Authorship

Dept. of Community Medicine

Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences

University of Aden

KHALED ALSAKKAF, PhD

“The Author’s

Seven Deadly Sins”

Sin Examples

1 Carelessness Citation bias, understatement, negligence

2 Redundant/duplicate publication

Same tables or literature review reported without noting prior source

3 Unfair authorship Failure to include eligible authors, Honorary authors

4 Undeclared Conflict of Interest

Failure to cite funding source

5 Human/animal subjects violations

No approval from Review Board or Ethics Committee

6 Plagiarism Reproducing others’ work or ideas without as one’s own

7 Other Fraud Fabrication of falsification of data, Misappropriation of others ideas or plans given in confidence

3. Unfair Authorship

Some persons who have made significant contributions to

an article may not receive sufficient credit, or may receive

no credit at all

Some persons are listed as co-authors even though no

substantive contribution was made to the article or the

research

Failure to give proper recognition to a person’s contribution

by listing them lower in the author list than they deserve

Award of co-authorship for minor contributions based on

personal or political considerations

Authorship ethic

aspects

The word author came to the English language during the 14th century via Latin word auctor which means ‘‘creator, originator’’

the first modern research journal was initiated in 1665 by the Royal Society of London.

Before mid-1900, most scientific efforts and authorships could be clearly traced to single individuals.

The criteria for authorship of the ICMJ

Editors are "substantial contributions to:

(a) conception and design, or analysis and interpretation of data;

(b) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content;

(c) final approval of the version to be published.

Conditions (a), (b) and (c) must all be met."

BMJ Volume 309 Saturday 3 December 1994, 1482

In an American study of 200 papers published in

or before 1989 one quarter of authors did not contribute substantially

Authorship ethic

aspects.........

Some journals now request and publish information about the contributions of each person named as having participated in a submitted study

Source: ORI Manual on Source:

Research Integrity; Illustration:

Copyright by David Zinn

Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group, alone, does not justify authorship.

Authorship ethic

aspects.........

Authorship

Agree to authorship beforehand

Who qualifies for authorship? ‘substantial contribution’

Who does not qualify for authorship?

Which authorships are (more) important?

First

Last / Senior

Corresponding

What are other ways of acknowledging contributions

Some journals have specific criteria

The order of authorship should be a joint decision of the co-authors.

The first author has made the greatest contribution to the project (empirical work)

the last author listed is the senior scientist of the team, the team leader (intellectual force)

Janet DiMarci, Louis Hernandez, Arthur Smith, and Wen Zhou

Authorship Order

day to day

responsibility

head of dept.

Guest (Honorary) vs. Ghost !

Guest Honorary authors: named authors who have not met authorship criteria

Ghost authors:

individuals not named as authors but who contributed substantially to the work

Who is responsible for resolving

authorship problems? • Not the role of journals and editors to

arbitrate in inter-author disputes • Disputes will delay review or publication • Agree early on who will be an author, name

order, and who will co-ordinate submission and correspondence

• Serious disputes can lead to legal action and

court injunctions Help is available …

Help with authorship issues

• ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, http://www.icmje.org/), ‘Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals’

• ‘How to handle authorship disputes: a guide for new researchers’ by Albert and Wager http://www.publicationethics.org/files/u2/2003pdf12.pdf

• COPE Authorship flowcharts (… more later) (http://www.publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts)

• ‘Best Practice Guidelines on Publication Ethics: A Publisher’s Perspective’ (http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/publicationethics/)

Who and what is the

“Corresponding Author”?

The Corresponding Author is the person who is responsible for the manuscript as it moves through the journal’s submission process.

This person must be registered with Editorial

Manager, as all correspondence pertaining to the manuscript will be sent to him or her via the system.

The Corresponding Author is, by default, the

author who initially uploads the manuscript into Editorial Manager.

Authorship

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Consequences of Unfair Authorship

Sin Examples Punishments

3 Unfair authorship

Failure to include eligible authors, Honorary authors

Angry colleagues, complaints to editor or employer

Finally…….