Medical Journalism &Research Ethics

Amir Reza Kachooei, MDManaging Editor of the Archives of Bone and

Joint Surgery Journal

Case Story Manuscript submitted to a journal with the names A, B,

C, D, E, F.

After submitting the revision to the journal, name D is removed and name G was replaced.

No communication with authors D (removed), E, and F.

After being published, author D realized and argued about why omitted without permission.

Questions? Ethical?

Who is the author by definition?

Allowed to omit without permission?

How should a journal act?

Is it fixable?

1997

Nonprofit organization to define best practice in the ethics of scholarly publishing

How to handle cases of research and publication misconduct

6000 members

As of 2006, over 629 journals worldwide followed the Uniform

Requirements

A set of guidelines

For standardising the ethics and formatting of manuscripts

How to handle authorship disputes: a guide for new

researchersFrom COPE

Examples A deserving junior researcher was omitted from the author list.

A sponsoring company insisted on the inclusion of an opinion leader who had made virtually no contribution to a study.

The writer of a review article found her name replaced with that of her boss, because she was on maternity leave when the final version was submitted.

If scientists are dishonest about their relationship to

their work, this undermines confidence in the reporting

of the work itself.

Who is an author?Who is not an author?

International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)

“Authorship credit should be based only on:

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 revising 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.

University of Bern regulations

“A person is listed as an author if he or she has personally made an important scientific contribution to the planning, conduct, evaluation or control of the research work.”

Do not justify authorship

1. Acquisition of funding

2. Collection of data

3. General supervision of the research group

Obligation to list authors

All persons fulfilling the criteria for authorship must

be listed as authors of a scientific publication.

Order of authors Four basic approaches

1. sequence determines credit” (SDC),

First author accorded the greatest weight

Last author the least

2. “equal contribution” (EC) approach

Alphabetical order

3. “First-last-author-emphasis” (FLAE)

Importance of the first and the last author

4. “Percent-contribution-indicated” (PCI) approach

Author’s contribution expressed in percentage terms, using various scoring systems.

Order of authors: ‘a joint decision of the coauthors. Authors should be

prepared to explain the order in which authors are listed’.

No guidance

Be clear to the editor

Harvard Medical School 1999; the ICMJE (2010) recommends that editors “develop and implement a

contributorship policy”. Variety of approaches

Difficult for reader to identify the contributions

Proposed that the concept of authorship should be replaced by detailed descriptions of individual contributions (contributorship).

Authorship vs. Contributorship ICMJE guidelines:

‘authors should provide a description of what each contributed, and editors should publish that information’.

Use the term “co-authors”

Contributions of different authors are of equal importance

Number of authors:

No rules

In the past, databases such as Medline limited the

number of authors

Now, most databases list all authors.

Rather than decide how many authors there should be, it

is probably best to agree who will qualify as an author, and

then simply include all those who do.

How to reduce the incidence of

authorship problems

It happens in 2 ways: Putting down names of people who took little or no part

in the research (gift authorship)

Leaving out names of people who did take part (ghost authorship)

Ghost authors:1. Professional writers (often paid)

2. People who made a significant contribution to a

research project (and fulfil the ICMJE criteria) but are

not listed as authors.

ICMJE guidelines clearly condemn this practice and state that

‘All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship,

and all those who qualify should be listed.’

Gift authors: Senior figures (e.g. heads of department)

(a) Encourage a culture of ethical authorship

People who are being unethical about authorship are simply following local customs and practice.

Make sure your departmental library has at least one book on publication ethics

(b) Start discussing authorship when you plan your research

At the start

Face-to-face meeting

As the project evolves

Especially if new people get involved

Keep a written record of your decisions

(c) Decide authorship before you start each article

Confirm in writing who will be doing what and by when.

Ideally face to face

Inform everyone of any changes with a written note.

How to handle authorship disputes

when they occur

Disagreements are 2 types: 1. Do not contravene ICMJE guidelines (disputes)

2. Those that do (misconduct).

(a) Dispute: If the suggestions to include or omit names came from your

supervisor Support your decision with evidence, such as laboratory notebooks,

manuscripts, ICMJE statement, Instructions to Authors etc.

(b) Misconduct Should you say nothing?

Should you blow the whistle?

Explain the fact that the suggested author list contravenes editors’ recommendations, and could be considered scientific misconduct.

If not accepted, as soon as the meeting is finished, make a note and file it.

What you can do if authorship issues are not

resolved

If you don’t want to be included:

Inform the other authors as soon as possible.

If you discover after publication: contact the journal and

ask for a correction.

If your name is wrongly omitted

Discuss this with the other contributors.

You could contact the journal but an editor is unlikely to add

your name without the agreement of the other authors.

If your name is omitted by accident, and the other authors

agree, then the journal may publish a correction.

Responsibility All authors are considered to be jointly responsible for

the publication as a whole.

The indissoluble link between authorship and responsibility must always be borne in mind and provides the justification for sanctions in the event of misconduct.

Acknowledgements The option – or an obligation –

Should specify the type of contribution made

Future topics Self-Archiving

SHERPA/RoMEO

Retraction

Plagiarism

Peer review

ORCID

Publons

WAME (World association of Medical Editor)

EASE (European Association of Science Editor)

Thank you

Substantial contributions can thus be made by people who contribute little work, but whose experience, knowledge, originality or creativity promotes scientific discovery.

It is not possible to define a threshold, in percentage terms, below which a contribution would not generally count as substantial. Determining the threshold in particular cases is a matter of judgment.

Swiss Academy of Medical Sciencesin 2002

“A managerial position within the research institution does not in itself entitle anyone to appear as an author, any more than the provision of financial and organizational support for a project.”