Abstract
This essay discusses some of the problems with current authorship practices and puts forward a proposal for a new system of credit allocation: in published works, scientists should more clearly define the responsibilities and contributions of members of research teams and should distinguish between different roles, such as author, statistican, technician, grant writer, data collector, and so forth.
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I do not take credit for this idea, since it has been discussed in the literature for a number of years. See Macaulcy, D. (1992) Cite the workers. British Medical Journal 305: 120; Fotion, N. & Conrad, C. (1984) Authorship and other credits. Annals of Internal Medicine 100: 592–594; White, B. & Knight, J. (1997) Multiple authorship. Science 275: 461, and Hopfield, J. (1997) Authorship: truth in labeling. Science 275: 1501.
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Aristotle once claimed that we should not expect more precision from a subject than the subject admits. See Aristotle (1985) Nichomachian Ethics, Trans. by Irwin T. Hackett, Indianapolis.
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Dr. Resnik is an Associate Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Center for the Advancement of Ethics, University of Wyoming. Information is available on website: http://www.uwyo.edu/bu/acct/cae.htm
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Resnik, D.B. A proposal for a new system of credit allocation in science. SCI ENG ETHICS 3, 237–243 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-997-0023-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-997-0023-5