This is an interesting reaction to a legitimate question:
In January 2017, a chemist based in Mexico had finished writing a paper describing the structure of a molecule. Sylvain Bernès, at the Instituto de Física Luis Rivera Terrazas, asked his co-author—the head of the lab where the molecule had been synthesized 10 years ago—to review the draft and include any co-authors involved in the initial work.
The researcher added three co-authors to the paper. Bernès became concerned. He wanted to follow the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship recommendations as strictly as possible. As far as Bernès could tell, none of the new authors had actually contributed to the work, potentially violating the recommendation about authorship contributions.
The current ICMJE authorship recommendations, which were updated in August 2013 to include an author’s responsibility to ensure the accuracy of the work, are as follows:
- Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
- Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
- Final approval of the version to be published; AND
- Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Bernès emailed the director of the lab and the co-authors to voice his concerns:
I feel that 3 co-authors never participated in that work
He then asked for the authors to explain what “they actually contributed to the work”:
This was probably a bad idea.
His colleague responded:
“de inmediato no hay ninguna duda al respecto: se suspende toda relación de trabajo contigo“. (“there is no doubt about it: any working relationship with you is cancelled”).
I like the ICMJE criteria for authorship.
I've only had one authorship dispute over the years. A non-lead author wanted to be the lead author, I was junior but the lead author. At the time the hassle wasn't worth it so I went along even after some questions raised by other co-authors. I wish I had had the stomach to ask the question above.
And here is some unsolicited advice: when you pursue this sort of behavior (and even less egregious behavior) your co-authors won't want to work with you again.
Leave a Reply