title: A Simple Framework for Evaluating Authorial Contributions for Scientific Publications.
abstract: A simple tool is provided to assist researchers in assessing contributions to a scientific publication, for ease in evaluating which contributors qualify for authorship, and in what order the authors should be listed. The tool identifies four phases of activity leading to a publication-Conception and Design, Data Acquisition, Analysis and Interpretation, and Manuscript Preparation. By comparing a project participant's contribution in a given phase to several specified thresholds, a score of up to five points can be assigned; the contributor's scores in all four phases are summed to yield a total "contribution score", which is compared to a threshold to determine which contributors merit authorship. This tool may be useful in a variety of contexts in which a systematic approach to authorial credit is desired.
authors.affiliation: U.S. Army ARDEC-Benét Laboratories, 1 Buffington Street, Watervliet Arsenal, Watervliet, NY, 12189, USA. jwarrend@post.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Jeffrey M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Warrender
mesh_terms: D001319:Authorship / Q000592:standards*; D011642:Publications / Q000592:standards*; D011643:Publishing / Q000941:ethics* / Q000592:standards*
keywords: Authorship; Ethics; Scientific publications