- CaseOn-going
Inconclusive institutional investigation into authorship dispute
…not to have noticed the mistake at that time. The journal asked Author B to explain the reason for objecting to the erratum. Author B instead replied with an accusation that Author A did not contribute to the experiments or writing of the article and therefore should be removed from the author list. The journal contacted all authors reminding them of the ICMJE authorship criteria and asking… - CaseCase Closed
Authorship dispute
The Forum agreed that the current paper cannot stand in its present form—some form of correction of the literature needs to be done. It is clear that the data are the intellectual property of Dr B, but this is essentially an authorship dispute, and it is up to the authors to resolve it. Although the results of the paper are not in dispute, the editor could decide to retract the paper and tell… - CaseCase Closed
Accusation of non-attribution of authorship
…complainant made contact again saying that he still wanted to be an author so that he could use the reference in his CV. The editor responded sympathetically but concluded that "we published it in good faith on the reasonable assumption that the authorship was agreed. It really isn't appropriate to ask us to re-attribute authorship in this way". We told him that we had now decided to refer the case… - CaseCase Closed
Requesting authorship after publication
…in this article. However, he believes he should have been listed as an author because the article would not have been possible without his database. We told him that the journal conforms strictly to ICMJE's policy on authorship and asked him for more information on his contributions. Although it appears that he fulfils the first criteria because of his involvement in the original… - Case
Authorship issue
The editors of a scientific journal were sent a letter of complaint from Drs A and B who noticed that a paper had been published online ahead of the print edition authored by Dr C. Their primary complaint was that they were not included in the authorship and should have been. Other points made in their (rather confusing letters) were that: they had contributed to the paper in the sense… - CaseCase Closed
Questionable authorship information
…writers are unlikely to be named as authors on primary research articles. However they may qualify for authorship of review articles, for example if they have conducted an extensive literature search.’ We are also concerned that the institutional association may no longer be valid as information elsewhere indicates that the author is now employed elsewhere. The authors have freely disclosed… - CaseOn-going
Authorship dispute
A manuscript was published by journal X and submitted by author A (last author). Author B claims that fraud occurred in relation to authorship for the following reasons. (1) Author A did not take part in producing the data for the paper and has never been a co-author on any version of the manuscript.(2) A paper with very similar content ,which was part of the PhD thesis of author… - Case
Retraction of false authorship
Dr X asked for a statement to be published to the effect that the letter he had published in the journal with two co-authors was not based on any work that he had done, but on that of his colleagues. The editor asked the other two authors why they had signed a copyright form in these circumstances. Both authors stated that they had not signed any such form, and when presented with a copy, state… - CaseOn-going
Inappropriate authorship on students paper
…was questioned on authorship criteria. If it was the supervisor’s project and the students had helped, then why were there so many students listed (13 in all)? If it was the students’ project, which is a requirement of their curriculum, then why was the supervisor the first author? He/she should be acknowledged only. The authors decided to withdraw the article on the grounds that they wanted… - CaseCase Closed
Authorship dispute involving a commercial institution
…this inhouse and that the patent they co-wrote and that overlaps with the article should be enough to determine authorship. For the moment, no action has been taken. Given that the complainant is an associate editor, the journal would like to ensure that all actions have been considered. Question for the Forum What further actions… - CaseCase Closed
Authorship order dispute
…authorship order. The author (Dr D) who is refusing to sign the copyright undertook a substantial early literature review for the manuscript but this was taken over by another colleague (Dr E) when Dr D had to leave due to a long term illness. Dr C was the initiator of the subject matter for the study and oversaw the early directions of Dr D’s efforts. The manuscript was ultimately put together by… - Case
Advice regarding a weird type of content and its authorship
…/> • But what if there are authorship disputes? We would have to mediate them, right? Does this approach to authorship make any sense at all?… - Case
Should editors get involved in authorship disputes?
_ The American did not do the research; he generated the hypothesis that the Finns tested, using the data they had generated. _ He could be a contributor, therefore, as he meets the criteria for authorship, and his money was also accepted, suggesting collaboration. _ The American published a letter in the journal about the Finnish data, so he has been able to respond to the findings. _ It is… - CaseCase Closed
Institutional investigation of authorship dispute
…the COPE guidelines, 'Request for addition of extra author after publication'. They said they would consider legal action against the institution. We let the institution know, through another contact, that an option for contributors who do not meet criteria for authorship is to be acknowledged and we confirmed the investigation is confidential so will not have affected their reputation; we… - CaseCase Closed
Suspicious responses to authorship change requests
A journal received a request for multiple changes to the authorship list after the manuscript was accepted. Originally, there were five co-authors. After acceptance, the journal received the following requests from author A, the corresponding author and co-first author: remove one of the co-authors (author D), add a new co-author (author E), reorder the list of authors, and change the… - Case
A member of an author group listed on a paper denies authorship
We publish “mini-reviews” of published articles. Our faculty of eminent researchers and clinicians write these evaluations. One of the conditions we insist on from our faculty is that they may not evaluate work on which they are an author. We received a review of a paper, the authorship of which was listed as: Name A, Name B, Name C; study group X As the reviewer was a member of… - CaseOn-going
How to handle offers of promotion of authorship for sale
We have been approached via email by a company promoting authorship for sale. The email describes the service as providing 'co-authorship' of an existing article that has been submitted for publication in an indexed journal. The articles cover a range of disciplines and the company claims a high success rate for publication. Question for COPE Council: What steps… - CaseOn-going
Duplicate submission and authorship dispute
…journal had cited the other journal when they published the case report, as there are now two versions of the same case report with different authors. Perhaps the journal might consider putting a note on the paper or an expression of concern to highlight to readers that there is an authorship dispute in relation to this paper and that there are two online versions available. The editor could ask… - CaseCase Closed
Authorship dispute during the review process
During the review process for a manuscript submitted to our journal, one of the reviewers alerted us that the manuscript appeared to be the work of a collaborator (Dr X) who was not listed as an author on the paper. It became clear that the manuscript’s corresponding author (Dr Y, affiliation A) was a postdoctoral researcher supervised by Dr X (previously at affiliation A, recently moved to aff… - CaseCase Closed
Should we allow pseudonymous authorship?
…a competition, and the corresponding author explained that they had utilised pseudonyms when participating as they had taken part as independent researchers working on personal interests outside their company office hours. They wish to continue to do so even upon receiving recognition. They stated that they fulfill ICMJE's authorship criteria and are real individuals. They welcome advice on how to proceed…