Clear policies (that allow for transparency around who contributed to the work and in what capacity) should be in place for requirements for authorship and contributorship as well as processes for managing potential disputes.
Author Developed by COPE Council Version 1 November 2018 How to cite this
COPE Council. How to recognise potential authorship problems. Version 1. 2018 https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.2.22
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Our COPE materials are available to use under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
Non-commercial — You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works —
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Editors cannot police author or contributor listings for every submission but may sometimes have suspicions that an author list is incomplete or includes undeserving (guest or gift) authors. The COPE flowchart 'Suspected ghost, guest or gift authorship' suggests actions for these situations. The points in this flowchart are designed to help editors be alert for inappropriate authorship and spot warning signs which may indicate problems.
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This document, based on the COPE Discussion Document titled What Constitutes Authorship? resulted from a review of the COPE Forum cases related to authorship, comments from COPE members related to the discussion document, and a desire to move past the stage of discussion to providing practical advice on addressing the most common issues around authorship. We are therefore providing specific guidance where there seems to be consensus and asking for further comments from COPE members in some areas.
Written by COPE Council Version 1 June 2014
Version 2 September 2019 How to cite this COPE Council. COPE Discussion Document: Authorship. September 2019. https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.3.3
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The topic for discussion at this Forum was ‘Authorship, contributorship, who’s doing what, and what do we need?’ Authorship issues are one of the most common issues that COPE members have to deal with. Leaving aside the ethically problematic issues of ghost, guest and gift authorship, seemingly simpler authorship disputes of for example, who deserves authorship, or what author order should be are very common across most disciplines
COPE's guidance, as a flowchart, on Changes in authorship, Part (d) A request is received for the removal of an author after publication.
Ask why the author wishes to be removed from list – refer to journal guidelines orthe authorship declaration which should state that all authors meet the appropriate criteria. Ask if author suspects fraud or misconduct.
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COPE's guidance, as a flowchart, on Changes in authorship, Part (c) A request is received for the addition of an extra author after publication.
To prevent future problems:
Before publication, get authors to sign statement that all listed authors meet authorship criteria and that no others meeting the criteria have been omitted.
Publish details of each person’s contribution to their search and publication.
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Full page history
COPE's first webinar for information, shared discussion and practical advice on common authorship issues faced by COPE members, was held in June 2017.
Guest speakers:
Deborah Poff, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Academic Ethics
Kelly Cobey, Senior Clinical Research Associate, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Liz Allen, Director of Strategic Initiatives, F1000
On Thursday 29 June 2-3pm we're holding our first webinar for information, shared discussion and practical advice on common authorship issues faced by COPE members.
Three guest speakers will present their views: Deborah Poff, Editor-in-Chief Journal of Academic Ethics; Kelly Cobey Senior Clinical Research Associate at Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada; Liz Allen, Director of Strategic Initiatives at F1000.
El presente documento apunta a estimular intercambio en relación a los temas más comunes de la autoría enfrentados por miembros de COPE. Trata de las guías existentes en asuntos de autoría, compila algunos principios básicos para ayudar a prevenir problemas comunes y presenta algunos de los temas más complicados que han surgido en intercambios anteriores, muchos de los cuales son específicos a disciplinas y requieren de consideración más minuciosa.