How to recognise potential authorship problems

The infographic highlights warning signs of inappropriate authorship which could indicate an incomplete author list or an author being added who does not fulfil the authorship criteria used. The guidance describes ghost, guest, and gift authorship and best practice to minimise authorship problems.

Key points

• Authorship problems include guest, ghost and gift authorship.
• Clear policies, that allow for transparency around who contributed to the work, and in what capacity, should be in place.
• Encourage awareness of standards such as: CRediT a taxonomy of contributor roles describing each contribution to the research output; ORCID, which provides a persistent digital identifier for the researcher and their work.
• Processes for managing potential disputes must be in place.

Related resources

• Guest, ghost or gift authorship in a submitted manuscript, flowchart