Policies & Procedures

Policy for Authorship on Scientific and Scholarly Publications

Revised and Effective Date: June 15, 2009
Original Effective Date: February 2002

Approved by: The Executive Committee on Research

Applicability: Faculty, Staff, Postdoctoral Scholars and Associates, Fellows, Trainees, and Students affiliated with Washington University

Purpose: Scientific and scholarly publications, defined as articles, abstracts, presentations at professional meetings and grant applications, provide the main vehicle to disseminate findings, thoughts, and analysis to the scientific, academic, and lay communities. For the authors of such work, successful publication improves opportunities for academic funding and promotion while enhancing scientific and scholarly achievement and repute. At the same time, the benefits of authorship are accompanied by a number of responsibilities for the proper planning, conducting, analysis, and reporting of research and the content and conclusions of other scholarly work. As a respected member of the academic community, it is the responsibility of Washington University and its faculty, staff and students to help protect this fundamental element of the scientific and scholarly process.

Policy: The following principles define Washington University's policy on authorship of scientific and scholarly publications.

  1. Defining Authorship
    Authorship should include only those individuals who:
    1. make a significant contribution to the conception and design and/or the analysis and interpretation of data or other scholarly effort, and
    2. participate in drafting the publication or reviewing and/or revising it for intellectual content, and
    3. approve the final version of the publication.

    All those granted authorship should meet the above criteria and all those who meet the above criteria should be granted authorship.

  2. The Senior Author
    In the case of publications with multiple authors, one author should be designated as the senior author. Generally, the senior author is defined as the individual who assumes leadership of the project and makes a major contribution to the research effort. The senior author is responsible for:
    1. Granting Authorship: The senior author must include as co-authors all and only individuals who meet the authorship criteria set forth in this policy.
    2. Consent: The senior author must provide the final draft of the publication to each individual contributing author for review and consent for authorship. The senior author should obtain written documentation of each individual author’s approval of the final manuscript. A journal may have specific requirements governing author review and consent, which must be followed. Failure to obtain the necessary approvals, signatures, and corresponding documentation will represent a violation of this policy.
    3. Integrity: The senior author is responsible for the integrity of the work as a whole, including research conducted at other labs or sites.
  3. Co-authors
    All co-authors of a publication are responsible for:
    1. Authorship: By providing consent to authorship to the senior author, co-authors acknowledge that they meet the authorship criteria set forth in section 1 of this policy.
    2. Approval: By providing consent to authorship to the senior author, co-authors are acknowledging that they have reviewed and approved the final publication in its entirety.
    3. Integrity: Each co-author is responsible for the content of all appropriate portions of the publication, including the integrity of any applicable research.

    An individual retains the right to refuse, for any reason, co-authorship of a manuscript.

  4. Acknowledgments
    Individuals who may have made substantial contributions to a publication, but do not meet the criteria for authorship, such as editorial assistants, medical writers, or other individuals can provide a valuable contribution to the writing and editing of publications. Since those contributions do not meet the criteria for authorship under this Policy, those individuals should be listed in the acknowledgement section of the work.
  5. Unacceptable Authorship
    Ghost or guest authorship is unacceptable and a violation of this policy. A ghost or guest author is defined as someone who made substantial contributions to writing a publication, gives credit for the work to another individual, and whose contributions are not mentioned in the publication.

    Honorary or courtesy authorships are inconsistent with the definition of authorship and, as such, are unacceptable and a violation of this policy. A honorary or courtesy authorship is defined as granting authorship out of appreciation or respect for that individual.

    Including senior or well-known researchers who do not meet the criteria for an author, also known as prestige authorships, is unacceptable and a violation of this policy.
  6. Dispute Resolutions
    Guidelines have been developed for Avoiding and Resolving Authorship Disputes to assist with addressing disputes that do not represent a violation of this policy.

    Specifically, this Policy does not deal with disputes regarding the order of authorship on publications. It is not possible for the University to define the order of authorship. In conjunction with the senior author, co-authors should discuss authorship order at the onset of the project and revise their decision as needed. All authors must work together to make these informed judgments. Should authors fail to resolve disputes about the order of authors, the chair or head of the involved department(s) should mediate an effort to resolve the dispute. In cases that cannot be resolved, the senior author, in consultation with the department chair, will have the final authority to determine the order of authorship. Such disagreements regarding the order of authorship do not, in and of themselves, constitute research misconduct, and, as such, are not governed by Washington University’s Research Integrity Policy.
  7. Financial Conflicts of Interest
    Authors shall fully disclose, in all publications, to journals, and at professional meetings, all relevant financial interests that could be viewed as a potential conflict of interest or as required by the University and/or journal. All such financial interests must be reported internally as required by the University’s conflict of interest policies.

Violations of the Policy: Knowing, intentional, or reckless violations of this Policy are considered research misconduct as defined by the Washington University Research Integrity Policy and as such, will be referred to the Research Integrity Officer. Violations of the policy that do not rise to the level of research misconduct may subject the individual to corrective action or other sanctions as deemed appropriate by the Vice Chancellor for Research .

Additional Resources and Guidance: