Can a publication add an author after the fact?

[Fried Plantaris]

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Just realized I may have f*** up. Worked on 2 papers this past spring before COVID. Turned all the work over to the Dr.'s involved after I completed it. Got an email a few weeks later saying I've been added to the paper....blah, blah, blah. COVID hit and I largely forgot about it plus I quit researching in that department bc my interests changed.

Anyways fast forward 6+ months and those emails have now been deleted by the purge from my school's server. But here's the thing...I can't seem to find my name listed on any of the papers published by those Dr.'s during the timeframe that it should have been. Now I'm worried the journal didn't include me because of an error in the steps after they email me.

So how bad of a mess up is this, and can it be fixed? I would like to have my credit for down the road

 

[kepler16b]

If you truly did the work and everyone agreed for you to be an author, then your removal qualifies as research misconduct and it can and should be fixed. Your first step is to reach out to your coauthors to see what could have caused the mistake. Then, whoever is the corresponding author (usually the PI) would be responsible for taking it to the journal to be corrected. This does not sound like your fault.

 

[frenchyn]

If you truly did the work and everyone agreed for you to be an author, then your removal qualifies as research misconduct and it can and should be fixed. Your first step is to reach out to your coauthors to see what could have caused the mistake. Then, whoever is the corresponding author (usually the PI) would be responsible for taking it to the journal to be corrected. This does not sound like your fault.

Not really...though depend on journal...who emailed you? If it was the journal to confirm your authorship and you did not, then it is your fault...Some journals if they already publish your study, you can't be added...You should reach out to your PI to find out though.

 

[Fried Plantaris]

If you truly did the work and everyone agreed for you to be an author, then your removal qualifies as research misconduct and it can and should be fixed. Your first step is to reach out to your coauthors to see what could have caused the mistake. Then, whoever is the corresponding author (usually the PI) would be responsible for taking it to the journal to be corrected. This does not sound like your fault.

That is comforting. I’m reaching out to them ASAP to get it corrected. What is strange is both papers were in different journals which is strange and leaves me to believe it is on my end