Research_guidelines

Guidelines for Authorship in Scholarly Publications

The following describes the guidelines to be used when deciding the names and order of authors on a scientific article to be submitted for publication. These guidelines were adopted from those written by the Applied Materials Group (led by Dr. Nelson Sepúlveda) at Michigan State University College of Engineering and where modified in harmony with guidelines previously reported and used by other groups and agencies, including the Michigan State University Research Integrity Office and Michigan State Universities’ Office of Research and Innovation.

Authorship is an explicit way of assigning responsibility and giving credit for academic work and is important to the reputation, academic promotion, and grant support of the individuals involved as well as to the strength and reputation of their institution. The following is required of all authors to be listed on a paper:

Author has made a substantial, direct, intellectual contribution to the work.
Author has participated in writing the manuscript by reviewing drafts and approving the final version.
Although each author may contribute to only part of the work, each individual author understands and is able to conceptually explain, defend, and endorse the work product as a whole.

To be considered as an author on a paper in my group we will consider the following eight (8) “principal action items” in the process of preparing a manuscript:

Conceiving the idea.
Developing the idea (definition of questions to be answered with the experiments).
Design of experiment.
Experiment set-up (Including the writing of Software).
Data collection.
Data analysis.
Writing the article.
Critical review on scientific and technical aspects of the article.

For anyone to be included as a co-author on a manuscript, they must participate actively and contribute substantially in the majority (i.e. 5 or more) of the 8 “principal action items”. Participation in 4 or less “principal action items” could result in an acknowledgement on the article, but not authorship. It is also expected that all authors participate actively in the last (8th) item by revieing and approving the final manuscript.

There is some flexibility when applying these guidelines, especially if this is the first time a student is engaged in a research project. This flexibility is intended to encourage student engagement in research and provide them some assistance in the learning process of developing a scientific idea from its conception to the manuscript preparation. This approach should not be considered a norm and will require the consensus of all the authors to be applied.

The concept of “some flexibility” should also not be confused with “a free-ride”. Every author in a manuscript should understand very clearly all the concepts, experiments, analyses, and conclusions in the manuscript; and be capable of explaining them to both: the general public and experts in the scientific community.

The order of authors will be determined using the following guidelines:

The first author will be determined by all authors (with guidance and input from the advisor).
The first author will take on the bulk of the work to shepherd the manuscript through the process of preparing a manuscript including the initiation and preparation of a comprehensive and scientifically sound first draft of the manuscript, and circulate it among the authors.
The level of contribution of each additional author will be determined by consensus of all potential authors with advice and input from the team advisor and principal investigator on the project. Ideally this is done early in the process (around step 1 and 2) but may be difficult with longer projects that span multiple semesters and students.
The final order of the co-authors will be determined after the final draft of the article has been completed. The order will be based on the participation and contribution of each author on the “principal action items”.
For most manuscripts the advisor will likely be listed as either the last author or the first author (If that person has taken on the role of first author). However, in order to be an author, the advisor must meet the expectations as outlined in this document.

Written by Dr. Dirk Colbry, Michigan State University
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.