Version 1
: Received: 5 October 2018 / Approved: 9 October 2018 / Online: 9 October 2018 (09:45:12 CEST)
How to cite:
Schmidt, T. A Democratic Method and Index to Rationalize Authorship Decisions and Determine the Order of Authors. Preprints2018, 2018100181. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201810.0181.v1
Schmidt, T. A Democratic Method and Index to Rationalize Authorship Decisions and Determine the Order of Authors. Preprints 2018, 2018100181. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201810.0181.v1
Schmidt, T. A Democratic Method and Index to Rationalize Authorship Decisions and Determine the Order of Authors. Preprints2018, 2018100181. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201810.0181.v1
APA Style
Schmidt, T. (2018). A Democratic Method and Index to Rationalize Authorship Decisions and Determine the Order of Authors. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201810.0181.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Schmidt, T. 2018 "A Democratic Method and Index to Rationalize Authorship Decisions and Determine the Order of Authors" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201810.0181.v1
Abstract
Disputes on authorships or the order of authors on publications are among the most common conflicts in science, particularly where multi-author papers have become the norm. Here, I propose an adaptable and generalizable method to rationalize and democratize decisions about authorships, which can be applied in diverse scientific areas. In the process, the authors of a manuscript collect, discuss, score, and weight their contributions to the final manuscript. The decision process is assisted by a simple spreadsheet-based “authorship matrix”, which helps to break down the complexity of different contributions and their importance. The matrix generates a score s describing the percentage of the author’s total contributions and can be used to determine authorship and their order. The transparency and simplicity score s can reduce conflicts and thus increase productivity in collaborations.
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
