Abstract
Authorship of a scientific paper is important in recognition of one’s work, and in the academic setting, helps in professional promotion. Conflicting views of authorship have led to disputes and debates in many scientific communities. Addressing ethical issues in medical research and publishing, and conforming to the requirements of international organizations and local research ethics boards (REBs), has become an essential part of the research endeavor. Ethical issues of biomedical authorship have been a matter of debate for years. Authorship problems may involve problems with integrity, including ghost authorship and guest authorship. Some scientific disciplines, such as engineering or social sciences, may not have a firm guideline for authorship criteria; however this article reviews the criteria of authorship recommended by related international organizations of biomedical field and discusses common scenarios that may lead to authorship disputes and misconducts as well as issues related to authorship in multicenter studies. The paper also discusses possible scenarios that might be legitimate to make changes in authorship lists.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data Availability
Not applicable.
References
Added as an author after publication. (2015). Committee on Publication Ethics. https://publicationethics.org/case/reviewer-requests-be-added-author-after-publication
Alshogran, O. Y., & Al-Delaimy, W. K. (2018). Understanding of International Committee of Medical Journal Editors Authorship Criteria Among Faculty Members of Pharmacy and Other Health Sciences in Jordan. Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics, 13(3), 276–284. https://doi.org/10.1177/1556264618764575
Astaneh, B. (2010, 26–03). the culture of compliments. https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2010/02/25/behrooz-astaneh-the-culture-of-compliments/
Astaneh, B. (2011, 26–03). Authorship criteria; Use or abuse. Authorship criteria – use or abuse. https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2011/07/20/behrooz-astaneh-authorship-criteria-use-or-abuse/
Astaneh, B. (2015). Ethics: an absolute or conditional issue? European Science Editing, 41(4), 94–95. https://europeanscienceediting.eu/articles/ethics-an-absolute-or-conditional-issue/
Astaneh, B., & Masoumi, S. (2018). From Paper to Practice; Indexing Systems and Ethical Standards. Science and Engineering Ethics, 24(2), 647–654. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-017-9899-x
Author’s name removed from submitted article. (2006). Committee on Publication Ethics. Retrieved 13 Nov from https://publicationethics.org/case/author%E2%80%99s-name-removed-submitted-article
Authorship & contributorship. (2020). BMJ. Retrieved 02–10 from https://www.bmj.com/about-bmj/resources-authors/article-submission/authorship-contributorship
Basford, J. R., Frontera, W. R., & Sjolund, B. H. (2014). Honorary authorship. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 95(3), 429–430. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmr.2013.10.019
Bebeau, M. J., & Monson, V. (2011). Authorship and publication practices in the social sciences: Historical reflections on current practices. Science and Engineering Ethics, 17(2), 365–388. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-011-9280-4
Borenstein, J. (2011). Responsible authorship in engineering fields: An overview of current ethical challenges. Science and Engineering Ethics, 17(2), 355–364. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-011-9272-4
Breet, E., Botha, J., Horn, L., & Swartz, L. (2018). Academic and Scientific Authorship Practices: A Survey Among South African Researchers. Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics, 13(4), 412–420. https://doi.org/10.1177/1556264618789253
Change in author’s name after publication. (2013). Committee on Publcation Ethics. Retrieved 30.06.2021 from https://publicationethics.org/case/change-authors-name-after-publication
Committee on Publication Ethics. (2006a). Corresponding author requests addition of extra author before publication. Retrieved 28–03–2020 from https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts/corresponding-author-requests-addition-extra-author-publication
Committee on Publication Ethics. (2006b). Corresponding author requests removal of author before publication. Retrieved 28–03–2020 from https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts/corresponding-author-requests-removal-author-publication
Committee on Publication Ethics. (2006c). Request for addition of extra author after publication. Retrieved 28–03–2020 from https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts/request-addition-extra-author-after-publication
Drazen, J. M. (2010). Ghost and guest authors: An editor’s view. Clinical and Translational Science, 3(2), S4. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1752-8062.2010.00181-1.x
Faulkes, Z. (2018). Resolving authorship disputes by mediation and arbitration. Res Integr Peer Rev, 3(1), 12. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41073-018-0057-z
Fleming, N. (2021). Sidelined: How to tackle authorship disputes. Nature, 594, 459–462.
Fontanarosa, P., Bauchner, H., & Flanagin, A. (2017). Authorship and Team Science. JAMA, 318(24), 2433–2437. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2017.19341
Helgesson, G., Juth, N., Schneider, J., Lovtrup, M., & Lynoe, N. (2018). Misuse of Coauthorship in Medical Theses in Sweden. Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics, 13(4), 402–411. https://doi.org/10.1177/1556264618784206
International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. (2019). Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals. Retrieved 26–03–2020 from http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/
Jawaid, S. A. (2012). From authorship to contributorship: Are we prepared to say bye- bye to by-line? Pak J Med Sci, 28(5), 1. http://pjms.com.pk/index.php/pjms/article/view/2746/699
Jaykaran, Yadav, P., Chavda, N., & Kantharia, N. D. (2011). Survey of "instructions to authors" of Indian medical journals for reporting of ethics and authorship criteria. Indian J Med Ethics, 8(1), 36–38. http://ovidsp.ovid.com/ovidweb.cgi?T=JS&PAGE=reference&D=med7&NEWS=N&AN=22106597
Kassis, T. (2017). How do research faculty in the biosciences evaluate paper authorship criteria? PLoS ONE, 12(8), e0183632. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0183632
Kennedy, M. S., Barnsteiner, J., & Daly, J. (2014). Honorary and ghost authorship in nursing publications. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 46(6), 416–422. https://doi.org/10.1111/jnu.12093
Kozma, E., Burling, M., Von Coburg, Y., & Heinen, K. (2014). Authorship: How to decide the order of authors on the byline? Current Medical Research and Opinion, 30(SUPPL. 1), S21. https://doi.org/10.1185/03007995.2014.896156
Lapidow, A., & Scudder, P. (2019). Shared first authorship. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 107(4), 618–620. https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2019.700
Marusic, A., Bosnjak, L., & Jeroncic, A. (2011). A systematic review of research on the meaning, ethics and practices of authorship across scholarly disciplines. PLoS ONE, 6(9), e23477. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0023477
Matheson, A. (2016). The ICMJE Recommendations and pharmaceutical marketing–strengths, weaknesses and the unsolved problem of attribution in publication ethics. BMC Medical Ethics, 17, 20. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-016-0103-7
Nylenna, M., Fagerbakk, F., & Kierulf, P. (2014). Authorship: Attitudes and practice among Norwegian researchers. BMC Medical Ethics, 15, 53. https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6939-15-53
Okonta, P., & Rossouw, T. (2013). Prevalence of scientific misconduct among a group of researchers in Nigeria. Developing World Bioethics, 13(3), 149–157. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-8847.2012.00339.x
Rennie, D., Yank, V., & Emanuel, L. (1997). When authorship fails. A proposal to make contributors accountable. JAMA, 278(7), 579–585. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.278.7.579
Siemieniuk, R. A., & Guyatt, G. H. (2015). Corticosteroids in the treatment of community-acquired pneumonia: an evidence summary [Review]. Pol Arch Med Wewn, 125(7–8), 570–575. https://doi.org/10.20452/pamw.2971
Smith, E., & Master, Z. (2017). Best Practice to Order Authors in Multi/Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Research Publications. Accountability in Research, 24(4), 243–267. https://doi.org/10.1080/08989621.2017.1287567
Smith, R. (1997). Authorship is dying: long live contributorship. BMJ, 315(7110), 696. http://ovidsp.ovid.com/ovidweb.cgi?T=JS&PAGE=reference&D=medc2&NEWS=N&AN=9314747
Strange, K. (2008). Authorship: Why not just toss a coin? American Journal of Physiology. Cell Physiology, 295(3), C567–C575. https://doi.org/10.1152/ajpcell.00208.2008
Tanenbaum, T. J. (2020). Publishers: Let transgender scholars correct their names. Nature, 583, 493. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-02145-3
Tyebkhan, G. (2003). Declaration of Helsinki: the ethical cornerstone of human clinical research. Indian J Dermatol Venereol Leprol, 69(3), 245–247. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17642902
Uijtdehaage, S., Mavis, B., & Durning, S. J. (2018). Whose Paper Is It Anyway? Authorship Criteria According to Established Scholars in Health Professions Education. Academic Medicine, 93(8), 1171–1175. https://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000002144
Van der Weyden, M. B. (2007). The ICMJE and URM: Providing Independent Advice for the Conduct of Biomedical Research and Publication. Mens Sana Monogr, 5(1), 15–25. https://doi.org/10.4103/0973-1229.32145
Whellan, D. J., Ellis, S. J., Kraus, W. E., Hawthorne, K., Piña, I. L., Keteyian, S. J., & O’Connor, C. M. (2009). Method for establishing authorship in a multicenter clinical trial. Annals of Internal Medicine, 151(6), 414–420. https://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-151-6-200909150-00006
Acknowledgements
None declared.
Funding
No funds, grants, or other support was received.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
BA: Conceived the idea and developed it, gathered the related data, wrote and critically revised the manuscript; GG: Developed the idea, wrote and revised the article critically; LS: Developed the idea, and revised the article critically. All authors read and approved the final version and accept the accountability.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethics Approval
Not applicable.
Consent to Participate
Not applicable.
Consent for Publication
Not applicable.
Competing Interests
BA had been a COPE Council member. LS and GG have no conflict of interest to declare.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Astaneh, B., Schwartz, L. & Guyatt, G. Biomedical Authorship: Common Misconducts and Possible Scenarios for Disputes. J Acad Ethics 19, 455–464 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-021-09435-z
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-021-09435-z