The document outlines guidelines for authorship and publication ethics, emphasizing that all listed authors must have made significant contributions to the research and approved its claims. It discusses the issues of gift authorship and ghost authorship and presents principles to encourage ethical authorship, including early discussions of authorship and clarity on contributions. Key concepts like acknowledgements, corresponding authors, and the order of authors are also highlighted.

1. Publication Ethics
Authorship
Dr Bidita Khandelwal
Prof & HoD, Medicine, SMIMS, SMU
Ex Director, Directorate of Research, SMU

2. Improper author contribution or attribution
• All listed authors must have made a significant scientific
contribution to the research in the manuscript and approved
all its claims.
• Credit should be given where credit is due but not where it is
not due.
• Responsibility and credit should be viewed as two sides of the
same coin; a person should be given credit for a piece of
research only if they can take responsibility for it.
International Committee of Medical Journal Editors guidelines

3. Authorship as per ICMJE
Authorship credit should be based only on:
(1) substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of
data, or analysis and interpretation of data;
(2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual
content; and
(3) final approval of the version to be published.
Conditions (1), (2), and (3) must all be met.
Acquisition of funding, the collection of data, or general supervision of
the research group, by themselves, do not justify authorship.

4. How to reduce the incidence of authorship problems
People generally lie about authorship in two ways:
• by putting down names of people who took little or no part in
the research (gift authorship)
• by leaving out names of people who did take part (ghost
authorship)

5. How to reduce the incidence of authorship problems
Three principles:
Encourage a culture of ethical authorship
Start discussing authorship when you plan your research
Decide authorship before you start each article

6. Key concepts in authorship
• Acknowledgements
• Appeals: You may ask a journal to withdraw your name
from a paper if it has been included against your wishes.
• Contributorship: Authors should provide a description of
what each contributed, and editors should publish that
information.
• Corresponding author: Journal editors view this as a purely
administrative role, but some authors equate it with
seniority.

7. Key concepts in authorship
• First and last authors: e.g. Smith et al.
• Ghost Authors: Professional writers (often paid by
commercial sponsors) "important to acknowledge their
contribution"
• Gift authors: e.g. Heads of department
• Group authorship: Some journals permit the use of group
names e.g. The XYZ Study Group, but many require
contributors to be listed (often alphabetically)
• Order of Authors: Should be a joint decision of the co
authors