Who Writes The Papers ?

1. Authorship issues Who Writes The Papers? Graduate Research School CRICOS Provider code 00301J Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of Technology.

2. “For most authors of scientific papers, writing is a struggle. Crisp Introductions, clear Methods, and informative Results and Discussion sections are usually produced only after discarded drafts and with help from colleagues. But sometimes the greatest anxiety is associated with writing the cover page, because it is there that the authors are named….. “

3. Importance of authorship • Research outputs – • have value • a perpetual record • confers responsibility • are expected from your HDR efforts

4. Responsibilities of supervisors • Set out in sections 3.3 – 3.6 of the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research: • The research supervisor should guide the professional development of research trainees. This involves providing guidance in … reporting the research outcomes in appropriate forums and media • Supervision includes oversight of the research outcomes from those under supervision • Researchers and supervisors must ensure that research trainees receive appropriate credit for their work.

5. Authorship Guidelines • Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research • https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/_files_nhmrc/publications/attachments/r39_australian_code_responsible_conduct_research_150107.pdf • Curtin’s Authorship, Peer Review and Publication of Research Findings Policy • http://policies.curtin.edu.au/findapolicy/docs/Authorship,_Peer_%20Review_and_Publication_of_Research_Findings_Policy.pdf • Curtin’s Authorship, Peer Review and Publication of Research Findings Procedure • http://policies.curtin.edu.au/findapolicy/docs/Authorship,_Peer_Review_and_Publication_of_Research_Findings_Procedures.pdf

6. Authorship Guidelines – medical research • Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals • Vancouver Protocol • International Committee of Medical Journal Editors • http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf

7. Qualification for Authorship • Section 5 of The Code states: “Attribution of authorship depends to some extent on the discipline, but in all cases, authorship must be based on substantial contributions in a combination of: • conception and design of the project; • analysis and interpretation of research data; and • drafting significant parts of the work or critically revising it so as to contribute to the interpretation”

8. Who does not qualify as an author • Section 5 of The Code states: “The right to authorship is not tied to position or profession and does not depend on whether the contribution was paid for or voluntary. It is not enough to have provided materials or routine technical support, or to have made the measurements on which the publication is based. Substantial intellectual involvement is required.”

9. Who does not qualify as an author • Section 5.5 of The Code states: “Authorship should not be offered to those who do not meet the requirements set out above. For example, none of the following contributions, in and of themselves, justifies including a person as an author: • being head of department, holding other positions of authority, or personal friendship with the authors • providing a technical contribution but no other intellectual input to the project or publication • providing routine assistance in some aspects of the project, the acquisition of funding or general supervision of the research team • providing data that has already been published or materials obtained from third parties, but with no other intellectual input.”

10. Specific issues about authorship • Authorship – • Order and Acknowledgements • Ghost and Honorary Authorship First – Last , second , third…. Corresponding author……

11. Foucault: Authors are writers, but not all writers are authors Cartoon drawn by Jorge Cham, taken from authorder.com (this website no longer exists)

12. Order & Acknowledgements “Order of authorship was determined by proximity to tenure decisions.” “Order of authorship was determined from a 25-game croquet series held at Imperial College Field station during summer 1973.” “We would like to thank Karla Miller for sleeping late one morning, leaving Tim and Steve a bit bored; and Saad Jbabdi for making the brains look pretty.” “The authors would like to thank T. Bosch and L. Helmuth for the idea, J. Beam for assistance with writing, B. N. Dover for proofreading, and the Big Bang for everything. Order of authorship was determined by Russian roulette.”

13. Negotiating authorship • Do it early • Have an understanding - not a contractual agreement unless contributions are documented • Written evidence (emails but also a set document)

14. Authorship agreement = Project management S - specific, (significant) - paper topic M - measurable, (meaningful) – paper / conference A - agreed upon, attainable, achievable, acceptable, action-oriented…..( any of these…) R - realistic, relevant, (reasonable, rewarding, results-oriented) T - time-based, (time-bound, timely, tangible, trackable)

15. PhD by publications 1st Author Signed documentation by co-authors

16. Case studies

17. Inability to contact an author to obtain permission to publish • Author A was an overseas PhD student who successfully completed the PhD, and then returned home to a country with considerable political and civil unrest. It had been intended to submit a paper before author A left but time ran out. Subsequently, authors B, C, D and E, who were all involved in the work in one form or another (experimental design, performing preliminary experiments, data interpretation and reanalysis, writing), have written the paper. However, authors B, C, D and E cannot track down author A.

18. Inability to contact an author to obtain permission to publish • Authors B, D and E have tried emailing author A using the email address that author A used before and during the stay in the UK. Authors B and E have tried contacting author A’s spouse (who also did a PhD under author E’s supervision) by email and Facebook, but the spouse is not responding. Author E has contacted a colleague of author A at the overseas university that author A worked in but that person does not know how to contact author A, nor does another student from that country who studied in author E’s laboratory at the same time. The university that author A worked in is not open due to hostilities, and their website gives no contact information

19. Inability to contact an author to obtain permission to publish • Authors B, C, D and E are very keen to publish this paper, because the science is good, and also it is important for some of the co-authors who are early career workers and who need publications on their CVs. • Clearly, authors B, C, D and E are unable to obtain permission to publish from author A, whom authors B, C, D and E would like to put as first author, as author A performed the experiments.

20. Inability to contact an author to obtain permission to publish Does author A qualify as an author? Would it be acceptable to publish the paper with a full statement about the authors’ contributions to the article, and the fact that authors B, C, D and E have not been able to contact A? http://publicationethics.org/case/inability-contact-author-obtain-permission-publish

21. Requesting authorship after publication • Dr H had recently seen a published article and was surprised that he was not listed as an author because it utilised samples from a database that he established. He stated that the cohort has spawned many projects, but he was not involved in the “specialist area” in this article. However, he believes he should have been listed as an author because the article would not have been possible without his database.

22. Requesting authorship after publication • The corresponding author said that Dr H contributed substantially to the development of the cohort, but was not involved in the design, evaluation or preparation of the data, and recommended publishing a correction with Dr H listed in a simple acknowledgment (not as an author). Does Dr H qualify as an author? http://publicationethics.org/case/requesting-authorship-after-publication

23. Institutionalised policy of gift authorship? • Two authors were removed in the resubmission following changes. At this time one of the formerly included authors contacted us, asking why they were no longer cited. We asked the submitting author, who explained that the complainant should never have been listed as an author, … but should have been acknowledged.

24. Institutionalised policy of gift authorship? • “According to the rules of the university, PhD students have one supervisor and several advisors. They have to publish at least one article with each advisor (whether the advisors help the students or not). Students do not choose their advisors and the university managers directly propose them to the students, so some of the advisors could not or do not want to help the students.” Should supervisors be automatically included? http://publicationethics.org/case/institutionalised-policy-gift-authorship

25. Authorship disputes - resolution • Authorship disputes may be considered a breach of The Code. • Disputes may be resolved: • Locally • Through mediation • Through recommendations following an institutional inquiry • Resolution of authorship disputes typically occur through the correction of the research record

26. Correction of the research record • Erratum

27. Correction of the research record • Corrigendum

28. Correction of the research record • Retraction

29. Questions