Abstract
We conducted a document analysis that explored publication ethics and authorship in the context of population biobanks from both a theoretical (e.g. normative documents) and practical (e.g. biobank-specific documentation) perspective. The aim was to provide an overview of the state of authorship attribution in population biobanks and attempt to fill the gap in discussions around the issue. Our findings demonstrate that the most common approach adopted in both the normative and biobank-specific documentation is acknowledgment. A co-authorship approach was second and highlighted concerns surrounding the fairness of imposing authorship of the scientific leadership as a condition to access data and biosamples, as well as the alignment with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors’ criteria such as what is deemed a significant contribution and how to ensure accountability. Based on these findings, we propose a three-prong approach, that may be cumulative, to address the issue of authorship attribution in the context of population biobanks, namely 1) the biobank should be appropriately acknowledged; 2) an invitation for co-authorship should be made based on the spirit of collaboration and provided a substantial contribution has been made; and 3) a citation/referencing option should be available.
Highlights
The maxim ‘publish or perish’ is well-known by academics and is an important factor that overlays any researcher’s career
In order to do so, the situation was analyzed from a theoretical perspective, via normative documents related to human genetic research, to gain a better understanding of what the suggested approaches to authorship are and from a practical perspective, via biobank-specific documentation to better understand how authorship is being addressed by biobanks
The document analysis allowed us to compare and contrast theoretical and practical perspectives, enabling a better overview of what is being suggested and what is being done in practice regarding authorship attribution within this context
Summary
The maxim ‘publish or perish’ is well-known by academics and is an important factor that overlays any researcher’s career. While publishing is an important element, publishing in an ethically appropriate way is primordial. With increasing attention to research integrity, principles such as honesty, accountability, fairness, and openness are key pillars. The question of who deserves authorship has been given much attention [2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. The evolution of research towards interdisciplinary approaches and increased
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