PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - David B Resnik
AU  - Zubin Master
TI  - Authorship policies of bioethics journals
AID  - 10.1136/jme.2010.040675
DP  - 2011 Jul 01
TA  - Journal of Medical Ethics
PG  - 424--428
VI  - 37
IP  - 7
4099  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/37/7/424.short
4100  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/37/7/424.full
SO  - J Med Ethics2011 Jul 01; 37
AB  - Inappropriate authorship is a common problem in biomedical research and may be becoming one in bioethics, due to the increase in multiple authorship. This paper investigates the authorship policies of bioethics journals to determine whether they provide adequate guidance for researchers who submit articles for publication, which can help deter inappropriate authorship. It was found that 63.3% of bioethics journals provide no guidance on authorship; 36.7% provide guidance on which contributions merit authorship, 23.3% provide guidance on which contributions do not merit authorship, 23.3% require authors to take responsibility for their contributions or for the article as a whole, 20% provide guidance on which contributions merit an acknowledgement but not authorship, 6.7% require authors to describe their contributions, and only 3.3% distinguish between authorship in empirical and conceptual research. To provide authors with effective guidance and promote integrity in bioethics research, bioethics journals should adopt authorship policies that address several important topics, such as the qualifications for authorship, describing authorship contributions, taking responsibility for the research and the difference between authorship in empirical and conceptual research.