Abstract
Multiple authorship is the universal solution to multi-tasking in the sciences. Without a team, each with their own set of expertise, and each involved mostly in complementary ways, a research project will likely not advance quickly, or effectively. Consequently, there is a risk that research goals will not be met within a desired timeframe. Research teams that strictly scrutinize their modus operandi select and include a set of authors that have participated substantially in the physical undertaking of the research, in its planning, or who have contributed intellectually to the ideas or the development of the manuscript. Authorship is not an issue that is taken lightly, and save for dishonest authors, it is an issue that is decided collectively by the authors, usually in sync with codes of conduct established by their research institutes or national ministries of education. Science, technology and medicine (STM) publishers have, through independent, or sometimes coordinated efforts, also established their own sets of guidelines regarding what constitutes valid authorship. However, these are, for the greater part, merely guidelines. A previous and recent analysis of authorship definitions indicates that the definitions in place regarding authorship and its validity by many leading STM publishers is neither uniform, nor standard, despite several of them claiming to follow the guidelines as set forward by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors or ICMJE. This disparity extends itself to ghost and guest authorship, two key authorship-related issues that are examined in this paper to assess the extent of discrepancies among the same set of STM publishers and what possible influence they might have on publishing ethics.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Explore related subjects
Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.References
Adebayo, O. (2013). Science research and publication in Africa: The Nigeria perspective. The African Journal of Plant Science and Biotechnology, 7(1), 106–109.
Albert, T., & Wager, E. (2003). How to handle authorship disputes: A guide for new researchers. COPE Report 2003; 1–3. http://publicationethics.org/files/2003pdf12.pdf. Accessed on October 21, 2015.
Al-Herz, W., Haider, H., Al-Bahhar, M., & Sadeq, A. (2014). Honorary authorship in biomedical journals: How common is it and why does it exist? Journal of Medical Ethics, 40(5), 346–348.
Anstey, A. (2014). Authorship issues: Grizzles, guests and ghosts. British Journal of Dermatology, 170(6), 1209–1210.
ATLAS Collaboration. (2015). http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0370269314008442. Accessed on October 21, 2015.
Australian Critical Care. (2015). http://www.elsevier.com/journals/australian-critical-care/1036-7314/guide-for-authors#9101. Accessed on October 21, 2015.
Baerlocher, M. O., Newton, M., Gautam, T., Tomlinson, G., & Detsky, A. S. (2007). The meaning of author order in medical research. Journal of Investigative Medicine, 55, 174–180.
Baskin, P. K., & Gross, R. A. (2011). Honorary and ghost authorship. British Medical Journal, 343, d6223.
Bentham. (2015). http://benthamscience.com/journal/authors-guidelines.php?journalID=mc. Accessed on October 21, 2015.
Bošnjak, L., & Marušić, A. (2012). Prescribed practices of authorship: Review of codes of ethics from professional bodies and journal guidelines across disciplines. Scientometrics, 93, 751–763.
Brand, R. A. (2012). Further thoughts on authorship: Gift authorship. Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, 470, 2926–2929.
Butler, D. (2015). Leading plant biologist found to have committed misconduct. Nature,. doi:10.1038/nature.2015.17958.
Ciaudo C, Jay F, Okamoto I, Chen C-J, Sarazin A, Servant N, Barillot E, Heard E, Voinnet O (2013) RNAi-dependent and independent control of LINE1 accumulation and mobility in mouse embryonic stem cells. PLOS Genetics 9(11): e1003791. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1003791; retraction doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1005519.
Clement, T. P. (2014). Authorship matrix: A rational approach to quantify individual contributions and responsibilities in multi-author scientific articles. Science and Engineering Ethics, 20, 345–361.
COPE. (2015). http://publicationethics.org/files/u2/04F_How_to_spot_author_problems.pdf. Accessed on October 21, 2015.
COPE Discussion Document. (2014). What constitutes authorship? COPE Discussion Document. http://publicationethics.org/news/what-constitutes-authorship-new-cope-discussion-document. Accessed on October 21, 2015.
Council of Science Editors. (2015). http://www.councilscienceeditors.org/resource-library/editorial-policies/white-paper-on-publication-ethics/2-2-authorship-and-authorship-responsibilities/. Accessed on October 21, 2015.
De Gruyter. (2015a). http://www.degruyter.com/fileasset/pdfs/140117_Publication_ethics_and_publication_malpractice_FINAL.pdf and http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/ejnm.2013.5.issue-4/ejnm-2013-0037/ejnm-2013-0037.xml. Accessed on October 21, 2015.
De Gruyter. (2015b). “Ghostwriting”, “guest authorship” statements. http://www.degruyter.com/view/supplement/s23003235_Authors_Contribution_to_the_Article__Ghostwriting__Guest_Authorship_and_Financial_Disclosure_Statements.pdf. Accessed on October 21, 2015.
Editorial, Nature. (2007). Who is accountable? Nature, 450(7166), 1.
Elsevier. (2015). http://www.elsevier.com/journal-authors/ethics and https://www.publishingcampus.elsevier.com/websites/elsevier_publishingcampus/files/Guides/Quick_guide_AUTH02_2015.pdf. Accessed on October 21, 2015.
Emerald. (2015). http://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/authors/writing/best_practice_guide.htm. Accessed on October 21, 2015.
Fanelli, D. (2013). Why growing retractions are (mostly) a good sign. PLoS Medicine, 10(12), e1001563. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001563.
Fanelli, D., Costas, R., & Larivière, V. (2015). Misconduct policies, academic culture and career stage, not gender or pressures to publish, affect scientific integrity. PLoS ONE, 10(6), e0127556. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0127556.
Feeser, V. R., & Simon, J. R. (2008). The ethical assignment of authorship in scientific publications: Issues and guidelines. Academic Emergency Medicine, 15, 963–969.
Flaherty, D. K. (2013). Ghost- and guest-authored pharmaceutical industry-sponsored studies: Abuse of academic integrity, the peer review system, and public trust. Annals of Pharmacotherapy, 47(7–8), 1081–1083.
Fu, G., Grbic, V., Ma, S., & Tian, L. (2015). Evaluation of somatic embryos of alfalfa for recombinant protein expression. Plant Cell Reports, 34, 211–221.
Gasparyan, A. Y., Ayvazyan, L., & Kitas, G. D. (2013). Authorship problems in scholarly journals: Considerations for authors, peer reviewers and editors. Rheumatology International, 33(2), 277–284.
Gonzalez Alcaide, G., & Gomez Ferri, J. (2014) Scientific collaboration: Main research lines and future challenges. La Revista Española de Documentación Científica 37(4), Article Number: UNSP e062.
Hardy, G. H., & Littlewood, J. E. (1932). Some properties of conjugate functions. Journal für die Reine und Angewandte Mathematik, 167, 405–423.
Hindawi. (2015). http://www.hindawi.com/ethics/. Accessed on October 21, 2015.
Hotz, R. L. (2015). How many scientists does it take to write a paper? Apparently, thousands. The Wall Street Journal, August 10, 2015. http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-many-scientists-does-it-take-to-write-a-paper-apparently-thousands-1439169200. Accessed on October 21, 2015.
ICMJE. (2013). Recommendations for the conduct, reporting, editing, and publication of scholarly work in medical journals. http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/archives/2013_aug_urm.pdf. Accessed on October 21, 2015.
ICMJE. (2015). http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html. Accessed on October 21, 2015.
ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors). (2006). Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. Journal of the American Medical Association, 4277, 927–934.
IEEE. (2015). http://www.ieee.org/documents/opsmanual.pdf (IEEE Publication Services and Products Board Operations Manual 2015). Accessed on October 21, 2015.
IJNS IFA. (2015). http://www.elsevier.com/journals/international-journal-of-nursing-sciences/2352-0132/guide-for-authors. Accessed on October 21, 2015.
IJNS (International Journal of Nursing Sciences). (2015). http://www.journals.elsevier.com/international-journal-of-nursing-sciences/. Accessed on October 21, 2015.
Inderscience. (2015). http://www.inderscience.com/www/authorethics.pdf. Accessed on October 21, 2015.
Jacobs, A., & Wager, E. (2005). European Medical Writers Association (EMWA) guidelines on the role of medical writers in developing peer-reviewed publications. Current Medical Research and Opinions, 21(2), 317–321.
Kennedy, M. S., Barnsteiner, J., & Daly, J. (2014). Honorary and ghost authorship in nursing publications. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 46(6), 416–422.
Kondziolka, D., Nawn, D., Zimmerman, B., & Sochats, K. (2012). Knowledge network for authoring, reviewing, editing, searching, and using scientific or other credible information. Disruptive Science and Technology, 1(1), 3–10.
Kornhaber, R. A., McLean, L. M., & Baber, R. J. (2015). Ongoing ethical issues concerning authorship in biomedical journals: An integrative review. International Journal of Nanomedicine, 10, 4837–4846.
Larivière, V., Haustein, S., & Mongeon, P. (2015). The oligopoly of academic publishers in the digital era. PLoS ONE, 10(6), e0127502.
Lee, S.-Y., Hwang, E. Y., Seok, H.-Y., Tarte, V. N., Jeong, M. S., Jang, S. B., & Moon, Y.-H. (2015). Arabidopsis AtERF71/HRE2 functions as transcriptional activator via cis-acting GCC box or DRE/CRT element and is involved in root development through regulation of root cell expansion. Plant Cell Reports, 34, 223–231.
Levitt, J. M., & Thelwall, M. (2013). Alphabetization and the skewing of first authorship towards last names early in the alphabet. Journal of Informetrics, 7(3), 575–582.
Lissoni, F., & Montobbio, F. (2015). guest authors or ghost inventors? Inventorship and authorship attribution in academic science. Evaluation Review, 39(1), 19–45.
Liu, X. Z., & Fang, H. (2014). The impact of publications from mainland China on the trends in alphabetical authorship. Scientometrics, 99(3), 865–879.
Louis, K. S., Holdsworth, J. M., Anderson, M. S., & Campbell, E. G. (2008). Everyday ethics in research: Translating authorship guidelines into practice in the bench sciences. The Journal of Higher Education, 79(1), 88–112.
Marušić, A., Bošnjak, L., & Jerončić, A. (2011). A systematic review of research on the meaning, ethics and practices of authorship across scholarly disciplines. PLoS ONE, 6(9), e23477.
Nature Photonics Editorial. (2012). Contributors, guests and ghosts. Nature Photonics, 6, 335.
NPG (Nature Publishing Group). (2015). http://www.nature.com/authors/policies/authorship.html. Accessed on October 21, 2015.
Oransky, I. (2014). Entomologist surprised to find name on now-retracted paper alleging fossils oppose Darwin’s theory of evolution. http://retractionwatch.com/2014/03/24/entomologist-surprised-to-find-name-on-now-retracted-paper-alleging-fossils-oppose-darwins-theory-of-evolution/. Accessed on October 21, 2015.
OUP (Oxford University Press). (2015). http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/researchsupport/integrity/publication/. Accessed on October 21, 2015.
PLoS (Public Library of Science). (2015). http://www.plosone.org/static/policies.action#author. Accessed on October 21, 2015.
Roper, N., & Korenstein, D. (2015). Industry collaboration and primary guest authorship of high-impact randomized clinical trials: A cross-sectional study. Journal of General and Internal Medicine, 30(10), 1421–1425.
Routledge. (2015). http://journalauthors.tandf.co.uk/preparation/writing.asp#link8. Accessed on October 21, 2015.
Royal Society (The). (2011). Knowledge, networks and nations: Global scientific collaboration in the 21st century (p. 15). Policy Document. Royal Society, London, UK.
RREE (Resources for Research Ethics Education). (2012). Available online: http://research-ethics.net/topics/collaboration/. Accessed on October 21, 2015.
SAGE. (2015). http://www.uk.sagepub.com/msg/ijx.htm#Authorship and https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/manuscript-submission-guidelines. Accessed on October 21, 2015.
Shaw, D. (2011). The ICMJE’s definition of authorship is unethical. BMJ, 343, d7192.
Springer. (2015). http://static.springer.com/sgw/documents/1393202/application/pdf/Publication_Ethics_Guide_for_Editors_from_Springer_27052013.pdf. Accessed on October 21, 2015.
Taylor and Francis. (2015). http://journalauthors.tandf.co.uk/preparation/ethics.asp. Accessed on October 21, 2015.
Teixeira da Silva, J. A. (2011a). The ethics of collaborative authorship. Maejo International Journal of Science and Technology, 5(1), S1–S10.
Teixeira da Silva, J. A. (2011b). Who owns science, owns society. EMBO Reports, 12, 889–893.
Teixeira da Silva, J. A. (2013). Responsibilities and rights of authors, peer reviewers, editors and publishers: A status quo inquiry and assessment. The Asian and Australasian Journal of Plant Science and Biotechnology, 7(Special Issue 1), 6–15.
Teixeira da Silva, J. A. (2015a). What’s not being discussed, or considered, in science publishing? The Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education, 16(2) (in press).
Teixeira da Silva, J. A. (2015b). Debunking post-publication peer review. International Journal of Education and Information Technology (Public Science Framework), 1(2), 34–37.
Teixeira da Silva, J. A., Cardoso, J. C., Daquinta, M., Sanchéz, J., & Ross, S. (2013a). International collaborative writing: One solution for science writing and publishing—Focus on Central and South America. The Asian and Australasian Journal of Plant Science and Biotechnology, 7(Special Issue 1), 57–60.
Teixeira da Silva, J. A., & Dobránszki, J. (2012). What constitutes ethical international scientific writing collaboration, co-operation and partnerships in Hungary? Romanian Biotechnological Letters, 17(5), 7639–7645.
Teixeira da Silva, J. A., & Dobránszki, J. (2015a). How authorship is defined by multiple publishing organizations and STM publishers. Accountability in Research: Policies and Quality Assurance,. doi:10.1080/08989621.2015.1047927.
Teixeira da Silva, J. A., & Dobránszki, J. (2015b). Problems with traditional science publishing and finding a wider niche for post-publication peer review. Accountability in Research: Policies and Quality Assurance, 22(1), 22–40.
Teixeira da Silva, J. A., & Kamkar, B. (2013). International collaboration, co-operation and partnerships in science writing in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Asian and Australasian Journal of Plant Science and Biotechnology, 7(Special Issue 1), 61–65.
Teixeira da Silva, J. A., & Lukatkin, A. S. (2013). Challenges to research, science writing and publishing in Russia. The Asian and Australasian Journal of Plant Science and Biotechnology, 7(Special Issue 1), 66–71.
Teixeira da Silva, J. A., & Muscolo, A. (2012). International collaboration, co-operation and partnerships in science writing: Focus on Italy. Romanian Biotechnological Letters, 17(2), 7043–7048.
Teixeira da Silva, J. A., & Nasraoui, B. (2013). International collaboration, partnerships or co-operation (CPC) in science writing: Case of Africa and the Middle East with a focus on Tunisia. The African Journal of Plant Science and Biotechnology, 7(1), 99–105.
Teixeira da Silva, J. A., Ruan, C.-J., Yu, X.-N., & Zeng, S.-J. (2013b). International collaboration, scientific ethics and science writing: Focus on China. The Asian and Australasian Journal of Plant Science and Biotechnology, 7(Special Issue 1), 38–45.
Teixeira da Silva, J. A., & Van, P. T. (2011). Ethics of authorship: Survey among plant scientists. The Asian and Australasian Journal of Plant Science and Biotechnology, 5(1), 85–89.
Teixeira da Silva, J. A., & Winarto, B. (2013). Challenges to science development and international publishing in Indonesia. The Asian and Australasian Journal of Plant Science and Biotechnology, 7(Special Issue 1), 46–56.
Tscharntke, T., Hochberg, M. E., Rand, T. A., Resh, V. H., & Krauss, J. (2007). Author sequence and credit for contributions in multiauthored publications. PLoS Biology, 5(1), e18.
Vasconcelos, S. M. R., Steneck, N. H., Anderson, M., Masuda, H., Palacios, M., Pinto, J. C. S., & Sorenson, M. M. (2012). The new geography of scientific collaborations. EMBO Reports, 13(5), 404–407.
Verhagen, J. V., Wallace, K. J., Collins, S. C., & Scott, T. R. (2003). QUAD system offers fair shares to all authors. Nature, 426, 602.
WAME. (2015). Ghost writing initiated by commercial companies. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1490135/. Accessed on October 21, 2015.
Wiley. (2015). http://exchanges.wiley.com/ethicsguidelines#subSection6.2. Accessed on October 21, 2015.
Wislar, J. S., Flanagin, A., Fontanarosa, P. B., & DeAngelis, C. D. (2011). Honorary and ghost authorship in high impact biomedical journals: A cross sectional survey. British Medical Journal, 343, d6128.
Zeng, S.-J., Dobránszki, J., Bulley, S., Winarto, B., Van, P. T., Qin, Y.-H., et al. (2011). Ethical international scientific writing collaboration, co-operation and partnerships around the world: Case studies and testimonials. Scientific Research and Essays, 6(33), 6730–6747.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Dr. Michael Kalichman (University of California San Diego, USA), Dr. Oscar Odena (University of Glasgow, UK) and others, who requested to remain anonymous, for constructive discussion on earlier versions of the manuscript. The authors thank Klaas van Dijk (the Netherlands), Dr. Peter J.T. Verheijen (Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands), Prof. Michael E. Smith (Arizona State University, USA) and Emeritus Prof. Loet Leydesdorff (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands) for kind, thoughtful and constructive discussion and suggestions on an earlier version of this manuscript linked to Teixeira da Silva and Dobránszki (2015a).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Teixeira da Silva, J.A., Dobránszki, J. Multiple Authorship in Scientific Manuscripts: Ethical Challenges, Ghost and Guest/Gift Authorship, and the Cultural/Disciplinary Perspective. Sci Eng Ethics 22, 1457–1472 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-015-9716-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-015-9716-3