Authorship in Student-Faculty Collaborative Research: Perceptions of Current and Best Practices

Abstract

Determining appropriate authorship recognition in student-faculty collaborative research is a complex task. In this quantitative study, responses from 1346 students and faculty in education and some social science disciplines at 36 research-intensive institutions in the United States were analyzed to provide a description of current and recommended practices for authorship in student-faculty collaborative research. The responses revealed practices and perceptions that are not aligned with ethical guidelines and a lack of consensus among respondents about appropriate practice. Faculty and student respondents agreed that students deserve more authorship recognition than they get in common practice but they did not agree on the appropriate authorship arrangement for several of the collaborative scenarios described in the study or on the relative value of various contributions to research projects. The misalignment with ethical codes and lack of consensus among the respondents is problematic because student-faculty collaborative research is common and authored publications are powerful indicators of research competency. With these detailed results, students and faculty can better anticipate areas where their perspectives are likely to differ and faculty can work to clarify ambiguous expectations.

Re-framing student academic freedom: a capability perspective

“…However, these policies less commonly address authorial credit and the exploitation of student intellectual property. Faculty members have more knowledge and power than students and need to take ethical responsibility for the fair allocation of authorial credit where collaborative research takes place (Welfare and Sackett 2010). A number of scholarly and professional bodies do issue ethical guidelines for the recognition of student contributions (e.g American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association) and the Vancouver protocol (ICMJE 2008) sets out an internationally recognised standard.…”

“…A number of scholarly and professional bodies do issue ethical guidelines for the recognition of student contributions (e.g American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association) and the Vancouver protocol (ICMJE 2008) sets out an internationally recognised standard. While there is limited consensus with respect to authorship credit among faculty and students (Welfare and Sackett 2010), the Vancouver protocol is clear that an author can only be someone who contributes substantially to the generation and interpretation of data, drafts the article or revises it critically and gives final permission for it to be published (ICMJE 2008). Authorial credit is related closely with the treatment of students as members of the academic community with equal rights, if not equal status.…”

Student–Faculty Collaborative Research: A Qualitative Study of Experiences with the Authorship Determination Process

“…Utilizing resources such as ethical guidelines and research like this anchors the discussion and provides useful information to both faculty and students. Faculty and students should not assume they understand each other's expectations or agree on the value of various contributions (Welfare & Sackett, 2010). Faculty should normalize the difficulty of knowing how a project will unfold and plan to revisit the responsibilities and recognition plan regularly.…”

Student Academic Freedom in Egypt: Perceptions of University Education Students

“…Some scholars tend to define a student academic freedom as student's right to exercise freedom of expression and to participate in social and political activities [8,9]. On the other hand, other scholars tend to define it as a student's right to express his/her ideas and opinions, to choose the study field and to participate in decision making [10].…”