December 17, 2009
Adhering to the following guidelines will help to prevent situations that may lead to new authorship disputes:
- Discuss Proactively
There should be early discussions of who will be an author and the possible order of authors. Criteria for authorship should be discussed before beginning to prepare a manuscript, and possibly even before starting a project.
Each party should have an understanding of what kind of work merits authorship, with the knowledge that, as the research project progresses, who is an author and the position of a name in a list of authors may change. Each party should also have an understanding of who among many authors will have primary responsibility for the writing, submission, and editing work required for a paper. This can be extremely important when a project involves collaborations between labs.
- Be Consistent
Determination of authorship and authorship order should be consistent, both within the research group and with the norms for the field.
- Understand the Rules
All authors should be aware of institutional and journal-specific policies and guidelines regarding authorship. All Washington University authors should review and follow the institution’s Policy for Authorship on Scientific and Scholarly Publications.
- Communicate
The criteria for authorship should be discussed and agreed upon in writing as part of the initial planning process for the research project.
As the project and/or the manuscript evolves, authorship should be revisited as needed. There should be discussion and agreement as to the critical elements/data that will be included in the publication.