Authorship Policy

In the interests of fairness and to ensure protection of the rights and intellectual property of all parties, we encourage learners and faculty to review the following guidelines and policies on authorship and order of authorship for published material.

In general, the faculty should approach their roles with the view that material produced by learners within the scope of existing coursework (such as graded papers submitted for class assignments) is provided as part of their professorial duties and these activities do not automatically meet standard authorship guidelines. In most cases, publications stemming from PhD dissertations, Honors theses, and DNP final projects would be first-authored by the student who completed the work. Exceptions to this guideline should reflect best practices for authorship as outlined below.

Please review the following authorship guidance:

1. Baerlocher, M. O., Newton, M., Gautam, T., Tomlinson, G., & Detsky, A. S. (2007). The meaning of author order in medical research. Journal of Investigative Medicine: The Official Publication of the American Federation for Clinical Research, 55(4), 174–180. doi:10.2310/6650.2007.06044/
2. International Council of Medical Journal Editors. (2018). Defining the role of authors and contributors. Retrieved from http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html 
3. Kennedy, M. S. (2015). Inappropriate authorship in nursing journals. Nurse Author & Editor, 25(4), 2. Retrieved from http://naepub.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/NAE-2015-25-4-2-Kennedy.pdf 
4. Nishikawa, J., Codier, E., Mark, D., & Shannon, M. (2014). Student faculty authorship: Challenges and solutions. Nurse Author & Editor, 24(4), 3. Retrieved from http://naepub.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/NAE-2014-24-4-3-Nishikawa.pdf

We direct advisors and students to this recent interpretation of the existing guidelines, regarding criteria for Authorship and Order of Authorship:

1. Heim, N., & Chinn, P. (2017). Issues of authorship: Who and in what order? Nurse Author & Editor, 27(3), 6. Retrieved from http://naepub.com/authorship/2017-27-3-6/

Note: At the time a learner or faculty recognizes that material they are developing is headed towards publication, they are encouraged to put their expectations for members of the team in writing, by drafting a preliminary Authorship Agreement. Below is a sample authorship agreement. This agreement is only a template. You may modify to meet the specific needs of any given publishing project.

Sample Authorship Agreement

Working Title/Topic: __________________________________

What is the origin of the work (check all that apply):

_ Class paper    _ Dissertation    _ Secondary analysis    _ Grant    _ DNP Project     _ Thesis    

 __ Other (specify)________________

Is this intended to be a presentation or manuscript (check all that apply):

_ Presentation       _Manuscript          _Poster     _other

If presentation, where will you present the research? _________________________________

If manuscript, which journal will you target? ________________________________________

List below all anticipated authors and their order:

Note: add rows as needed for additional authors.

*Examples of contribution:

• Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the worka
• Drafting the work or substantial critical revision for intellectual content                
• Final approval of the version to be publisheda
• 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.

(Adapted from: https://rio.msu.edu/sample-authorship-agreement & http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html)

If you anticipate multiple outcomes from the same research effort (e.g., poster presentation and manuscript publication), use one template for each planned activity.

All contributions from faculty refer to contributions outside of faculty role.

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