EDITORIAL

QUESTIONING THE IMPORTANCE OF AUTHORSHIP

Claire Johnson, DC, MSEdEditor

Why is authorship attribution important? Aside from

the fundamental issues of honesty, ethics, and integrity,

correctly listing authors allows general readers and

scientists to know the appropriate attribution of the

publication to a particular author.1,2 Without appropriate

attribution, it remains uncertain who assumes responsibil-

ity for the work published. As Hewitt stated, bAuthorshipcannot be conferred; it may be undertaken by one who

will shoulder the responsibility that goes with it.Q3 Thus,

with the rights of authorship come the inherent responsi-

bilities. A general rule of thumb suggests that an author

should be able to defend the content of the paper if

challenged publicly.3 Thus, only authors should be listed

as authors. Although this sounds straightforward, the

general agreement and implementation of this concept

are less than clear.4 - 6

The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors

(ICMJE) developed guidelines in an attempt to provide a

more clear definition of authorship. As stated in these

guidelines, each author should meet all 3 of the following

criteria: b1) substantial contributions to conception and

design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation

of data; 2) drafting the article or revising it critically for

important intellectual content; and 3) final approval of the

version to be published.Q7 Yet even with this cogent

definition, there seems to be issues with compliance.2,4

Clouding the issue of authorship may be the accolades

that people receive for being listed as an author on a paper.

For faculty, recognition of their scholarly works may lead to

rank advancement or tenure. For scientists, validation of

successful completion and publication of projects demon-

strates their worthiness for grant awards and continued

funding. With the potential for reaping rewards from

authorship comes a potential for abuse. Some who have

only been marginally involved with a project may expect or

even demand authorship, but may be unwilling or unable to

uphold the role of true authorship.3,6

Examples of guest/honorary/gift authorship may include

listing an esteemed person as author possibly in hopes of

the paper having a better chance of acceptance, or listing a

J Manipulative Physiol Ther 2005;28:149-150.0161-4754/$30.00Copyright D 2005 by National University of Health Sciences.doi:10.1016/j.jmpt.2005.02.002

supervisor or department chair as author, although they do

not qualify as an author, to accommodate political favors.3

Someone may only assist in a marginal way, such as

obtaining funding, collection of data, or general super-

vision of the project. These are additional situations

that do not qualify for authorship, as suggested by the

ICMJE, unless the 3 criteria for authorship are additio-

nally met.3,6

Another inappropriate scenario is when a person who

qualifies to be an author is not listed as an author; this is

otherwise known as ghost authorship.1,3 Sometimes these

authors work for hire, thus are paid for their services of

writing scientific papers. A ghost author may also be a

graduate student who has done a majority of the work, but

is not appropriately recognized. Regardless if they are

paid or not, if they qualify as authors, they should be

listed as authors.

Should people who contribute, but do not qualify as

authors, be listed in the published paper? Absolutely. The

acknowledgments section is reserved for people who do not

meet the criteria for authorship, but were involved with the

study and should be given credit for their participation.

Typically, the specific action contributed is listed in this

section and each person named must give written permis-

sion to be acknowledged.3,7

Some argue that the ICMJE definition of authorship is

too strict or limiting, especially with complex research

projects in which many people are involved.6,8 On the

horizon is perhaps the next step in the evolution of

attribution of work to publications: contributorship and

guarantorship.6 Contributorship provides a clear statement

about how each person was involved with the study and

guarantorship clearly names the person responsible for the

entirety of the project. Whether the movement toward

contributorship and guarantorship will solve the problems

we are experiencing with authorship, or create a myriad of

new problems, has yet to be seen.

REFERENCES

1. Flanagin A, Carey LA, Fontanarosa PB, Phillips SG, Pace BP,Lundberg GD, et al. Prevalence of articles with honorary authorsand ghost authors in peer-reviewed medical journals. JAMA1998;280:222-4.

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150 Journal of Manipulative and Physiological TherapeuticsJohnson

March/April 2005Editorial

2. Tarnow E, De Young BR, Cohen MB. Coauthorship inpathology, a comparison with physics and a survey-generatedand member-preferred authorship guideline. Med Gen Med2004;6:1 -2.

3. Iverson C, et al. American Medical Association Manual ofStyle: a Guide for Authors and Editors. 9th ed. Baltimore7Williams & Wilkins; 1998. p. 89-95.

4. Marusic M, Bozikov J, Katavic V, Hren D, Kljakovic-Gaspic M,Marusic A. Authorship in a small medical journal: a study ofcontributorship statements by corresponding authors. Sci EngEthics 2004;10:493-502.

5. Bates T, Anic A, Marusic M, Marusic A. Authorship criteria anddisclosure of contributions: comparison of 3 general medical

journals with different author contribution forms. JAMA 2004;292:86-8.

6. Hudson Jones A, McLellan F. Ethical Issues in BiomedicalPublication. Baltimore (Md)7 Johns Hopkins University Press;2000. p. 1 -29.

7. International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedicaljournals: writing and editing for biomedical publication[Updated October 2004]. Available at: http://www.ICMJE.org[homepage on the Internet].

8. Weeks WB, Wallace AE, Kimberly BC. Changes in authorshippatterns in prestigious US medical journals. Soc Sci Med 2004;59:1949-54.