title: Increased co-first authorships in biomedical and clinical publications: a call for recognition.
abstract: There has been a dramatic increase in the number and percentage of publications in biomedical and clinical journals in which two or more coauthors claim first authorship, with a change in some journals from no joint first authorship in 1990 to co-first authorship of >30% of all research publications in 2012. As biomedical and clinical research become increasingly complex and team-driven, and given the importance attributed to first authorship by grant reviewers and promotion and tenure committees, the time is ripe for journals, bibliographic databases, and authors to highlight equal first author contributions of published original research.
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, University of Michigan Medical School, 7720 Medical Science II, 1301 E. Catherine St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-5622, USA. mbishr@umich.edu.
authors.forename: Marisa L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Conte
authors.forename: Stacy L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Maat
authors.forename: M Bishr
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Omary
mesh_terms: D001319:Authorship; D015706:Bibliometrics; D020811:Biomedical Technology / Q000639:trends*; D015510:Clinical Medicine / Q000639:trends*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000639:trends*; D011643:Publishing / Q000266:history* / Q000639:trends*
keywords: citations; coauthors; joint first authorship