Guidelines of co-authorship

In short: This entry provides guidance for handling different roles in co-authorship for peer-reviewed scientific articles.

You might first get involved in co-writing a research article already while studying yet surely get deeply engaged when starting your PhD. Working on a publication typically begins with a more senior researcher starting a project and inviting you to join the project as a contributing author. In general, the authorship order is:

• First authors lead the research and writing process and ultimately submit the manuscript to a scientific journal.
• Co-authors are all people involved in and actively contributing to writing a research paper.
• The last author is typically the senior or supervising person of the first author.

For some research areas, other norms apply, such as an order of importance from first to last author.

Responsibilites of a co-author

As a co-author, your main duty is to contribute to the development of the research project into a submittable manuscript. The Contributor Role Taxonomy (CRediT)¹ was developed some years ago to make the contributions of all contributing parties transparent. This can serve as a guide to understanding your role and responsibilities as a co-author. To be eligible for a co-author position, you must contribute to one or more of the activities, though not all activities may apply to all research projects. The proposed activities are: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing.

In an ideal collaborative research project, all team members push the project toward a first draft by discussing ideas, analyzing the data, interpreting the results and writing. More experienced researchers can help early career researchers to become familiar with writing a research article and thereby creating a learning space of how to evolve as a co-author. Just as in other fields of research, open communication about time investments, expectations and time plans is a key to successful collaborative learning and knowledge production.

Yet the responsibilities of a co-author do not end with the submission of the manuscript to a scientific journal. Ideally, the co-authors support the first author and senior scientist in answering the reviewing requests by the reviewers. Once the article is accepted for publication, it is time to celebrate and reflect on the process.

Benefits of being a co-author

Co-authors contribute by their experience and knowledge, yet bear less responsibility in terms of project management and outreach. The responsibility of good scientific practice is shared among all authors and collaborators. The outreach, namely citations, of a published article benefits all authors, shown in science platforms such as google scholar. The benefits of being a co-author differ with experience and the state of the academic career. Early career researchers, such as student assistants or early PhD students profit from their experience while learning about the norms of writing a scientific article and how scientific collaboration and publishing are conducted. Senior researchers profit from the ideas of early career researchers and can guide and participate in research projects they would not have the time to conduct themselves.

Avoiding conflicts

It is vital to agree and assign roles as early as possible in the planning of a research project. Research projects sometimes do not work as planned. In respect to authorships, at times co-authors drop out of the project or new co-authors join later on. In case collaborators decline to be co-authors or their contributions are limited, they are typically honorably mentioned in the acknowledgments. Collaborators who join the research at a later stage need to make sure that one of the responsibilities of the CRediT applies to them. The order of co-authorship can create conflicts as well. The order of listed authors follows most of the time the pattern of the project lead as the first author, the project supervisor at the end and the other contributing authors according to the hours invested in the project. There are creative options² to determine the order of authors, such as coin flips, proximity to tenure or a backgammon contest. You can also decide to order the authors' names alphabetically. If a conflict arises, it is always helpful to talk to your peers and exchange experiences. In case you are unsure of where you should position yourself, talk to the first author and refer to the CRediT to find your place.

4. References

1. Contributor Role Taxonomy (CRedit): https://credit.niso.org/
2. Fun ways of deciding authorship: https://dynamicecology.wordpress.com/2016/09/21/fun-ways-of-deciding-authorship-order/

The author of this entry is Charlotte Gohr. Edited and uploaded by Gustavo Rodriguez