Authorship grids: Practical tools to facilitate collaboration and ethical publication

Area of Science:

• Scientific publishing
• Research ethics
• Team science

Background:

• Advancing science relies on publishing new findings in peer-reviewed journals.
• Interprofessional, team-based scientific publication is increasingly common.
• Authors require tools to manage collaboration and ensure ethical authorship.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present three forms of customizable authorship grids.
• To provide tools for guiding collaboration and ethical authorship in scientific publications.
• To support planning, execution, and transparent attribution of author contributions.

Main Methods:

• Developed authorship grids based on national and international recommendations.
• Incorporated guidelines from authoritative bodies (e.g., ICMJE, COPE, NIH, ICH).
• Tailored grids for quantitative research, qualitative research, and literature synthesis.

Main Results:

• Authorship grids define roles, responsibilities, and contributions for each author.
• Grids facilitate communication among collaborators, aiding in dispute and misconduct prevention.
• Grids can be submitted to journals for public attribution of author contributions.

Conclusions:

• Authorship grids are valuable tools for enhancing collaboration and ethical practices in scientific publishing.
• These grids promote transparency and accountability in team-based research.
• Utilizing authorship grids can improve the integrity and efficiency of the scientific publication process.