January 2019 Feature: Authorship and Publication Practices

 

Publication in a peer-reviewed journal is essential for establishing scientific credibility, improving the health of society, and building a successful research career. Check out these selected resources for guidance in successfully navigating the ethical issues involved in disseminating research results.

 

Transparency in Authors’ Contributions and Responsibilities to Promote Integrity in Scientific Publication by McNutt et al., in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , March 2018, proposes changes to journal authorship policies and procedures.

Transparency in Author Contributions in Science (TACS) is a Web site created by the National Academy of Sciences to list journals that commit to setting authorship standards, defining responsibilities for corresponding authors, requiring ORCID iDs, and adopting the CRediT taxonomy. The goal is to measure growing transparency in authorship and serve as a resource for sharing and exchanging best practices in authorship policies.

Promoting an Open Research Culture by Nosek et al., in Science, June 2015, discusses the Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) Guidelines designed to improve research reproducibility and publishing practices.

Publication Practices and Responsible Authorship: A Review Article by Tarkang et al., in the Journal of Public Health in Africa, June 2017, provides an overview of the issues regarding publication practices and responsible authorship.

Authorship and Contribution Disclosures by Sauermann and Haeussler, in Science Advances, November 2017, discusses “what contribution statements on articles tell us that author order does not and how they can be improved”.

Authorship Policies of Scientific Journals by Resnik et al., in the Journal of Medical Ethics, March 2016, discusses the key findings from a comprehensive survey of scientific journals that have authorship policies.

Ongoing Ethical Issues Concerning Authorship in Biomedical Journals: An Integrative Review by Kornhaber et al, in the International Journal of Nanomedicine, July 2015, explores equal-credited authors, honorary and ghost authorship, perception/experiences of authorship, and guidelines/policies.

Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association provides resources related to open access publishing, including a list of Web sites, books, and guidelines.

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) maintains an online inventory of open access, peer-reviewed journals.

Elsevier Publishing Campus provides provides online training, interactive tools and resources that support scientific publishing.

The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals is most recognized for establishing criteria for authorship and also covers broader ethical areas including the conduct and reporting of research, publishing and editorial issues, and manuscript preparation and submission.

The Council of Science Editors White Paper on Promoting Integrity in Scientific Journal Publications serves as a basis for ethical publishing practices, with reviewer roles and responsibilities featured in Section 2.3.

Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) , established in 1997, has over 7,000 members worldwide (i.e., editors of academic journals and others interested in publication ethics) from all academic fields. COPE provides advice to editors and publishers in all areas of publication ethics.

Explore the Authorship topic on this site for additional materials and resources.