Authorship Issues: Who Is Ultimately Responsible?

Abstract

An article written by authors A, B, C, and D was finally published. Author A was a junior fellow, authors B and C participated in the study, and author D was the senior author. A few months after publication, the authors found a numerical error in their article. Which author should take responsibility? Eight years ago as Associate Editor for Reproductive Biomedicine Online, I, along with Kay Elders and Jacques Cohen, wrote an editorial about author responsibility and accountability.1Tulandi T. Elder K. Cohen J. Responsibility and accountability of authors and co-authors.Reprod Biomed Online. 2008; 16: 763-764Abstract Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (4) Google Scholar Today, authorship questions still abound, and the message of our editorial is still relevant. In the vignette above, author A was the first author who wrote the manuscript and who entered the numbers incorrectly. Author D was the last and corresponding author. The question remains: Who is most accountable? Regardless of the authorship order, all authors are equally responsible and accountable for the content of the manuscript, as clearly stated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICJME). “All members of the group named as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, including approval of the final manuscript, and they should be able to take public responsibility for the work and should have full confidence in the accuracy and integrity of the work of other group authors.”2International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors. Available at: http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html. Accessed on December 6, 2016.Google Scholar To meet all of these four criteria, authors must have:1.Substantially contributed to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; and2.Drafted the work or revised it critically for important intellectual content; and3.Provided final approval of the version to be published; and4.Agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work, including to ensure that any questions on the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work be appropriately investigated and resolved.2International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors. Available at: http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html. Accessed on December 6, 2016.Google Scholar In some journals, the first author is usually the person who contributes most to the work, including writing the manuscript. Other authors follow in descending order. The senior author is usually the last. Most journals, however, leave the authorship order to the authors. All authors are responsible for their work and publication, regardless of the authorship order. In the vignette above, the numerical error was an honest mistake missed by all the authors. They sent an erratum to the journal, which was subsequently published. However honest this mistake, it is still part of the makeup of ethics in publishing, which we take seriously. Issues in publishing ethics include data fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism. The latter is still encountered mainly in submitted manuscripts. Plagiarism occurs when a writer presents another author’s work as his own, without proper citation or credit. In academia, a charge of plagiarism carries severe penalties, including eviction from a university or prohibition of future publications by scientific journals. The most common plagiarism is copying from another source without citing, otherwise known as “copy and paste.” The writer should acknowledge the original author(s) and cite the work accordingly, even if the original work is in a different language. I spend considerable time explaining plagiarism to a trainee before she or he starts writing a manuscript, as there are various types of plagiarism. One type is duplicate publication. In this case, authors publish an article that is similar or overlaps their previous publication. Another form is “salami publication,” where the authors divide data from a single study into several pieces and publish them separately. Plagiarism disgraces an institution and, more importantly, the author. Others will lose trust in his or her future writing. Some journals even publish the names of the guilty authors. If you are ever in doubt of committing plagiarism, discuss it with a colleague or with your journal editor. Here at JOGC, we are happy to help you navigate the world of publication ethics. Contact us at [email protected]