Authorship contribution criteria
Anyone who wants to develop a manuscript based in whole, or in part, from the Indo-Pacific network database should first post that intention in the form of a Paper Proposal which, if accepted, will be posted to the website and available for all members to evaluate. Members who express interest in these projects are expected to contact the project lead within 6 weeks of the original posting with an outline of how they can contribute to the project. Co-authors are expected to contribute in multiple areas (defined below), such as framing the questions of interest, developing models, and writing sections of the paper in addition to contributing data and/or samples. Our plan is to follow the guidelines established by the successful collaborative Network “NutNet” as outlined in this document.
To be a co-author each person is expected to contribute to at least three of the following contribution criteria. The first author on the paper is expected to track the contribution of each author and is the final arbiter of authorship. In the unlikely event of disputes over authorship the Steering Committee will advise.
Contribution criterion | Example of authorship contribution to merit a checked box |
1. NESCent workshop participants | Wrote and administered the grant which funded the work; participated in original experimental design; proposed ideas for the network focus; provided lab or technical expertise for the completion of the work; compiled, managed and/or maintained the databases and bioinformatics resources used in the network design and implementation. |
2. Developed or framed the research question | Proposed an original idea for analysis of network data or contributed significantly to framing the outline of the research or analyses at the early stage of conception |
3. Collected data used in the analysis | Provided critical samples, did bench work, sequencing, uploaded data to the Indo-Pacific network database, undertook data mining from the literature, or otherwise actively served in the collection of the data used in the paper. Note: We recognize that many papers will use only a subset of the network data. Co- authors whose samples/data are NOT included may still be co-authors, but only by checking at least 3 authorship contribution boxes. |
4. Analyzed data | Performed bioinformatics analyses, generated models (conceptual, statisical and/or bioinformatic), produced figures, tables, maps, diagrams, etc. used in the manuscript. |
5. Contributed to data analyses | Provided intellectual contribution in the form of comments, suggestions or troubleshooting as to data collection, data analysis, presentation, or any short-comings of the analyses that allowed writing of the manuscript. |
6. Wrote the paper | Generated or substantially contributed to generation of at least one of the sections of the manuscript. |
7. Contributed to paper writing | Provided timely and substantial suggestions such as restructuring ideas, missing citations, extensive copy editing, etc. Note: this determination is at the discretion of the first author. |