This is an old revision of the document!
Blue Group on 'Publications and the role of co-authors'
Resources:
Please use the information provided in the 'Good Scientific Practice' section.
Questions:
1. When does a scientist become a co- author?
2. What is an honorary authorship?
3. Who decides about authorships on a paper? When?
4. a) Is it likely that you will have co-authors in parts of your dissertation?
b) Imagine that you will have first-author paper with 3 co-authors as a part of your dissertation. Why do you think the doctoral office (Promotionsbüro) asks to indicate which part of the work for this paper you have done?
5. You need auxiliary data for your model runs / to support your measurement results and get it from a colleague. Should this person become a co-author? Why (not)?
6. Read the following real-life story:
The reviewer of a manuscript contacts the last co‐author on the manuscript directly after finishing his/her review:
“Dear [last co‐author on manuscript],
I just finished a review of a manuscript to [journal] your name was on, which left me uneasy.
The manuscript was out of character compared to the work of yours I know and appreciate. I send you the review (attached) so that you know first‐hand what are my problems with the manuscript. I simply hope you didn't have the time to go through the manuscript in detail before it was submitted by [first author]. Just let me know what your thoughts are. Thank you.
Best wishes, [reviewer] “
The answer came swiftly:
“Hi [reviewer],
Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Frankly I am shocked, as I had not seen this manuscript nor was I even aware that it existed. I did some (…) analyses for [second author] and his student [first author], but never heard any feedback from them after sending [second author] a summary of the results. Thus I have no idea what the implications of my data might be, or whether they've been interpreted reasonably.
Obviously this is a serious matter that gives me a very bad taste. I appreciate your letting me know. I would have been extremely pissed off to see it for the first time printed in [journal]!
Regards, [last co‐author on manuscript]”
a) What went wrong?
b) What should [first author] have done?
c) What should [second author] have done?
d) Do you agree with the reviewer’s action?