Funders and institutions want structured, accurate, and granular data from publishers, while authors want to focus on their research with minimal administrative overhead. This creates conflicting demands. Publishers are under pressure to provide more clean data to funders while keeping author burdens low. Effective contributor role tagging could provide benefits but raises technological, operational, and economic questions around defining and applying the taxonomy, and integrating it into publishing workflows and systems.

1. Workflow and Manuscript
Contributor Role Tagging
Richard Wynne
VP Sales and Marketing
Aries Systems Corporation

2. Competing Interests
Funders and Institutions want:
• Structured Data
• Accurate Data
• Granular Data
Authors want:
• To focus on the research
• Freedom to prepare the
manuscript however they want
• Quick, easy submission with low
administrative overhead

3. Conflicting Messages
“Why can’t publishers provide more, clean data?”
Funders and Institutions
“Why do publishers keep asking us for all this stuff?”
Authors
Context:
Publishers
Peer Review Systems
• Publishers’ “value add” questioned
• Downward pressure on APCs and subscription prices resulting in cost constraints
• Assumptions about technology

4. Data Quantity – No End in Sight
• Conflict of interest
• Funding sources
• Disclosures
• Animal research
• Statistical methods
• Data sets
• Ethics statements
• Contributor ID (ORCID)
• Institutional ID (e.g. Ringgold)
• Credentials
• Methodologies
• Protocols
• Authors and Co-contributors
• Plagiarism checking
• Identity validation
• License data
• Most of this has to be entered by humans in a timely manner

5. Data Structure
THE PAST: Flat, Static, Indexed,
Data based on Single Primary
Object (the Manuscript)
Manuscript
Title
Authors
Abstract
…etc.
THE FUTURE: Relational,
Dynamic with Multiple
Objects
Manuscript
Funder
Contributor
Taxonomy
Institution
Contributors

6. Contributor Taxonomy
Creating a Useful Solution
• Defining the taxonomy
• Integration with peer review systems
– Workflow questions
• Integration with production systems
• Integration with composition
• Integration with discovery tools
• Operating costs per manuscript

7. Collecting Contributor Data

8. Adding the Taxonomy

9. Workflow Models and Considerations
• Submitting author unilaterally assigns tags on behalf of all
contributors:
– Simplest front-end approach
– Burden on submitting author
– Downstream contention possible
• Tags assigned by submitting author and “confirmed” by contributors:
– Highest fidelity
• Each contributor assigns their own tags
– Shared burden
– “Democratic”
• What point in the workflow? (Initial submission, Revision, Final
acceptance). Mandatory or optional?
• Reporting, chasing, exception handling, output..
• What article types? Different for different article types?

10. More Questions
• Are all Contributors “Authors” for publication workflow
purposes? Implications? Confusing with
acknowledgements, credits?
• Deceased Contributors?
• Contributor conflicts
• Cultural influences
• Contributor groups
• Corrections
• Historical consistency (e.g. tag no longer used)

11. Summary
• Manuscript contributor tagging beneficial to
the scholarly process, and to many consumers
of scholarly manuscripts
• Technologically viable?
• Operationally viable?
• Economically viable? (Start up cost funding.
Operating cost funding)

12. Workflow and Manuscript
Contributor Role Tagging
Richard Wynne
VP Sales and Marketing
Aries Systems Corporation