Midwifery 30 (2014) 385–386
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Midwifery journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/midw
Editorial
Who should be an author on your academic paper?
Members of our Editorial and International Advisory Board have recently been hearing slightly worrying stories from colleagues about inappropriate behaviour related to authorship of academic journal papers. Given that many academic journals will have clear guidelines for publication, this is a development of concern and one which needs to be addressed. For example, we heard one case of a PhD student’s work being published in a journal without the student even being included as a co-author. Equally worrying, in another case a senior academic added a colleague in the department as a co-author on their PhD student’s paper as this colleague needed more publications. Needless to say the colleague had not contributed in any way to the paper. Moreover, we have all heard about papers being published from a postgraduate student’s work and the student appearing as third, fourth or higher order author, rather than the lead author. This editorial outlines some of the do’s and don’ts of authorship of an academic paper. Although our concerns were raised from issues reported by postgraduate students, guidance for authorship applies equally to everyone submitting a paper to an academic journal. ICMJE recommendations (2013) for authorship are based on four criteria: 1. Substantial contributions to conception or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; 2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; 3. Final approval of the version to be published; 4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to accuracy/integrity of any part of work are appropriately investigated & resolved. Furthermore:
Authors should be able to identify which co-authors are responsible for specific other parts of the work.
All authors should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their co-authors.
Authorship criteria are ‘positive’ to help those who deserve credit. NOT to disqualify those who meet authorship criteria by denying the opportunity to meet criteria 2 or 3. Hence, all who meet first criterion should have opportunity to participate in review, drafting, and final approval of paper.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.midw.2014.03.007 0266-6138/& 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
There are clear guidelines for authorship in the biomedical and health fields and Midwifery and Elsevier, our publisher, sign up to these. Many medical and health journals adhere to the ‘Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals’ (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, 2013), including ‘Midwifery’ which is a signatory journal. This guidance on authorship encourages researchers to include all individuals who have made a significant contribution to the research and/or paper as authors and to declare them as such in their paper. If you are a student writing a paper for an academic journal based on your own work, do include your supervisor or supervisors as co-authors. Many universities expect that the supervisor is a co-author with the students, because as a postgraduate student your research will have benefitted from the academic input from the supervisor(s) at various stages of your thesis research. You should ask your supervisor to be a co-author early on and write the paper originating from your research together. It is expected that all authors will comment on the final draft and therefore you should send the draft manuscript to your supervisor for review before submission, even thought s/he will have seen the work within the thesis. Do not offer authorship to someone who does not deserve it (i.e. who is not eligible and/or does not meet the ICJME criteria for authorship) or who declines the invitation to be an author. Such so-called guest authorship is frowned upon! Conversely, it is just as important that all authors eligible for inclusion on a paper have had the opportunity to contribute, have commented on different drafts of the paper and their names are included with their knowledge and permission. Many journals’ admission processes, including that for Midwifery, will generate an automatic email which will be sent to all listed authors informing them of the submission. The email will alert every named author on the paper that a paper has been submitted in their name. Hopefully the more processes put in place to protect and promote transparency of authorship, the more difficult will be the potential for fraud or ‘gift’ authorship to occur. Discuss authorship and authorship order early in the writing process. Remember that rules vary between different disciplines and when working as a member of a multidisciplinary team, issues of authorship of any papers which arise out of the study should be discussed before problems or concerns arise (Hundley et al., 2013). Often members of a study group may develop a protocol for publication at the commencement of the project outlining which particular phases or outputs of the study each member of the team will potentially contribute to as a named author. This is particularly important if work was undertaken as part of a large
386
Editorial / Midwifery 30 (2014) 385–386
collaboration of researchers who may be working across multiple sites, nationally or internationally. Before you consider submission, do take time to read the guidelines for authors for the journal you wish to submit to. The ‘Guide for Authors’ on the Midwifery website explains in detail the steps to publication all authors should comply with for this journal (http://www.elsevier.com/journals/midwifery/0266-6138/guidefor-authors). You should read this before you even start writing your paper. As editors and editorial board members, it saves precious time if a paper we are asked to review complies with our guidance. It is also good practice to submit a letter to the Editor to accompany your paper, briefly outlining your study and how the findings you are presenting will contribute to current knowledge. When you do this check to make sure you have included the correct title of the journal in your letter, as it is a little off-putting if this is incorrect. Finally, after your paper has been accepted you will be sent the page proofs which will format the content of your paper in line with journal requirements. Do read these thoroughly, as checking that the proofs are correct is solely your responsibility as author, and by this we mean not just the text of your paper, but all tables, figures, and references. You will also need to check that all authors and their affiliations are listed in the order you listed them originally, and that the authors’ names are spelt correctly. Once the proofs have been accepted as final copy and the online version is available to download from our website, there is no guarantee that any subsequent corrections can be made. It is worth noting that ‘Midwifery’ can support authors in numerous ways to disseminate their published work, including audio-slides to download from our website. Acknowledgements Thanks for additional comments on the original version of this paper from Jane Sandall and Caroline Homer, Associate Editors ‘Midwifery’.
References Hundley, V., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P., 2013. Academic authorship: who, why and in what order? Health Renaissance 11 (2), 98–101 〈www.healthrenaissance.org.np/ uploads/Download/vol-11-2/Page_99_101_Editorial.pdf〉. (accessed December 2013). International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, 2013. Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, 〈www.icmje.org/〉. (accessed December 2013).
Edwin van Teijlingen, Professor of Reproductive Health Research, Editorial Board Member, Midwifery, Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health, Bournemouth University, United Kingdom E-mail address: [email protected]
Vanora Hundley, Professor of Midwifery, International Advisory Board Member, Midwifery, Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health, Bournemouth University, United Kingdom E-mail address: [email protected]
Debra Bick, Professor of Evidence Based Midwifery Practice, Editor in Chief, Midwifery, Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, King’s College London, United Kingdom E-mail address: [email protected]
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Midwifery journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/midw
Editorial
Who should be an author on your academic paper?
Members of our Editorial and International Advisory Board have recently been hearing slightly worrying stories from colleagues about inappropriate behaviour related to authorship of academic journal papers. Given that many academic journals will have clear guidelines for publication, this is a development of concern and one which needs to be addressed. For example, we heard one case of a PhD student’s work being published in a journal without the student even being included as a co-author. Equally worrying, in another case a senior academic added a colleague in the department as a co-author on their PhD student’s paper as this colleague needed more publications. Needless to say the colleague had not contributed in any way to the paper. Moreover, we have all heard about papers being published from a postgraduate student’s work and the student appearing as third, fourth or higher order author, rather than the lead author. This editorial outlines some of the do’s and don’ts of authorship of an academic paper. Although our concerns were raised from issues reported by postgraduate students, guidance for authorship applies equally to everyone submitting a paper to an academic journal. ICMJE recommendations (2013) for authorship are based on four criteria: 1. Substantial contributions to conception or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; 2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; 3. Final approval of the version to be published; 4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to accuracy/integrity of any part of work are appropriately investigated & resolved. Furthermore:
Authors should be able to identify which co-authors are responsible for specific other parts of the work.
All authors should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their co-authors.
Authorship criteria are ‘positive’ to help those who deserve credit. NOT to disqualify those who meet authorship criteria by denying the opportunity to meet criteria 2 or 3. Hence, all who meet first criterion should have opportunity to participate in review, drafting, and final approval of paper.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.midw.2014.03.007 0266-6138/& 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
There are clear guidelines for authorship in the biomedical and health fields and Midwifery and Elsevier, our publisher, sign up to these. Many medical and health journals adhere to the ‘Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals’ (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, 2013), including ‘Midwifery’ which is a signatory journal. This guidance on authorship encourages researchers to include all individuals who have made a significant contribution to the research and/or paper as authors and to declare them as such in their paper. If you are a student writing a paper for an academic journal based on your own work, do include your supervisor or supervisors as co-authors. Many universities expect that the supervisor is a co-author with the students, because as a postgraduate student your research will have benefitted from the academic input from the supervisor(s) at various stages of your thesis research. You should ask your supervisor to be a co-author early on and write the paper originating from your research together. It is expected that all authors will comment on the final draft and therefore you should send the draft manuscript to your supervisor for review before submission, even thought s/he will have seen the work within the thesis. Do not offer authorship to someone who does not deserve it (i.e. who is not eligible and/or does not meet the ICJME criteria for authorship) or who declines the invitation to be an author. Such so-called guest authorship is frowned upon! Conversely, it is just as important that all authors eligible for inclusion on a paper have had the opportunity to contribute, have commented on different drafts of the paper and their names are included with their knowledge and permission. Many journals’ admission processes, including that for Midwifery, will generate an automatic email which will be sent to all listed authors informing them of the submission. The email will alert every named author on the paper that a paper has been submitted in their name. Hopefully the more processes put in place to protect and promote transparency of authorship, the more difficult will be the potential for fraud or ‘gift’ authorship to occur. Discuss authorship and authorship order early in the writing process. Remember that rules vary between different disciplines and when working as a member of a multidisciplinary team, issues of authorship of any papers which arise out of the study should be discussed before problems or concerns arise (Hundley et al., 2013). Often members of a study group may develop a protocol for publication at the commencement of the project outlining which particular phases or outputs of the study each member of the team will potentially contribute to as a named author. This is particularly important if work was undertaken as part of a large
386
Editorial / Midwifery 30 (2014) 385–386
collaboration of researchers who may be working across multiple sites, nationally or internationally. Before you consider submission, do take time to read the guidelines for authors for the journal you wish to submit to. The ‘Guide for Authors’ on the Midwifery website explains in detail the steps to publication all authors should comply with for this journal (http://www.elsevier.com/journals/midwifery/0266-6138/guidefor-authors). You should read this before you even start writing your paper. As editors and editorial board members, it saves precious time if a paper we are asked to review complies with our guidance. It is also good practice to submit a letter to the Editor to accompany your paper, briefly outlining your study and how the findings you are presenting will contribute to current knowledge. When you do this check to make sure you have included the correct title of the journal in your letter, as it is a little off-putting if this is incorrect. Finally, after your paper has been accepted you will be sent the page proofs which will format the content of your paper in line with journal requirements. Do read these thoroughly, as checking that the proofs are correct is solely your responsibility as author, and by this we mean not just the text of your paper, but all tables, figures, and references. You will also need to check that all authors and their affiliations are listed in the order you listed them originally, and that the authors’ names are spelt correctly. Once the proofs have been accepted as final copy and the online version is available to download from our website, there is no guarantee that any subsequent corrections can be made. It is worth noting that ‘Midwifery’ can support authors in numerous ways to disseminate their published work, including audio-slides to download from our website. Acknowledgements Thanks for additional comments on the original version of this paper from Jane Sandall and Caroline Homer, Associate Editors ‘Midwifery’.
References Hundley, V., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P., 2013. Academic authorship: who, why and in what order? Health Renaissance 11 (2), 98–101 〈www.healthrenaissance.org.np/ uploads/Download/vol-11-2/Page_99_101_Editorial.pdf〉. (accessed December 2013). International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, 2013. Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, 〈www.icmje.org/〉. (accessed December 2013).
Edwin van Teijlingen, Professor of Reproductive Health Research, Editorial Board Member, Midwifery, Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health, Bournemouth University, United Kingdom E-mail address: [email protected]
Vanora Hundley, Professor of Midwifery, International Advisory Board Member, Midwifery, Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health, Bournemouth University, United Kingdom E-mail address: [email protected]
Debra Bick, Professor of Evidence Based Midwifery Practice, Editor in Chief, Midwifery, Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, King’s College London, United Kingdom E-mail address: [email protected]
