The Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions hosts an Ethics
Sack Lunch on the first Monday of every month during the academic
year. We are pleased to welcome any interested researchers, practitioners,
professors, students and colleagues interested in joining us for a
discussion on a current case study in ethics, primarily in research
ethics. Please bring your own lunch and jump in on the stimulating
discussion.
Monday, February 3, 2003
"Dead Authors' Society" - A Question of Earned Authorship
In December 2002, a well-established biomedical journal carried
an article with multiple authors from a respectable university.
What was unusual in this case was the articles including as a coauthor
a person who has been dead since December 1998. It turns out that
over the past four years the same group of authors is listed in
the submissions and publications of no less than 13 publications.
Comprising those 13 publications are five during 2000, three during
2001, and two during 2002. As far as can be ascertained, the manuscripts
published since 2000 had not been written or submitted in final
form prior to the deceased author's death.
For the most recent publication, the "Guide to Authors" for the
journal in question (and others, as well) has a printed stipulation
regarding requirements for authors: "Verification of authorship
and copyright: Authors are responsible for ensuring the integrity
and quality of their reported research. Prior to publication all
authors are required to attest to this by signing a letter of submission.
No manuscript will be published without this consent."
Q1: Does the deceased author meet the qualifications
of "earned authorship", as defined in established sources ? If so,
by what criteria? If not, why not? Assume that the deceased author
had been a senior investigator, not necessarily active in the lab,
but involved intellectually in the work being done in the lab, including
the design of experiments and review of experimental data, and writing
of manuscripts and grants that supported the research.
Q2: Would your answers to Q1 be different if it
had been stated in a footnote in the published article that the
author was deceased? If so, for how long after a person dies is
it appropriate to list her or him as a bona fide author on the author
line (as opposed to, e.g., in the Acknowledgments section or a footnote
in the manuscript)? Are there additional circumstances or conditions
possible that would alter your initial response?
Q3: Given that the author in question was deceased
years before the manuscript was submitted to the journal for publication
(and, therefore, could not possibly have signed the letter of submission,
as stipulated in the journal's guidelines to authors), does failure
to comply with the "Verification of authorship and copyright" provision
raise questions concerning the appropriateness of including this
person as a bona fide co-author on the manuscript? Does it raise
any other issues pertinent to ethical guidelines of authorship?
Q4: If your decision is that the deceased person
does not meet the accepted criteria for earned authorship, what
action (if any) should be taken? Consider recourse with the living
co-authors who submitted the manuscripts for publication, as well
as the editors of the journal(s) in question.
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NOTE: This is not a hypothetical case; it actually
occurred. This matter was recently brought to the attention of the
editors of the journal in question.
