Research Co-Author: To be or not to be?

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Archdelux

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Hi everyone,

I've been working on a research project this summer in a pharmacology lab in Dallas, and my last day of work will be this upcoming Friday. I have made a pretty significant contribution to the project (Although it has been going on for a year and a half before I started this summer), and seems to be wrapping up.

Now, the project will not be completely finished by the time I leave, and I will still be gathering data until I leave on Friday (so the writing of the publication and all that has yet to begin).

My question is; how to approach the subject of publication with the PI? I definitely want to be published, and I feel that I have done enough work to merit a spot as a co-author, but we've never really discussed it.

I did ask him previously, if it would be possible to somehow continue with the project once i start school in the fall (out of state); but it doesn't seem likely due to the work that we are doing.

Any advice? My data will definitely appear in the publication when he does write it, so can I assume that he will write it in a month or so and then inform me that I was listed as a co-author? This is my first potential co-authorship, so I am relatively un-aware of the process.

Thanks for your help!

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Archdelux said:
Hi everyone,

I've been working on a research project this summer in a pharmacology lab in Dallas, and my last day of work will be this upcoming Friday. I have made a pretty significant contribution to the project (Although it has been going on for a year and a half before I started this summer), and seems to be wrapping up.

Now, the project will not be completely finished by the time I leave, and I will still be gathering data until I leave on Friday (so the writing of the publication and all that has yet to begin).

My question is; how to approach the subject of publication with the PI? I definitely want to be published, and I feel that I have done enough work to merit a spot as a co-author, but we've never really discussed it.

I did ask him previously, if it would be possible to somehow continue with the project once i start school in the fall (out of state); but it doesn't seem likely due to the work that we are doing.

Any advice? My data will definitely appear in the publication when he does write it, so can I assume that he will write it in a month or so and then inform me that I was listed as a co-author? This is my first potential co-authorship, so I am relatively un-aware of the process.

Thanks for your help!


if your data appears he would seem ethically bound to acknowledge you/ thank you in the publication. he would be "not a huge ahole" bound, to give you co-authorship. You should DEFINITELY broach the subject, politely.
 
See http://www.icmje.org/
Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication
Updated February 2006

II.A Authorship and Contributorship

II.A.1. Byline Authors

An “author” is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study, and biomedical authorship continues to have important academic, social, and financial implications. (1) In the past, readers were rarely provided with information about contributions to studies from those listed as authors and in acknowledgments. (2) Some journals now request and publish information about the contributions of each person named as having participated in a submitted study, at least for original research. Editors are strongly encouraged to develop and implement a contributorship policy, as well as a policy on identifying who is responsible for the integrity of the work as a whole.

While contributorship and guarantorship policies obviously remove much of the ambiguity surrounding contributions, it leaves unresolved the question of the quantity and quality of contribution that qualify for authorship. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors has recommended the following criteria for authorship; these criteria are still appropriate for those journals that distinguish authors from other contributors.

Authorship credit should be based on 1) substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and 3) final approval of the version to be published. Authors should meet conditions 1, 2, and 3.

When a large, multi-center group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript (3). These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship defined above and editors will ask these individuals to complete journal-specific author and conflict of interest disclosure forms. When submitting a group author manuscript, the corresponding author should clearly indicate the preferred citation and should clearly identify all individual authors as well as the group name. Journals will generally list other members of the group in the acknowledgements. The National Library of Medicine indexes the group name and the names of individuals the group has identified as being directly responsible for the manuscript.

Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group, alone, does not justify authorship.

All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship, and all those who qualify should be listed.

Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.

Some journals now also request that one or more authors, referred to as “guarantors,” be identified as the persons who take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole, from inception to published article, and publish that information.

Increasingly, authorship of multi-center trials is attributed to a group. All members of the group who are named as authors should fully meet the above criteria for authorship.

The order of authorship on the byline should be a joint decision of the co-authors. Authors should be prepared to explain the order in which authors are listed.

II.A.2. Contributors Listed in Acknowledgments

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an acknowledgments section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support. Editors should ask authors to disclose whether they had writing assistance and to identify the entity that paid for this assistance. Financial and material support should also be acknowledged.

Groups of persons who have contributed materially to the paper but whose contributions do not justify authorship may be listed under a heading such as “clinical investigators” or “participating investigators,” and their function or contribution should be described—for example, “served as scientific advisors,” “critically reviewed the study proposal,” “collected data,” or “provided and cared for study patients.”

Because readers may infer their endorsement of the data and conclusions, all persons must give written permission to be acknowledged.
 
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Thanks for the replies!

It seems that technically, it is debatable if I should be listed as an author since it's subjective if I had a substantial contribution to conception and design, however, my PI is an extremely nice guy, so it seems like he will probably be willing to grant me co-authorship.

How do I approach the subject without sounding like I'm expecting something from him? Should I just ask him upfront?

Thanks!
 
I would ask him upfront. You could start by asking him whether a publication will be coming out of the data soon and whether you could potentially assist him with writing up the manuscript. If the subject of publication is introduced, he may show signs of whether he would be willing to list you as a co-author without you even mentioning the idea.


Archdelux said:
Thanks for the replies!

It seems that technically, it is debatable if I should be listed as an author since it's subjective if I had a substantial contribution to conception and design, however, my PI is an extremely nice guy, so it seems like he will probably be willing to grant me co-authorship.

How do I approach the subject without sounding like I'm expecting something from him? Should I just ask him upfront?

Thanks!
 
Archdelux said:
Thanks for the replies!

It seems that technically, it is debatable if I should be listed as an author since it's subjective if I had a substantial contribution to conception and design, however, my PI is an extremely nice guy, so it seems like he will probably be willing to grant me co-authorship.

How do I approach the subject without sounding like I'm expecting something from him? Should I just ask him upfront?

Thanks!
Yes, just ask him. You certainly could be listed as an author, but you haven't done enough to warrant guaranteed inclusion. It really depends on your PI.

To provide an anecdote: With the first publication I was involved in, I did exactly half the gruntwork and analysis for three of the six experiments in the paper, but I didn't design any of the experiments or write the paper. I had enough involvement that I could have been an author, but I was given an acknowledgement, and I think that's fair (particularly considering the criteria posted above).

Not being an author doesn't take away from the research you do... you can still stick it on your apps and talk about it, even if it doesn't catch the eye so much. Though I admit, had this paper been "Science" or "Nature" material, I think I'd have pushed pretty hard to be listed as an author :D
 
Archdelux said:
Hi everyone,

I've been working on a research project this summer in a pharmacology lab in Dallas, and my last day of work will be this upcoming Friday. I have made a pretty significant contribution to the project (Although it has been going on for a year and a half before I started this summer), and seems to be wrapping up.

Now, the project will not be completely finished by the time I leave, and I will still be gathering data until I leave on Friday (so the writing of the publication and all that has yet to begin).

My question is; how to approach the subject of publication with the PI? I definitely want to be published, and I feel that I have done enough work to merit a spot as a co-author, but we've never really discussed it.

I did ask him previously, if it would be possible to somehow continue with the project once i start school in the fall (out of state); but it doesn't seem likely due to the work that we are doing.

Any advice? My data will definitely appear in the publication when he does write it, so can I assume that he will write it in a month or so and then inform me that I was listed as a co-author? This is my first potential co-authorship, so I am relatively un-aware of the process.

Thanks for your help!
Tread very carefully on this one. This is one of the touchiest subjects ever. I have massive amounts of experience with this and I’ve seen this situation as ugly as you can possibly imagine and I’ve seen it as fair as it gets too.

I would start by asking the PI what his policy is on publication. He'll know where you're going when you ask this. From his response, you'll gauge your chances. Some students feel that any effort should be rewarded with publication, but this is not reality and it really does vary from lab to lab – even with fairly public guidelines which most journals provide openly. Some PIs believe that if you have been taught the techniques by others in the lab and you simply followed the instructions, this is not enough - even if your data contributes to a major conclusion of the study. However, if you independently figured out a major issue or developed a technique that the lab did not have and this leads to a major conclusion of the study, I strongly urge you to offer to write that section of the paper before you leave. I promise you that the phrase 'out of site out of mind' is never truer than in a basic science laboratory; it’s all about the data and ex-lab members can be forgotten about quickly.

I'm not sure what you did in the lab because you didn’t say, but a word to the wise: most PIs don't consider generating an experimental reagent--even if it was difficult--a major contribution worthy of publication (subcloning, purifying a peptide, or making a virus, for example) - even if it's used a lot in the final study. Much of molecular biology and biochemistry is easy compared to days of old that many PIs (in my 8 years of research experience) consider this worthy of an ‘acknowledgement for creating a reagent’ at the end of the paper and this cannot be cited on a CV as a publication. Approach you PI now and see where you stand. Good luck!
 
I second what everybody has said-it's always better to ask than not and regret it later!

Last summer I did tons of work for two different projects in my lab, both of which are now in publication and my name is on neither. I'm acknowledged for "technical assistance" in both of them...which is just what it sounds: I did most of the grunt work and got none of the credit!

But different labs have different policies...now that I'm back for a second summer my name will be on a paper being written this fall. However, I will have done the pilot studies, almost three hundred 30-minute trials, extracted all the data, etc. Keep in mind how much you've done relative to the other authors on the paper, and really think about whether the PI will think you've earned authorship. You mentioned that the project was going on for over a year before you got there, so be careful. One of the projects I did lots of work for last year was a 2yr study and no matter I helped out, one summer wasn't going to be enough.

And it's not the end of the world if you don't have a paper published, you can still put down the experience and talk about it plenty in interviews!
 
I appreciate all of your replies!

My data and part in the project is pretty much an entire sub-section of the project (albeit a smaller one than the years-long in vivo study). I have been developing an assay and using it to further studies into the molecular mechanisms of the drugs he found to work in vivo.

Unfortunately, I am leaving at a bad time in the sense that now everything is coming together and drawing to a climax. However, I have much faith that my part in the project will definitely appear in the publication after it is completed.

Anyway, I think I will ask him later this week regarding when he thinks the research will be ready for publication. Maybe then, I can inquire into his 'policy' regarding student names in publications?

Keep the advice coming!!

Thanks!
 
You don't want to be too forward about it and ruin a LOR too. If you feel you met the criteria above then you can talk to him about it. If you were just a data jockey then probably only going to get an acknowledgement.
 
I've started research this summer, and from what I've learned over the past couple of months, I'd basically ask myself: Would the work that I did have been accomplished even if I hadn't been here? In other words, was I a necessary component of accomplishing this project? Or was I just doing work that just saved the researcher time and could have been accomplished by someone else?
 
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