Authorship in a Small Medical Journal: A Study of Contributorship Statements by Corresponding Authors

This survey studied authorship contributions to a small medical journal outside the mainstream to see if adherence to authorship criteria is common across biomedical journals. Earlier studies done across large and prestigious journals in the sciences found that authors often do not follow the criteria set by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), even those these guidelines are are widely accepted by biomedical journals. The results of this study of a small scientific community found that regardless of the size of the community, authors often do not follow these criteria. The authors conclude that more education is needed for authors and clear standards must be articulated and enforced by publishers of these journals.