VCU Bioinformatics and Bioengineering Summer Institute

Manners and Methods in Science

Question
What are criteria for authorship on scientific papers and what responsibilities do authors accept?

You are a student who has been invited to participate in a research project.

What determines whether what you plan to do is sufficient to justify authorship on the paper that may result from the project?
What resources might you use to enlighten yourself on whether your contribution justifies authorship?

You are a minor contributor on a scientific paper that has eight authors. The first author is found guilty of making up data that was presented in the paper.

As a coauthor, are you guilty of scientific fraud?
Should they all authors be punished equally?
What kind of punishment is appropriate?

Suggestions

Here's a possible starting point:
Sheikh A (2000). Publication ethics and the research assessment exercise: reflections on the troubled question of authorship. Journal of Medical Ethics 26:422-426.
Here's another:
Rennie et al (1997). When authorship fails. A proposal to make contributors accountable. Journal of the American Medical Association 278:576-578. (only abstract is online, but the journal is in the Tompkins/McCaw library)
Investigate what journals have to say on the matter. To do this, locate some journals on-line and look at their Instructions to Authors. How much variation is there?
Example: Journal of Bacteriology
Example: Journal of the American Medical Association
Go to any recent issue of JAMA and click on any multiauthor original contribution. Scroll down to the end of the article to view which author did what.
Survey scientific literature for articles on authorship.
Try:
- PubMed: Go to NCBI, click on PubMed
- Web of Science: Go to VCU Library, click on W, then Web of Science
Many articles you find will be on line or in the library... read a couple!
Surf the web (but beware!)

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