Daniel Feerst - The Ethics of Manuscript Authorship

Authorship becomes a problem increasingly complicated as research collaborations proliferate, the importance of citations to the permanence and subsidies persists and no consensus on the definition is reached. This issue is fraught with ethical because of transport clearly who is responsible for published work is an integral part of scientific integrity said by Daniel Feerst.

Many newspapers now adhere to the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which established four criteria that each author of a document must meet:

1. Significant involvement in study conception/design, data collection, or data analysis/interpretation;
2. Involvement in drafting or revising the manuscript;
3. Approval of a final version of the manuscript for publication; and
4. Responsibility for the accuracy and integrity of all aspects of research.

Dan Feerst - Publishing Work

In addition, the ICMJE definition, the authors "should be able to identify the co-authors are responsible for other specific parts of the work ... [and] have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their co-authors. "Based on this description and the fourth criterion, fatherhood involves not only individual contribution spent a research project, but also the joint responsibility underway for this project. As a result, authors can share the glory or infamy, depending on the validity of the work.

The ICMJE also notes that the author must have made "substantive intellectual contributions" to the manuscript. According to Daniel Feerst, creative input is therefore right to paternity that works purely mechanical. A technician acquires data only, a senior researcher raises funds or provides supervision, an employee only providing a new reagent or samples, and other relevant research areas but non-creative tasks are not the author the merit of their own. These people and their contributions could be listed in a section instead of acknowledgments.

Despite this clear definition, many issues (including ethical concerns) have been raised regarding the attribution of authorship. These issues emerged in part because many newspapers continue to adhere to their own guidelines or various modified versions of the ICMJE criteria) and partly because the ICMJE guidelines may be inadequate, as argued by the 2012 International Workshop on Contributorship and scholarly Attribution. A selection of topics that particularly concern the academia is as follows:

Contribution ambiguity

The specific roles of individual authors in a research project are not always clear, especially when a manuscript is attributed to a large group. To resolve this issue, several magazines (like PNAS) require public disclosure of the specific contributions of each author. Some have also suggested the establishment of a database or the use of community networks of existing research (such as research bears) to track contributions. This monitoring is particularly relevant because the scientific production is increasingly defined by measures beyond paper quotes (also known as alt metrics). To further clarify the role of the authors and to promote integrity, some journals require a public guarantee for each item or an author who is responsible for the research project together, including design, acquisition and data analysis and publications said by Daniel Feerst. The ambiguity surrounding the author may also result from the publication of documents by researchers of the same name but could be reduced by using an identifier of ORCID.

Dan Feerst

Authorship order

The significance of the order of the list of authors on a paper varies between fields. In some areas, the list is alphabetical, while in others, the agreement includes citing all those who contributed in some way to the project (which may conflict with the ICMJE guidelines). According to Daniel Feerst, in many disciplines, the order of the author indicates the magnitude of the contribution, the first author adds the most value and the last author who represents the highest role, mainly monitoring. In this model, disputes may arise regarding the background that alone or shared first author. The Ethics Committee of the publication recommends that researchers discuss the author of the project launch to the submission of the manuscript, the necessary review and record each decision in writing. In addition, contributions can be quantified, eg based on a point system (subscription required), to facilitate copyright decisions.

Honorary authorship

Honorary authorship is awarded to a person despite a lack of significant contributions to a research project. One form, author gifts, is awarded by respect for the recognition or a person. For example, in Asian cultures, department heads or senior researchers can be added to a document regardless of their participation in research. Another form, guest author, can be used for many purposes, especially to improve the apparent quality of a paper by adding a known or conceal the links of a paper industry name including the academic author. Other questions about the paternity of honor are the inclusion of an author on a manuscript without authorization (which is often prevented by the journal guidelines that require the consent of all authors) and the coercive author usually consists of a principal investigator (eg thesis advisor) by forcing a young researcher (as a graduate student) to include a gift or guest author.

Daniel Feerst - Publication Rules

Author of honor is a major ethical issue in scientific publishing, as this dishonest practice was found in about 18% of the articles in medical journals six in 2008. From the perspective of the journals, individual contributions lists can help minimize this practice, as one might recall that all authors are responsible for the integrity of a published work. The review institution Peer double-blind could also reduce the influence of important authors in the field of acceptance of the newspaper. In research institutions, the guidelines could assimilate the author of honor research misconduct. In addition, the resources donated to a project without waiting for automatic copyright could be encouraged by the use of contributions, including those listed in sections acknowledgments, as a measure of output, as indicated above said by Daniel Feerst.

In all cases described here, more universal standards for the author manuscript will be essential to promote good practice. As you write and review manuscripts, remember the best practices in this paper, and means to bring the author credit and responsibility to the attention of your colleagues and readers.