Prepared
by the Scientific Integrity Committee: Elizabeth (Bets) Anderson, RN, DrPH, Salah Ayachi,
PhD, PA-C, Eugene V. Boisaubin, MD, Gwendolyn V. Childs, PhD, Perry L. Fulcher,
MD, Gregg S. Wilkinson, PhD, Phyllis Kritek, RN, PhD, FAAN, Satish Srivastava,
PhD, Wayne Patterson, PhD, Walter J. Meyer, III, MD (Scientific Integrity
Officer)
Several
issues related to authorship have been brought to the attention of the
Scientific Integrity Committee. Our
intention is to promote dialogue among faculty about authorship issues and to
develop guidelines for use by all UTMB employees involved in scholarly
work. This is an effort to provide
assistance to faculty in making decisions on authorship issues. These suggested guidelines are not meant to
replace specific journal “Instructions to Authors,” but to address issues
regarding fairness and good science, as well as to promote intellectual
exchange and involvement between faculty and staff at our university. Journal “Instructions to Authors” shall take
precedence over these guidelines.
Different
academic disciplines have different standards for authorship. These guidelines are intended primarily for
authors of manuscripts submitted to biomedical and health care journals.
The
question of authorship often becomes a thorny issue if all parties involved
have not decided in advance of the writing who, how, and in what order the
authors will be recognized. Ethical
principles should guide such discussions and decisions.
Who is a Legitimate Author
and Who Isn’t?
The
literature of authorship specifies that one must meet basic requirements to be
legitimately named as an author on a manuscript. These requirements include participation in the research and
writing of the manuscript, the assumption of public responsibility for the
conclusions of the research, and
willingness to produce the data on which the study is based, if so
requested. ‘“Public responsibility’
means that an author can defend his or her content of the article, including
the data and other evidence and the conclusions based on them.”(Huth, EJ) All authors share responsibility for the
scientific integrity of the paper and may be held accountable for any
subsequent charges of scientific misconduct.
Furthermore, many journals require all authors to sign a statement
testifying to the validity of the research described and approving the
submission of the paper and its contents, along with a letter of transmittal
and a copyright transfer form.
The
working definition of a “legitimate author” is a person who meets ALL of
the following criteria:
1. Has made a significant contribution to the conception and
design, performance, or analysis and interpretation of the data;
2. Has drafted or critically revised the article in part or full; and
3. Has reviewed and given final approval to the entire version
to be published.
As an author, they assume
responsibility for:
1. His or her contents in both the project and the article; and
2. The ability to produce relevant data or documentation related to
his or her contribution to the research.
Contributions
to basic and clinical research can be recognized in a number of ways, i.e.,
authorship, acknowledgment, salary, letters of recognition, etc. Authors need to negotiate beforehand about
which form of recognition is most appropriate for the contributions of each
person. Persons who make intellectual
contributions to studies, including data collectors, clinicians who provide
access to patients, and those who interpret data, should be encouraged to
become involved from the outset of the study, design, implementation, and
reporting of the project.
Persons
who contribute to the manuscript project only through laboratory or
departmental sponsorship, financial assistance, technical support, counsel,
data collection, data analyses, or provision of access to patient data would not be named as authors.
Persons
who contributed to the study and supported the authors in ways that do not
qualify them for authorship, may be listed in an acknowledgment, after they
give written permission to be named.
Based on the criterion described above for legitimate authorship,
participants not meeting those criteria would not be listed as authors.
The
practice of assigning the last author position to a department or division
chair or to a senior member of a research team who has not made a substantive
and significant contribution to the research is equivalent to the granting of
honorary authorship; this practice is intellectually dishonest.
Order of Authorship
Unfortunately,
despite the high academic value of publications and even the order of each
article’s listed authors, “no proposal for more informative and standardized
systems for ordering the names of authors has been universally accepted.”(Rennie
D, et al) Honest and diplomatic negotiations between collaborators,
before any substantial research or writing is begun, is necessary to determine
byline order if a journal does not specify an order for authorship. These negotiations may have to be revisited
several times during the project. A
common recommendation for order of authorship is to list the authors in
declining order of their contribution to the work.
Conclusions
Authorship
should be discussed and agreed upon at the outset of the research. Authors are
responsible for determining order of authorship. Journals may require authors to specify their contributions to
the work and may publish this information.
Named authors will draft the paper, taking responsibility for the study
as well as receiving credit, while the remaining contributors may be
acknowledged in the paper as a group or individually for their contributions.
Department
heads, institute directors, and other faculty and staff members should review
the definitions of various types of intellectual dishonesty, including
plagiarism and fraud, as well as UTMB policy on data management and retention.
With increased awareness and institutional urging, one can begin to say “no” to
both the offering and the accepting of honorary authorship. Such a stance enhances the value and the
integrity of authorship for all.
References
cited are available at the Moody Medical Library.
References Cited
1. International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Uniform
requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. Ann Intern Med
1997;126:36-47.
2. Huth EJ. Guidelines on authorship of medical papers. Ann Intern
Med 1986;104:269-274.
3. Lundberg GD, Glass RM. What does authorship mean in a
peer-reviewed medical journal? JAMA 1996;276:75.
4. Riesenberg D, Lundberg GD. The order of authorship: Who’s on
first? (Editorial). JAMA 1990;264:857.
5. Rennie D, Flanagin A. Authorship! Authorship! Guests, ghosts,
grafters, and the two-sided coin (Editorial). JAMA 1994;271:469.