The Publication manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th
Ed., APA: Washington, DC. 2001, gives some explicit rules for assigning
authorship. Since many disciplines outside psych also use this manual
for their journals and books it is likely to be available. It also has
the added credibility of being from an outside source, it is no just
your word.
Hope this helps.
Art
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Social Research Consultants
University Park, MD USA
Neville Calleja wrote:
> Dear colleagues
>
> I am quite a newbie in the field. However, here in Malta, I am the first and
> only Maltese medical statistician. This means that I still have to build attitudes
> and infrastructures for my work.
>
> An issue I am facing is that of co-authorship. As you may know from experience,
> even though I try to insist to be involved from the start, most clinicians still
> approach me with a dataset, express their wishes and I work out the stats they
> need plus I write the statistical bits for their methodology sections.
>
> The problem is that I do not know which contributions would be big enough to
> justify my demand for co-authorship. I believe that, even though these guys
> might not have involved me from the start, having worked all their stats etc
> still merits me co-authoship.
>
> I am also very open to ideas on what kind of strategies have you adopted (especially
> those of you working in a medical school environment) not to have to ask for
> recognition every time someone consults me eg forms or whatever.
>
> Moreover, if anyone knows how the new BMJ 'contributor' system works I would
> appreciate to know more. To me it looks like a glorified way of reducing the
> number of authors because I think that those mentioned at the end bit under
> the Contributors section get as much credit as the good old Acknowledgements
> section.
>
> In the meantime, allow me to wish you the best of time this Yuletide season
> and may you all have a prosperous New Year
>
> Yours thankfully
>
> Neville
>
> ======================
> Dr Neville Calleja
> 328A St Paul Rd
> Xemxija
> St Paul's Bay SPB09
> MALTA
> Tel: +356-21-582905
> Fax: +356-23-331027
> email: [log in to unmask]
> Mob: +356-99800088
>
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