Print3.3 Responsible Authorship
The motivation for credit and acknowledgment is a significant driver behind the push to publish or patent from research. With rapid communications that support the dissemination of research, new findings can propagate quickly. Digital communications combined with increasingly competitive environments create further pressure to disseminate findings quickly. In circumstances of urgency, such as with an infectious disease, timing is critical, but so is accuracy in data and interpretation. In most cases, research and development occurs within a predictable cycle, perhaps dictated in the terms of the grant or business cycle. Research findings ought to be submitted in a timely manner and, for federally funded research, made available along with the data. Different funders have different expectations for what to do with findings. For companies, much is often not shared due to what they may argue is protection of trade secrets, which makes it more difficult to review certain claims.
Submitting research findings for peer review is one way journals and researchers check the work of their colleagues. While the peer review process is a quality check of the work, it is not a foolproof process, and errors can get through. For multidisciplinary teams, the lead author may not be able to evaluate the validity of certain sections of a paper, in which case the lead author ought to find a colleague capable of giving feedback on such content.
NSF Expectations
"Investigators are expected to promptly prepare and submit for publication, with authorship that accurately reflects the contributions of those involved, all significant findings from work conducted under NSF grants. Grantees are expected to permit and encourage such publication by those actually performing that work, unless a grantee intends to publish or disseminate such findings itself.... Investigators are expected to share with other researchers, at no more than incremental cost and within a reasonable time, the primary data, samples, physical collections and other supporting materials created or gathered in the course of work under NSF grants. Grantees are expected to encourage and facilitate such sharing. Privileged or confidential information should be released only in a form that protects the privacy of individuals and subjects involved. General adjustments and, where essential, exceptions to this sharing expectation may be specified by the funding NSF Program or Division/Office for a particular field or discipline to safeguard the rights of individuals and subjects, the validity of results, or the integrity of collections or to accommodate the legitimate interest of investigators."
National Science Foundation Award and Administration Guide
Significant Principles
- Submit findings and results in a timely manner, especially if findings present a risk (such as in public health research).
- Data should be accessible to other researchers, in part to be able to use data in other applications and to be able to be run to test given interpretations.
- Do not "dilute" the impact of the results through publishing only smaller sections of the materials simply to increase publications.
- Make clear how data have been cleaned and/or optimized for analysis.
- In addition to field specific journals, consider other venues for dissemination to reach broader audiences.
- Authorship implies responsibility for materials contained within a manuscript. This can be further helped by identifying specific areas co-authors who contributed to the research publication.