1. DESIGN OF RESEARCH AUTHORSHIP AND THE ALLOCATION OF CREDIT Kiran Hanjar S I sem, IE Dept. of IE&M MSRIT

2. Definition Authorship is reserved for persons who make a primary contribution to and hold primary responsibility for the data, concepts, and interpretation of results for a published work (Huth, 1987). Authorship encompasses not only those who do the actual writing but also those who have made substantial scientific contributions to a study. (American Psychological Association, 2001, pg. 6) 3. The statement of authorship responsibility is certification that each author has made substantial contributions to (a) the conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data (b) drafting and revising the article (c) approval of the final version. Further, each author takes public responsibility for the work. ( American Journal of Occupational Therapy, n.d.) 4. Authorship Authors are listed to provide a public record of responsibility and credit for the work Only those who can take both responsibility and credit for a work should be authors 5. To be eligible for authorship, most policies require that a person: Make a major contribution to concept, design, analysis and/or interpretation of the work Participate in drafting the article or revising it critically for important content Have a voice in the final version submitted for publication Accept responsibility as well as credit for the work Be able to present, discuss, interpret, and defend the work, analysis, and conclusions 6. Allocation of credits When a paper is published, the list of authors indicates who has contributed to the work Peer recognition generated by authorship is important in a scientific career and needs to be allocated appropriately Authorship conventions may differ greatly among disciplines and among research groups Many journals and professional societies have published guidelines that lay out the conventions for authorship in particular disciplines 7. Decisions about authorship can be especially difficult in interdisciplinary collaborations or multi-group projects Several considerations must be weighed in determining the proper division of credit between investigators working on a project Established researchers are well aware of the importance of credit in science where traditions expect them to be generous in their allocation of credit to beginning researchers 8. Sometimes a name is included in a list of authors even though that person had little or nothing to do with the content of a paper Ghost authorship, where a person who writes a paper is not listed among the authors, misleads readers and also should be condemned Policies at most scientific journals state that a person should be listed as the author of a paper only if that person made a direct and substantial intellectual contribution to the design of the research 9. The list of authors establishes accountability as well as credit When a paper is found to contain errors, whether caused by mistakes or deceit, authors might wish to disavow responsibility 10. Authorship Issues in Faculty/Student Collaborations Faculty-student collaborations are unequal Two common ethical problems: Faculty taking unearned authorship or inappropriate author order Faculty granting students unearned authorship or inappropriate author order(Fine and Kurdek , 1993) 11. Preventing Authorship Problems Identify and assign study tasks that are key for authorship, and those warranting only acknowledgement. Link authorship to quality and completion of work not to an individuals role or title. Renegotiate authorship and author order when new tasks emerge, responsibilities alter, or people enter or leave the collaborative group 12. Acknowledgement Acknowledge People or institutions with minor but respected role in project People who cannot or do not want to be author Acknowledgements should specify contribution, not offer vague thanks for help Many journals now require permission if specific person or institution is named as this could imply endorsement of study 13. Examples of Contributions Appropriate for Acknowledgement Advice on study design Editing grant proposal, manuscript Data collection, subject recruitment, providing animals, contributing samples Statistical or technical advice Assistance with data entry or analysis Photography Financial support or donation of materials Participants Fabrication of a device Recruitment or referral of participants 14. Thank you