclosed

Acknowledgement vs. Authorship

• Acknowledge those who contributed but don’t meet all the authorship criteria

• Common acknowledgments:– Intellectual contributions– Technical contributions– Financial contributions (grants, awards)

Authorship Agreements

• Who will do most of the writing?

• Who will deal with the editors?

• Who will manage revisions?

• Who will be responsible for settling disputes among authors?

Order of Authors

• Depends on Journal – See “Instructions for Authors”

• First author and last author– Typically the most important– Some journals have “equal contributors”

authors

Examples from APS Journals • First author (principal author)

– Primarily responsible for collecting and analyzing data– Often writes manuscript draft – Very important for trainees

• Last author (senior author)– Principal investigator– Carries overall responsibility for the study– Often the corresponding author– Very important for new investigators

Authorship Problems

• First author (trainee) and advisor/PI don’t agree on authors

• Advisor/PI includes/deletes authors without discussing with trainee

• Many authors vs. 2-author paper

It Comes with Experience…

• What to do when you have been left off as an author

• How to handle co-workers asking to be included as an author

• What to do when you are a secondary author and you have concerns about the manuscript content

• When to challenge a person of position on an authorship issue (advisor/dept. chair)