Scholarly Communication Support: Planning, Conducting, Disseminating, Promoting, & Assessing Research

The significance of an author's name appearing first, last, or in any particular position varies between disciplines.

In many cases, a position as first author indicates the primary contributor to the work. Other authors are listed in order of the significance of their contributions, from those most involved to those who provided study oversight.

• A PhD student or young researcher who was primarily responsible for data collection, analysis, and manuscript writing would almost always be first author, especially if the paper itself is part of their PhD.
• Last-author position is often reserved for the lab group leader.

Ultimately, it is up to the scholars conducting the work to determine who receives credit and in what order.

Collaborators are encouraged to discuss this issue at the beginning of a project, in order to avoid conflict later on.

Defining how both authors and non-authors contributed allows us to give credit and also avoid any confusion about what the order of authors' names might mean.

One useful tool for explaining the roles of all contributors is the Contributor Roles Taxonomy, or CRediT (managed by NISO).

CRediT defines 14 roles typically played by contributors to research outputs. A Contribution statement can be included in a paper (often just before the reference list) to associate each contributor's name with the roles they played.

• Include all individuals who are listed as authors, included in acknowledgement, or who otherwise deserve credit for their contribution.
• One person may play multiple roles.
• Multiple people may play the same role.
• Optionally you may indicate whether someone served in a Lead or Supporting capacity in a certain role.

Below are two examples of a Contribution statement using CRediT, borrowed from the website of the journal Evidence Based Library and Information Practice.

Example 1

Zhang Lee: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software Aditi Singh: Data curation, Writing - original draft Neeru Acharya: Visualization, Investigation Noel Jenson: Supervision Vijay Kumar: Software, Validation Caryn Dillon: Writing - review & editing

Example 2 (illustrating optional degrees of contribution)

Pierro Correia: Writing - review & editing (equal) Anna Berkowitz: Conceptualization (lead), Writing - original draft (lead), Formal analysis (lead), Writing - review & editing (equal) Yolanda Roberto: Software (lead), Writing - review & editing (equal) Takaaki Yamada: Methodology (lead), Writing - review & editing (equal) Qian Wu: Conceptualization (supporting), Writing - original draft (supporting), Writing - review & editing (equal)

This contribution statement can appear in the paper, often just before the references list.  Note that individual journals who have formally adopted CRediT may require alternate formatting of the statement or may need it to be entered in a more structured way as part of their manuscript submission process.

As Calier et al. (2022) summarize: "There is increasing evidence that women, people of colour, and other minoritised groups are systematically under cited (see, for example, Caplar, Tacchella and Birner, 2017; Chakravartty, Kuo, Grubbs and McIlwain, 2018; Fulvio, Akinnola and Postle, 2021)."

As researchers, we can support a philosophy of inclusive citation. "Inclusive citation describes an approach to citing the intellectual and creative work of individuals and groups with a diversity of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. Inclusive citation works to counteract dominant power structures that have historically privileged certain groups while disadvantaging others" (Andrea Baer, Rowan University).

We can support that philosophy by ensuring that we practice inclusive referencing: "the practice of including different voices and perspectives in your research. It prioritises investigating, and where relevant including, non-dominant voices, and emphasises the importance of including voices and perspectives from the group you are looking at and/or groups affected by the topic" (Technological University Dublin).

Some important steps to take:

• Look beyond the “top” journals and impact factors - "Less ‘prestigious’ journals can contain more diverse research" (Mason & Merga, 2021)
• Cite works from diverse contexts (other countries, cultures, BIPOC writeres, underrepresented voices in your field, etc.)
• Cite works from languages other than English
• Cite open-access journals published, e.g., in the Global South (see repositories like SciELO, African Journals Online)
• Carefully consider which scholars you quote directly and which you paraphrase, because quoting confers more authority

"...citational practices can be a tool for either the reification of, or resistance to, unethical hierarchies of knowledge production." (Carrie Mott & Daniel Cockayne, 2017)

Need help finding this diverse scholarship? Try searching here:

Additional Resources

It's important to know if you are relying on research which has been retracted after publication, especially if a particular method or discovery is a key underpinning in your work.

Retracted means an article has been withdrawn after publication.

Either the author of the paper or the editor of the journal may initiate a retraction. For example:

• An author may discover an honest error in their data and want to withdraw the subsequent findings, which may be unfounded.
• An editor may uncover evidence of unethical research practices, falsified data, plagiarism, or other breaches of research integrity which call the paper's credibility into question.

Learn What Has Been Retracted

Additionally, some research databases will visibly identify a paper which has been retracted: