How to determine the order of authorship for social work research

Abstract

Purpose: Coauthorship is a means for assessing each contributor’s effort on a joint publication. This study aims to identify methods to determine publication coauthorship for crediting effort and order.

Method: The research team searched for a framework to affirm the decision-making process when preparing for a coauthored publication by analyzing existing literature and published guidelines in authorship determination.

Results: Four coauthorship principles—fairness, accountability, transparency, and effort (FATE)—were described with guidelines. The FATE framework helped the team develop a checklist for scholars to document their research productivity in collaborative projects. Examples of questions were derived from the framework to stimulate educational discussions and collaborative research ideas.

Discussion: The coauthorship checklist could provide support for mentors to evaluate their protégés’ performance. Further research is needed to justify its application for initiating conversations about coauthorship. Operational guidelines should also be developed to prevent biases in reporting effort contributions.