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Development of a Data-Driven, Noninflationary Author-Credit Allocation Model in Multiauthor Publications in Pharmacy
Samuel O Adeosun1, Faith L Lemmons2
1High Point University, Fred Wilson School of Pharmacy, Department of Clinical Sciences, High Point, NC, USA.
Objective:
To derive and validate a noninflationary author-credit allocation model (schema) from empirical author-credit allocation data provided by primary authors of multiauthor pharmacy practice publications.
Methods:
Primary authors of pharmacy practice faculty publications were surveyed in 2 studies (derivation and validation), and respondents' demographic information and their allocation of nonzero percentage credits to authors based on each author's contributions to the publication were collected for documents with 2 to 5 (derivation), and 2 to 6 authors (validation). Lack-of-fit index and other error metrics were used to assess the fit of existing noninflationary schemas (fractional-equal, arithmetic, geometric, golden share, and harmonic) with the empirical data; empirical data patterns were used to derive variants of the schema with the lowest error metrics (best fit); and the fit of the derived schema was validated in the validation study.
Results:
Unique respondents (155 and 99) reported 232 and 152 documents in the derivation and validation studies, respectively. The credit-allocation pattern showed a decrease from the first author to the penultimate author, with the last author receiving the second-highest credit. A novel schema consistent with the harmonic pattern, with a unique "last-author-bump," was derived, and it showed the best fit in the validation study.
Conclusion:
Author-credit allocation in pharmacy practice is inconsistent with the whole-count method that inflates publication credits and unfairly allocates equal credits to all coauthors. The harmonic with "last-author-bump" schema is an evidence-based alternative to authors' statement of percentage contributions. It is included in AuthormetriX (https://sadeosun-a-uthormetrix-v1.streamlit.app/) to facilitate adoption and use in evaluating faculty scholarly output.
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