Case study – Conflict of authorship: Presumption of authorship
Dealing with conflicts of authorship: co-authors state that a person is claiming authorship to which they are not entitled.
An example here is in the case of collaboration between the life sciences/natural sciences and the humanities: in the field of philosophy, only those scholars who write the main part of the manuscript are generally named as the authors. Researchers who have not contributed text are not regarded as authors; their contributions are referred to in footnotes. If a supervisor “only” gives feedback, this does not usually constitute authorship.
In the life/natural sciences, most authors make experimental contributions but contribute less to the actual writing of the text. Here, the manuscript is often written solely by the first and/or last author. Any humanities scholars involved may find it hard to understand why people who have not contributed any text should be listed as co-authors.
This is why it is crucial to agree early on which criteria should be applied to authorship – especially in connection with interdisciplinary projects. Projects often have a thematic focus, for example. The journal to which the manuscript is to be submitted can also be used as a source of guidance. If a project (in bioethics, for instance) is based in the field of medicine, and philosophers are brought in at a later stage, the criteria applicable to medicine are more likely to be applied. The philosophers should be informed of this right from the outset.