Defining The Role Of Authors And Contributors Researchgate

Leo Migdal

-Dec 5, 2025, 5:52 PM

defining the role of authors and contributors researchgate

Authorship confers credit and has important academic, social, and financial implications. Authorship also implies responsibility and accountability for published work. The following recommendations are intended to ensure that contributors who have made substantive intellectual contributions to a paper are given credit as authors, but also that contributors credited as authors understand their role in... Editors should be aware of the practice of excluding local researchers from low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) from authorship when data are from LMICs. Inclusion of local authors adds to fairness, context, and implications of the research. Lack of inclusion of local investigators as authors should prompt questioning and may lead to rejection.

Because authorship does not communicate what contributions qualified an individual to be an author, some journals now request and publish information about the contributions of each person named as having participated in a submitted... Editors are strongly encouraged to develop and implement a contributorship policy. Such policies remove much of the ambiguity surrounding contributions, but leave unresolved the question of the quantity and quality of contribution that qualify an individual for authorship. The ICMJE has thus developed criteria for authorship that can be used by all journals, including those that distinguish authors from other contributors. The ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria: In addition to being accountable for the parts of the work done, an author should be able to identify which co-authors are responsible for specific other parts of the work.

In addition, authors should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their co-authors. Corresponding author Nicole Vasilevsky1, 3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Road, SN4N, Portland, OR 97239, USA, vasilevs@ohsu.edu Assigning authorship and recognizing contributions to scholarly works is challenging on many levels. Here we discuss ethical, social, and technical challenges to the concept of authorship that may impede the recognition of contributions to a scholarly work. Recent work in the field of authorship shows that shifting to a more inclusive contributorship approach may address these challenges. Recent efforts to enable better recognition of contributions to scholarship include the development of the Contributor Role Ontology (CRO), which extends the CRediT taxonomy and can be used in information systems for structuring contributions.

We also introduce the Contributor Attribution Model (CAM), which provides a simple data model that relates the contributor to research objects via the role that they played, as well as the provenance of the... Finally, requirements for adoption of a contributorship-based approach are discussed. Keywords: attribution, authorship, contributorship, peer review, publication, publication ethics Scholarly authorship generally consists of publishing academic findings in journal articles, book chapters, and monographs (Shamoo and Resnik 2015). In academic collaborations within science and engineering, where co-authorship is the norm, authorship status is attributed to those who have made a significant contribution to certain tasks within the project (Borenstein and Shamoo 2015). Beyond being used as an instrument to recognize contributions, authorship is also used to hold contributors accountable for the accuracy and integrity of published claims (McNutt et al.

2018). Receiving recognition through authorship has long been entrenched as a reward in the scholarly realm. Even so, it has long been acknowledged that assigning authorship credit is neither a fair nor uniform process (Heffner 08/1979). Historically, concerns about authorship credit centered around awarding authorship to those who did not deserve it, and consequently diminishing the contributions of the first, or primary authors. Terms such as profligate, honorary, and courtesy authorship describe various forms of authorship abuse. Some of the proposed solutions to address these problems include defining criteria for authorship (e.g.

by the Vancouver group since 1987), providing details of contributions (Moulopoulos, Sideris, and Georgilis 1983), and assigning a rating to authors’ efforts (Stamler 1979). These solutions often stemmed from a desire to narrow the criteria for authorship, and to clarify roles or the extent of contributions to prevent awarding author status to those who did not deserve it. Nevertheless, applying these solutions in practice may contribute to other tensions. Determining who qualifies as an author on a scholarly work—and in what order—can be one of the most complex and consequential aspects of academic publishing. Questions of authorship touch on professional ethics, disciplinary norms, collaboration dynamics, and institutional expectations. As research becomes increasingly interdisciplinary and collaborative, the need for clarity around authorship roles, responsibilities, and agreements has never been greater.

This guide, developed in collaboration with Dr. Alice Young and Dr. Casside Street, brings together a wide range of resources to support researchers, students, and faculty in navigating the multifaceted landscape of academic authorship. Topics include definitions of authorship, contributor roles and taxonomies, authorship agreements, common sources of dispute, and how to address misconduct. Whether you are preparing your first manuscript, mentoring students, or managing collaborative research teams, this guide is designed to help you foster transparency, accountability, and fairness in your publishing practices. Thank-you for creating an account on Longwoods.com.

Please check your e-mail and follow the instructions to reset your password. Adapted from Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (www.icmje.org). The ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria: In addition to being accountable for the parts of the work done, an author should be able to identify which co-authors are responsible for specific other parts of the work. In addition, authors should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their co-authors. © 2025 International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.

Defining The Role Of Authors And Contributors Researchgate

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