Authorship

The COPE authorship discussion document introduces issues and aims to stimulate discussion around authorship. COPE welcomes comments which add to the ongoing debate.

Authorship can refer to individuals or groups that create an idea or develop the publication that disseminates that intellectual or creative work; however, appropriately acknowledging roles and contributions is not always a simple task. Journals are encouraged to provide clear, transparent guidance and policies for authors on providing authorship credentials, while authors must be responsible for adhering to such policies and discipline-specific guidelines. Questions over a range of issues relating to authorship may arise at any point from submission to post-publication, and journals should have policies and processes in place for handling this range of circumstances. COPE provides key information resources for authors, core policy guidance for editors, notes on the scope of submission guidelines, resources for managing pre- and post-publication authorship disputes, guidance for institutions to manage and support authorship integrity.

Key points

• Various disciplines have norms, guidelines, and rules governing authorship, to preserve the lineage of the creation and qualities of the work and its origins. 
• Authorship conveys significant privileges, responsibilities, and legal rights, and may have implications for career advancement.
• Publishers are accountable for making author guidelines transparent and appropriate for the medium and genre, and upholding and supporting author rights and licensing laws.
• Authors are accountable for following discipline-specific guidelines
• Two minimum requirements define authorship across all definitions – making a substantial contribution to the work and being accountable for the work and its published form.
• Acknowledgements may be used to denote contributions to the work that do not meet the criteria of Authorship
• Referring to recognised guidelines can help manage respectful negotiation of authorship, especially in relationships with power imbalance.
• All journals should have a basic policy on what they consider qualifies someone to be an author of a research paper; stated clearly in the journal’s information for authors, and confirmed in a statement of authorship provided before publication.
• Journals should have a process for handling authorship issues and disputes identified or raised during the review and publication process, and after publication.
• Institutions and organisations should be prepared to contribute to the investigations of authorship disputes.
• Referring to recognised guidelines can help manage respectful negotiation of authorship, especially in relationships with power imbalance.

Read the Authorship Discussion Document (PDF)

Authorship discussion document translations

• ¿Qué constituye una autoría?
• 作者身份由什么构成? COPE讨论文件

Related resources

• Authorship and contributorship COPE flowcharts including: changes in authorship; ghost, guest or gift authorship; how to recognise potential authorship problems
• How to recognise potential authorship problems COPE guidelines
• Inconclusive institutional investigation into authorship dispute COPE case discussion (March 2019) and the university perspective on the case (March 2019)
• How to handle authorship disputes: a guide for new researchers COPE guidelines

Your feedback

COPE welcomes feedback from publishers, journal editors, reviewers, researchers, institutions, librarians, funders, and other stakeholders on this subject. Add your feedback below.