Is authorship sufficient for today’s collaborative research? A call for contributor roles

Nicole A. Vasilevsky; Mohammad Hosseini; Samantha Teplitzky; Violeta Ilik; Ehsan Mohammadi; Juliane Schneider; Barbara Kern; Julien Colomb; Scott C. Edmunds; Karen Gutzman; Daniel S. Himmelstein; Marijane White; Britton Smith; Lisa O’Keefe; Melissa Haendel; Kristi L. Holmes

doi:10.1080/08989621.2020.1779591

Is authorship sufficient for today’s collaborative research? A call for contributor roles

Nicole A. Vasilevsky, Mohammad Hosseini, Samantha Teplitzky, Violeta Ilik, Ehsan Mohammadi, Juliane Schneider, Barbara Kern, Julien Colomb, Scott C. Edmunds, Karen Gutzman, Daniel S. Himmelstein, Marijane White, Britton Smith, Lisa O’Keefe, Melissa Haendel, Kristi L. Holmes

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

41 Scopus citations

Abstract

Assigning authorship and recognizing contributions to scholarly works is challenging on many levels. Here we discuss ethical, social, and technical challenges to the concept of authorship that may impede the recognition of contributions to a scholarly work. Recent work in the field of authorship shows that shifting to a more inclusive contributorship approach may address these challenges. Recent efforts to enable better recognition of contributions to scholarship include the development of the Contributor Role Ontology (CRO), which extends the CRediT taxonomy and can be used in information systems for structuring contributions. We also introduce the Contributor Attribution Model (CAM), which provides a simple data model that relates the contributor to research objects via the role that they played, as well as the provenance of the information. Finally, requirements for the adoption of a contributorship-based approach are discussed.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	23-43
Number of pages	21
Journal	Accountability in Research
Volume	28
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/08989621.2020.1779591
State	Published - 2021

Keywords

Attribution
authorship
contributorship
peer review
publication ethics

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Education
Library and Information Sciences

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10.1080/08989621.2020.1779591

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Vasilevsky, N. A., Hosseini, M., Teplitzky, S., Ilik, V., Mohammadi, E., Schneider, J., Kern, B., Colomb, J., Edmunds, S. C., Gutzman, K., Himmelstein, D. S., White, M., Smith, B., O’Keefe, L., Haendel, M., & Holmes, K. L. (2021). Is authorship sufficient for today’s collaborative research? A call for contributor roles. Accountability in Research, 28(1), 23-43. https://doi.org/10.1080/08989621.2020.1779591

Vasilevsky, NA, Hosseini, M, Teplitzky, S, Ilik, V, Mohammadi, E, Schneider, J, Kern, B, Colomb, J, Edmunds, SC, Gutzman, K, Himmelstein, DS, White, M, Smith, B, O’Keefe, L, Haendel, M & Holmes, KL 2021, 'Is authorship sufficient for today’s collaborative research? A call for contributor roles', Accountability in Research, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 23-43. https://doi.org/10.1080/08989621.2020.1779591

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abstract = "Assigning authorship and recognizing contributions to scholarly works is challenging on many levels. Here we discuss ethical, social, and technical challenges to the concept of authorship that may impede the recognition of contributions to a scholarly work. Recent work in the field of authorship shows that shifting to a more inclusive contributorship approach may address these challenges. Recent efforts to enable better recognition of contributions to scholarship include the development of the Contributor Role Ontology (CRO), which extends the CRediT taxonomy and can be used in information systems for structuring contributions. We also introduce the Contributor Attribution Model (CAM), which provides a simple data model that relates the contributor to research objects via the role that they played, as well as the provenance of the information. Finally, requirements for the adoption of a contributorship-based approach are discussed.",

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AU - Schneider, Juliane

AU - Kern, Barbara

AU - Colomb, Julien

AU - Edmunds, Scott C.

AU - Gutzman, Karen

AU - Himmelstein, Daniel S.

AU - White, Marijane

AU - Smith, Britton

AU - O’Keefe, Lisa

AU - Haendel, Melissa

AU - Holmes, Kristi L.

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Is authorship sufficient for today’s collaborative research? A call for contributor roles

Abstract

Keywords

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