Writing Resources: Authorship

According to the International Committee of Journal Editors (ICMJE), individuals should meet all four of the following criteria to qualify for authorship:

• Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
• Drafting the work or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content; AND
• Final approval of the version to be published; AND
• Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) is useful for describing authorship roles.

• At the planning phase, document who is going to do what, and then finalize it at the end when you see how it worked out.​

• First authors ideally are the primary contributor to the investigation and original draft writing​.

  • Conceptualization (some trainee authors are invited in after this phase)​.

  • Investigation - Conducting a research and investigation process, specifically performing the experiments, or data/evidence collection.​

  • Formal Analysis (even with a consultant, author must understand and explain it)​

  • Writing – original draft​

• First Author, Second Author, and Last Author often carry specific value or are an analytic point. Some journals allow an equal/co-first authorship notation (learn more What’s the Deal with Co-First/Equal Authorship on Papers? | MSK Library Blog (mskcc.org))​

• For equal other authors, use randomization rather than alphabetic order which will accumulate bias over time.​

• Corresponding authors should be the author most able to respond quickly to questions about the manuscript. Their selection may enable organizational author discounts for publication charges.​