In tricky situations like these, it might be best to check what the
experts say. COPE (the Committee on Publication Ethics) is the best
first port of call: <http://publicationethics.org/>. They have case
studies - which can be a fascinating time suck - and sometimes a similar
situation has occurred. I couldn't find anything in a quick search.
The other place to check is Irene Hames' book about academic peer
review:
<http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1405131594.html>. It
maybe that even if she doesn't deal with this sort of case, the
guidelines and discussion will help clarify your thinking.
The only solid advice I'd give is that unless you contact the putative
author, make sure you mention this in your cover letter when you submit
the manuscript. That way the journal can either give their own advice on
how to proceed, or at the very least will be aware that there is an
issue they might have to deal with.
Bob
On 21/08/16 06:19, Jeff Houlahan wrote:
Hi Gary and all, this one's an interesting one. Your position is one I
have a lot of sympathy for - it's generous and gives credit where it's
due. What makes this tricky is that it also gives responsibility that
somebody might not want to accept. I know it's unlikely and not that
common but there may be instances where somebody would prefer not to
have their name on a paper where they've done enough work to warrant
authorship. If my name showed up on a paper without me ever being aware
that it had been submitted I would be a little bothered. If I read the
paper and didn't agree with the interpretation I would be very unhappy.
That said, the idea of not giving credit to somebody who deserves it
just seems wrong. This is a rock and a hard place. Best, Jeff Houlahan
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From:* Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news
<[email protected]> on behalf of Gary Grossman
<[email protected]>
*Sent:* August 20, 2016 12:04 PM
*To:* [email protected]
*Subject:* Re: [ECOLOG-L] Query on authorship
Querido Jorge, this is a murky area of co-authorship except for one
point. Coauthorship is *earned* and should not be taken away because of
some other circumstance outside of the project responsibilities. Given
that the second student completed the work while they were at your
institution, the simple solution, given that they did indeed earn
coauthorship, is to put them on the paper with your institutional
address. If you're worried about someone contacting them then just
asterisk their name and in the footnote put "current address unknown".
!Eso! g2
On Fri, Aug 19, 2016 at 3:24 PM, Jorge A. Santiago-Blay
<[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Query on authorship
Dear Colleagues:
I am writing a small paper resulting from research done with two
undergraduates many years ago (and, later on, involving several
other colleagues using cutting-edge technology). As the results
became obvious, both of the students agreed (orally, in person) with
me that we should get the research published. As far as I remember,
there was no email or letter documenting that and, there was no
manuscript, only the data and the methods we were using.
The problem: I have located one of the former students (now a
researcher at a major research institution), who is excited about
getting the research published, but not the second student.
Question: How to handle the contribution (including authorship) of
the other person? Here are some options I see.
a. *Omit the name of the person that has not been located* and
indicate that another person was involved in the data collection but
we were hot able to locate him/her to get his/her approval to use
his/her name as an author. Under these circumstances, would it be
OK to name the person in the Acknowledgments? Lately, I am asking
permission to do that because sometimes some people prefer to remain
anonymous.
b. *Include the name of the person I cannot locate as an author*, an
act of fairness and good faith on my part. If the person does not
like the idea (and the paper is published) retract the name of the
person in an erratum, later on, and assume responsibility for my
error. A kind colleague did that to me once and, subsequently, it
has resulted a long standing collaboration (and co-authorship in
many papers, with my knowledge) :)
c. *Nor use the data garnered by the person I cannot locate*.
Although I am pretty sure I am authorized by the institution to use
the data, as a general personal; preference, I like to ask permission.
If you have something constructive to comment, kindly direct your
comments to me, [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> ,
Apologies for potential duplicate emails.
Sincerely,
Jorge
Jorge A. Santiago-Blay, PhD
blaypublishers.com <http://blaypublishers.com>
1. Positive experiences for authors of papers published
in */LEB/* http://blaypublishers.com/testimonials/
<http://blaypublishers.com/testimonials/>
2. Free examples of papers published
in */LEB/*: http://blaypublishers.com/category/previous-issues/
<http://blaypublishers.com/category/previous-issues/>.
3. /Guidelines for Authors/ and page charges
of */LEB/*: http://blaypublishers.com/archives/
<http://blaypublishers.com/archives/> /./
4. Want to subscribe
to */LEB/*? http://blaypublishers.com/subscriptions/
<http://blaypublishers.com/subscriptions/>
http://blayjorge.wordpress.com/ <http://blayjorge.wordpress.com/>
http://paleobiology.si.edu/staff/individuals/santiagoblay.cfm
<http://paleobiology.si.edu/staff/individuals/santiagoblay.cfm>
--
Gary D. Grossman, PhD
Fellow, American Fisheries Soc.
Professor of Animal Ecology
Warnell School of Forestry & Natural Resources
University of Georgia
Athens, GA, USA 30602
Website - Science, Art (G. Grossman Fine Art) and Music
www.garygrossman.net <http://www.garygrossman.net>
Blog - https://medium.com/@garydavidgrossman
Board of Editors - Animal Biodiversity and Conservation
Editorial Board - Freshwater Biology
Editorial Board - Ecology Freshwater Fish
Hutson Gallery Provincetown, MA - www.hutsongallery.net/artists.html
<http://www.hutsongallery.net/artists.html>
--
Bob O'Hara
Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre
Senckenberganlage 25
D-60325 Frankfurt am Main,
Germany
Tel: +49 69 7542 1863
Mobile: +49 1515 888 5440
WWW: http://www.bik-f.de/root/index.php?page_id=219
Blog: http://blogs.nature.com/boboh
Journal of Negative Results - EEB: www.jnr-eeb.org
