10-4 Writing and Publishing Scientific Articles
The Case of the Changing Byline A second authorship dispute illustrates how a failure to make decisions about authorship up front can escalate seemingly minor disagreements. Please read the case and consider the principles of authorship and the questions at the end. Case Study: Dr. Annette Davis, the corresponding author of a manuscript recently accepted but not yet published by the Journal of XYZ, just received a letter from the journal informing her of a problem communicated to the journal by 1 of the co-authors. This co-author, Dr. Bill Baily, had complained to the editor that the paper had been submitted without his final approval and that he was listed as the fourth author when in fact he was supposed to have been the third author. (Because the first 3 authors are the only ones listed in the reference list in many journals, Bill wants to be 1 of these first 3.) The letter to Annette stated that the paper could not be published until the dispute over the authorship had been settled and that the journal would need written authorization from all the co- authors before proceeding. A month later, Annette sent a letter to the journal signed by the other 3 co-authors (first, second, and third), though not Bill, indicating that they had all signed off on the paper and that Bill could be removed as a co- author. After 3 more weeks, she received a second letter from the journal indicating that they could not remove Bill without his authorization and that the journal was again at a standstill until the matter was resolved by all the co-authors. Questions: What issues about authorship can you identify in this situation? How should the issue have been handled in the first place? What can be done now to remedy the situation? How does being listed as fourth author affect bibliographies?
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