As lecturers in research ethics and administrators of research institutions, we have experienced several authorship disputes.
A meta-analysis of 14 surveys showed that an average of 29% of researchers had experienced misuse of authorship [ 1].
The reported frequency of self-experienced authorship abuse among our respondents was in line with other findings [ 1, 14].
Researchers with less than six years of research experience found authorship decisions more difficult than more experienced researchers (48% vs 30%).
Almost two out of five find decisions on authorship difficult in general, and higher proportions of women (than men) and less experienced (than more experienced) researchers reported such problems.
Reported experiences with authorship disputes and problems were closely related to the number of papers published by respondents (Table 3).
Almost one out of three believed that they had been excluded from deserved authorship and more than one third had experienced pressure to include undeserved authors in their papers.
Despite the fact that researchers were familiar with formal authorship requirements, and even regarded breaches of these as ethically unacceptable, a high proportion had experienced such breaches.
These included prior experience with peer review at other journals (83% of both groups), authorship experience, and exposure to potentially helpful experiences such as training courses in peer review or critical appraisal.
Butters, Leonard said, "is a specialist in trademark cases, so I'm not sure what his experience was in authorship cases, and they are two quite different applications of linguistics".
Before I do so, I need to make it clear that my opinions are not the official positions of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), but they do represent 7 years of experience dealing with authorship disputes in the intramural program in my position as deputy director for intramural research.
