Publication Practices

Anzai, a young assistant professor, and two graduate students have been working on a series of related experiments for the past several years. Now it is time to write up the experiments for publication, but the students and Anzai must first make an important decision. They could write a single paper with one first author that would describe the experiments in a comprehensive manner, or they could write two shorter, less-complete papers so that each student could be a first author.

Anzai favors the first option, arguing that a single publication in a more visible journal would better suit all of their purposes. This alternative also would help Anzai, who faces a tenure decision in two years. Anzai’s students, on the other hand, strongly suggest that two papers be prepared. They argue that one paper encompassing all the results would be too long and complex. They also say that a single paper might damage their career opportunities because they would not be able to point to a paper on which they were first authors.

1. How could Anzai have anticipated this problem? And what sort of general guidelines could he have established for lab members?

2.If Anzai’s laboratory or institution has no official policies covering multiple authorship and multiple papers from a single study, how should this issue be resolved?

3.How could Anzai and the students draw on practices within their discipline to resolve this dispute?

4.If the students feel that their concerns are not being addressed, to whom should they turn?

5.What kind of laboratory or institutional policies could keep disputes like this from occurring?

6.If a single paper is published, how can the authors make clear to review committees and funding agencies their various roles and the importance of the paper?

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Publication Practices, in Japanese

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This discussion corresponds to the task of considering: what is authorship? This discussion corresponds to the task of defining the domain of authorship, the scope of authorship attribution, the decision-making power of authorship, and the social responsibility of authorship.

From the perspective of academic procedure, Assistant Professor Anzai's decision seems quite reasonable. On the other hand, the two graduate students think that it is completely reasonable to have two papers, as their ultimate goal is to have their work published as the first author.

Therefore, Assistant Professor Anzai had to persuade both of them, but it was important for him to plan his persuasion strategy based on what he would think if he were in the position of a graduate student.

In addition, the assistant professor needs to find a middle ground or a compromise between the two parties, not just his own idea of the right way. It should be fully recognized that this is also Anzai's responsibility to supervise the two graduate students.

The challenge for the assistant professor is to remind himself that he is practicing proper authorship with two graduate students.

Authorship by the laboratory should be taught in some way by the person in charge of the laboratory, and even if no special lectures or training are given, it may be necessary to educate through on-the-job training.

In Japan, there is not much of a habit of clarifying in writing the scope of co-authored papers, but it is important to prepare a document that you can explain properly in your job interview.

Links

2020 Ethics for Academic Research (in English)

Bibliography

other information

To avoid of Salami slicing papers. so What is salami slicing, "The ‘slicing’ of research that would form one meaningful paper into several different papers is called ‘salami publication’ or ‘salami slicing.’ Unlike duplicate publication, which involves reporting the exact same data in two or more publications, salami slicing involves breaking up or segmenting a large study into two or more publications. These segments are referred to as ‘slices’ of a study." - https://www.elsevier.com/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/653888/Salami-Slicing-factsheet-March-2019.pdf
Writing Acknowledgments for Your Research Paper; Points of remark, “acquisition of funding; general supervision of a research group or general administrative support; and writing assistance, technical editing, language editing, and proofreading.” example, "“We thank Dr. X and Dr. Y for performing the surgeries” or “We thank the physicians who performed the surgeries”" - https://www.aje.com/en/arc/editing-tip-writing-acknowledgments/

Notes: This case example is cited and codified from "US National Academy of Sciences, On Being a Scientist: A Guide to Responsible Conduct in Research: Third Edition, 2009."

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