Guidelines for Authorship

The purpose of these guidelines is to assist persons in determining authorship for a manuscript submitted for consideration of publication to the Journal of the World Aquaculture Society (JWAS).

Determining the number and sequence of names on the title page of a paper is an ethical decision involving fairness and trust—fairness in properly representing each person’s contribution to the study and trust in accurately portraying the responsibility of each author for all or part of the work.  Fairness and trust are compromised when colleagues whose contributions merit recognition are overlooked (not giving credit where credit is due) or when colleagues whose contributions are minor are granted authorship status (unfair attribution or gratuitous authorship).

Ultimately, authorship and the ordering of names in a byline is the joint decision of the research team members.  We recommend discussion of authorship and ordering of names in the byline with potential coauthors before initiating the investigation, throughout the duration of the study, during data collection and analysis, and prior to manuscript preparation.

Authorship confers credit to the individuals involved in a study.  With credit comes responsibility.  Thus, every coauthor must review and approve the version of the paper sent to the journal editor for evaluation.  Each author is responsible for the intellectual content of the paper and should be able to discuss and defend publicly any aspect of the work described in the paper.  Authorship should be restricted to individuals making a significant contribution to at least one of the following areas: 1) determining or developing study objectives; 2) designing experimental, statistical, and analytical approaches; 3) collecting data, analyzing data and interpreting outcomes; and 4) preparing the paper (organizing, writing, revising, and proofreading the text).  Securing funding, providing instrumentation, or supervision of the research group alone does not justify authorship.  As a general criterion, a person whose name appears on the author list may be expected to be familiar with the paper's essentials and be able to discuss it intelligently.

The order of names in a byline is important because decisions about employment, promotion, and funding can be partially based on order of authorship.  The journal publisher, Editor, Associate Editors, the World Aquaculture Society, or the Officers and Board members of the WAS will not mandate the order of authors for manuscripts submitted to JWAS.

There are individuals who, while not necessarily contributing directly to the manuscript and its data, still deserve recognition.  Recognition of technical, administrative, or supervisory activities and assistance is appropriate and should be specified in the acknowledgments section of the manuscript.  An acknowledgment is appropriate for individuals whose sole association with the project is administrative or supervisory, or for a funding source.

Acknowledgments typically include appreciation for use of unpublished data, provision of materials, assistance in developing or refining professional interpretations of the data or results, significant critical advice or ideas that influenced the conduct or conclusions of the investigation, routine (chemical or analytical) laboratory findings, routine statistical analyses, unique contributions of scientific specialists, financial support, informal assistance provided by other agency personnel, and voluntary assistance provided by colleagues, students, or the public.  The acknowledgments section may also serve to disclose any relationships that may pose a conflict of interest for any author.

Further Readings on Authorship

R. P. Croll.  1984.  Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 27:401–407.

R. H. Schmidt.  1987.  Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 68(1):8–10.

R. Hunt.  1991.  Nature 352:187.

J. H. Wandersee.  1993.  Journal of Research in Science Teaching 30:1001–1003.

R. J. Mackay.  1996.  Journal of the North American Benthological Society 15:1–2.

E. Leash.  1997.  Journal of Dental Research 76:724–727.

Day.  2006.  Chapter 5 in How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper, 6th Edition. Oryx Press.

International Committee of Medical Journal Editors: Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication, (Updated October 2007), URL: http://www.icmje.org/index.html
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