Honorary Authorship Practices in Environmental Science Teams: Structural and Cultural Factors and Solutions

Elliott, Kevin C.; Settles, Isis H.; Montgomery, Georgina M.; Brassel, Sheila T.; Cheruvelil, Kendra Spence; Soranno, Patricia A.

doi:10.1080/08989621.2016.1251320

Cited by 28 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…We did not ask survey participants to explain the rationale behind co-author selection, and so the factors driving differential non-compliance rates among lead author occupations remain unclear. The higher standard among professor-led studies could be due to greater autonomy and less vulnerability to pressured authorship than lead authors with lower professional status [37]. Oberlander and Spencer (2006) [22] reviewed graduate student authorship issues and noted that graduate students have an imbalance of power in relation to their supervisors.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While researchers have quantified author contributions to scientific manuscripts in a variety of publications for biomedical, health, and social science research [27], to our knowledge, only two studies [36,37] have examined this issue for the field of ecology. Modern ecological research is cross-disciplinary, and individual studies often integrate researchers from a variety of scientific fields [38–42].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Consequently, authorship practices in ecological research represent a broad range of individual scientific disciplines (e.g., social, political, economic, natural) and groups (e.g., governmental, academic, non-governmental organizations). The proportion of large, multi-authored studies in ecology [28,37], like other research fields [4,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48], has increased in recent decades. This historical increase in the number of co-authors per study could be a result of a diverse array of changes in research and authorship practices so these trends make author contributions even less clear.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Increases in individual specialization, multi-disciplinary research, international collaborations, and dilution of individual author contributions are all potential explanations for observed growth in the number of authors per study [41,45]. The previous publications on authorship issues in ecology [36,37] noted challenges in defining authorship in ecological publications due to such increases in both cross-disciplinary research and multi-authored studies. Based on issues raised in qualitative authorship surveys, the study authors proposed the adoption of a byline statement system defining co-author contributions for ecological research journals [36,37].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The previous publications on authorship issues in ecology [36,37] noted challenges in defining authorship in ecological publications due to such increases in both cross-disciplinary research and multi-authored studies. Based on issues raised in qualitative authorship surveys, the study authors proposed the adoption of a byline statement system defining co-author contributions for ecological research journals [36,37]. The proposed byline system has yet to be adopted by most ecological journals and so author contributions to ecological studies are still poorly defined.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Author contributions to ecological publications: What does it mean to be an author in modern ecological research?

Logan

Bean²,

Myers³

2017

PLoS ONE

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Authorship is a central element of scientific research carrying a variety of rewards and responsibilities, and while various guidelines exist, actual author contributions are often ambiguous. Inconsistent or limited contributions threaten to devalue authorship as intellectual currency and diminish authors’ responsibility for published content. Researchers have assessed author contributions in the medical literature and other research fields, but similar data for the field of ecological research are lacking. Authorship practices in ecological research are broadly representative of a variety of fields due to the cross-disciplinary nature of collaborations in ecological studies. To better understand author contributions to current research, we distributed a survey regarding co-author contributions to a random selection of 996 lead authors of manuscripts published in ecological journals in 2010. We obtained useable responses from 45% of surveyed authors. Reported lead author contributions in ecological research studies consistently included conception of the project idea, data collection, analysis, and writing. Middle and last author contributions instead showed a high level of individual variability. Lead authorship in ecology is well defined while secondary authorship is more ambiguous. Nearly half (48%) of all studies included in our survey had some level of non-compliance with Ecological Society of America (ESA) authorship guidelines and the majority of studies (78%) contained at least one co-author that did not meet International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) requirements. Incidence of non-compliance varied with lead author occupation and author position. The probability of a study including an author that was non-compliant with ESA guidelines was lowest for professor-led studies and highest for graduate student and post doctoral researcher-led studies. Among studies with > two co-authors, all lead authors met ESA guidelines and only 2% failed to meet ICMJE requirements. Middle (24% ESA, 63% ICMJE) and last (37% ESA, 60% ICMJE) authors had higher rates of non-compliance. The probability of a study containing a co-author that did not meet ESA or ICMJE requirements increased significantly with the number of co-authors per study although even studies with only two co-authors had a high probability of non-compliance of approximately 60% (ICMJE) and 15 to 40% (ESA). Given the variable and often limited contributions of authors in our survey and past studies of other research disciplines, institutions, journals, and scientific societies need to implement new approaches to instill meaning in authorship status. A byline approach may not alter author contributions but would better define individual contributions and reduce existing ambiguity regarding the meaning of authorship in modern ecological research.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Author contributions to ecological publications: What does it mean to be an author in modern ecological research?

Logan

Bean²,

Myers³

2017

PLoS ONE

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Contemporary authorship guidelines fail to recognize diverse contributions in conservation science research

Cooke

Nguyen

Young

et al. 2021

Ecol Sol and Evidence

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1. Authorship should acknowledge and reward those deserving of such credit. Moreover, being an author on a paper also means that one assumes ownership of the content.2. Journals are increasingly requiring author roles to be specified at time of submission using schemes such as the contributor roles taxonomy (CRediT) system, which relies on 14 different roles. Yet, there are many other aspects of research that are not adequately captured by the list of roles, particularly in applied environmental disciplines such as conservation science, environmental science and applied ecology.3. The growing recognition that authorship should reflect contributions that extend beyond the usual data collection, analysis and writing provides the ideal backdrop for rethinking contributions in conservation science. Here we propose a more inclusive approach to authorship that recognizes and values diverse contributions and contributors using an expanded list of CRediT roles.

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Strategies for effective collaborative manuscript development in interdisciplinary science teams

et al. 2018

Self Cite

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Science is increasingly being conducted in large, interdisciplinary teams. As team size increases, challenges can arise during manuscript development, where achieving one team goal (e.g., inclusivity) may be in direct conflict with other goals (e.g., efficiency). Here, we present strategies for effective collaborative manuscript development that draw from our experiences in an interdisciplinary science team writing collaborative manuscripts for six years. These strategies are rooted in six guiding principles that were important to our team: to create a transparent, inclusive, and accountable research team that promotes and protects team members who have less power to influence decisionmaking while fostering creativity and productivity. To help alleviate the conflicts that can arise in collaborative manuscript development, we present the following strategies: understand your team composition, create an authorship policy and discuss authorship early and often, openly announce manuscript ideas, identify and communicate the type of manuscript and lead author management style, and document and describe authorship contributions. These strategies can help reduce the probability of group conflict, uphold individual and team values, achieve fair authorship practices, and increase science productivity.

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Honorary Authorship Practices in Environmental Science Teams: Structural and Cultural Factors and Solutions

Cited by 28 publications

References 36 publications

Author contributions to ecological publications: What does it mean to be an author in modern ecological research?

Author contributions to ecological publications: What does it mean to be an author in modern ecological research?

Contemporary authorship guidelines fail to recognize diverse contributions in conservation science research

Strategies for effective collaborative manuscript development in interdisciplinary science teams

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