Authorship conflicts in academia: an international cross-discipline survey

Abstract

Collaboration among scholars has emerged as a significant characteristic of contemporary science. As a result, the number of authors listed in publications continues to rise steadily. Unfortunately, determining the authors to be included in the byline and their respective order entails multiple difficulties which often lead to conflicts. Despite the large volume of literature about conflicts in academia, it remains unclear how exactly these are distributed over the main socio-demographic properties, as well as the different types of interactions academics experience. To address this gap, we conducted an international and cross-disciplinary survey answered by 752 academics from 41 fields of research and 93 countries that statistically well-represent the overall academic workforce. Our findings are concerning and suggest that conflicts over authorship credit arise very early in one’s academic career, even at the level of Master and Ph.D., and become increasingly common over time.

Beyond authorship: Analyzing contributions in PLOS ONE and the challenges of appropriate attribution

“…The issue of merit and recognition of author contributions within research teams is a contentious one, and can lead to conflicts within the academic community (Savchenko & Rosenfeld, 2024;Smith et al, 2020). In their survey of more than 8,000 researchers, Smith et al (2020) showed that nearly half of respondents had encountered reported disagreements regarding authorship naming at least once in their career.…”

“…In their survey of more than 8,000 researchers, Smith et al (2020) showed that nearly half of respondents had encountered reported disagreements regarding authorship naming at least once in their career. Furthermore, a recent international and interdisciplinary survey conducted by Savchenko and Rosenfeld (2024) with 752 scholars from 41 research fields and 93 countries revealed that conflicts regarding authorship credit allocation often arise early in academic careers. Specifically, nearly one in four participants reported experiencing at least one conflict with an advisor during their master's or doctoral studies.…”