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Authorship standards
Authorship standards
To earn authorship on a scholarly publication, a person should have contributed directly to the work in a meaningful and substantive way.
All collaborators in a project should evaluate their own and each other's roles and contributions to determine if and where they should be included in the list of authors. This assessment should take into account each contributor's role.
Authorship requires direct contribution to each of the following aspects:
planning and executing some aspect of the study (conception, design, execution, analysis, interpretation) that led to the manuscript
writing of the draft or substantive editing and revising of the scholarly content
reading and approval of the finalized manuscript, at least of the aspects relevant to their roles and contributions
Please use the most current guidelines for inclusive attribution of authorship, such as guidelines developed by the British Ecological Society.
Adding or removing co-authors
Adding or removing co-authors
When is it (not) OK to add or remove a co-author from a manuscript?
When is it (not) OK to add or remove a co-author from a manuscript?
Adding a co-author before manuscript submission ...
... raises no concerns, as long as you follow the ICMJE authorship guidelines (link in resources below):The ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria:
Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
Drafting the work or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content; AND
Final approval of the version to be published; AND
Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Adding a co-author after initial submission ...
... raises serious concerns and may trigger an investigation into possible misconduct unless the cover letter explains the reason for the change and all authors of the initial and of the re-submitted manuscript provide written proof to the editor that they approve of this change. Acceptable reasons are for example a major revision that required substantive revisions, such as new experiments, new data, new analysis, and substantial rewriting required to address major concerns raised in previous rounds of peer reviews.
Adding a co-author after publication ...
... raises serious concerns and will trigger a full investigation into possible misconduct.
See COPE flowchart concerning changes in Authorship before publication.
Citing or re-using your own work
Citing or re-using your own work
When is it (not) OK to cite or re-use part of your own work?
When is it (not) OK to cite or re-use part of your own work?
Self citation
Excessive self citation may trigger an investigation into possible misconduct.
Self plagiarism
Re-using parts of previously published work, even your own, may constitute a copyright violation and self plagiarism. Re-publishing is only allowed in exceptional circumstances, such as publication of a translation into another language, or as part of a collection of articles that would be incomplete without including the previously published work. Always check who holds the copy right and get their written consent.
See a COPE case study on self plagiarism.
Anonymous authorship
Anonymous authorship
Authors may opt to publish anonymously. Please refer to the tab on Author Safety on the Page Integrity and Ethics
Link to Position paper on when it is OK to publish anonymously
Authors may wish to publish under a pseudonym or anonymously. Under special circumstances, anonymising the author or agreeing to the use of a pseudonym is permissible, for example if their safety would be compromised by having their name published. This solution is preferable to omitting an author from the author list (ghost authorship), because there is some acknowledgement of their contribution and partial transparency around the issue.
If authors fear that their manuscript may not be reviewed fairly unless they submit the manuscript anonymously, please reach out to the editors, so the manuscript can be reviewed double blind. Link to relevant case study.
Omitting institutional affiliations (using a private address instead of an institutional address) is permissible if the work was conducted as a private person. Under special circumstances, omitting the institutional affiliation is permissible, for example if the author's safety would be compromised by having their affiliation published.
post-humous authorship
post-humous authorship
Before requesting a posthumous co-authorship for a collaborator, please consider the following criteria for co-authorship that require additional action from the surviving co-authors.
(1) Sufficient contribution.
To qualify for posthumous co-authorship, the deceased co-author must contribute sufficiently to deserve co-authorship. ICB encourages authors to use the CRediT system as a guideline. Posthumous co-authors' contributions should be listed in the CRediT statement, along with all co-authors' contributions. The author list in the published article will also indicate that a particular co-author is deceased.
(2) Future accountability.
By agreeing to be a co-author, scholars agree to being held accountable for the content of the manuscript. To qualify for posthumous co-authorship, the deceased co-author should have approved a manuscript that is very close to the submitted version. To request a posthumous co-authorship for a deceased collaborator, the corresponding author should include an explanation in the cover letter why the surviving co-authors concluded that the deceased collaborator would have agreed to a co-authorship and provide sufficient evidence for such a claim.
(3) Legal obligations (copyright).
A publication is a legal contract between authors and the journal. Under a standard publication license, authors transfer copyrights from the authors to the journal. To address this point, ICB would appreciate if the surviving co-authors could facilitate obtaining relevant permissions for copy right transfers from the deceased next of kin or estate.
Resource: case study published by COPE (Committee for Publication Ethics).
talking authorship with your collaborators
talking authorship with your collaborators
Agree on expectations for co-authorship as early as possible; include all potential contributors in this conversation.
Create a written document of agreed-upon expectations (such as by sharing meeting minutes).
Any adjustments, such as additional tasks arising during the project, should lead to a re-evaluation of prior agreements.
Avoid adding or omitting co-authors after the initial submission. Adding an author will trigger an investigation. ICB follows the guidelines intended to prevent gift authorships and submissions from paper mills.
Please alert the journal if the revisions requested by the journal after peer review require adding an author. Provide a detailed explanation in the cover letter of your resubmitted paper.
Click the button in this section for a template authorship agreement and more resources on authorship provided by Authorshipproject.org
Resources
Resources
Guidance documents
Guidance documents
Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors - International Committee of Medical Journal Editors ICMJE (as close as we have to a generally accepted standard)
Authorship (Committee on Publication Ethics COPE)
Contributor Roles Taxonomy CRediT - a tool to determine contributor roles for traditional academic collaborators; please use the expanded tool below for a more inclusive approach to attributing co-authorship
How CRediT helps shift from authorship to contributorship (journal article)
Additional resources
Contemporary authorship guidelines fail to recognize diverse contributions in conservation science research (journal article, 2021)
How to Handle Co-authorship When Not Everyone’s Research Contributions Make It into the Paper (journal article, 2021)
Ten strategies for avoiding and overcoming authorship conflicts in academic publishing (journal article, 2021)
Guidance on Authorship in Scholarly or Scientific Publications (Yale University resource)
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