Nature Immunology on authorship policy
Nature Immunology (10, 553; 2009), in its June Editorial, summarizes the new responsibilities Nature Publishing Group has established for authors.
'Author contributions' statements were introduced by the Nature journals in 2006 to encourate authors to identify the efforts of each coauthor. In a Nature Editorial last month (Nature 458, 1978; 30 April 2009), it was announced that all Nature journals now require that an 'author contributions' statement accompany all original research papers. Authors can decide how detailed these descriptions can be, but no author should be left out.
From the Nature Immunology Editorial:
The purpose of authorship statements is to give coauthors due credit for their relative contributions. This concern is not insignificant to a 'middle author', who may be seeking promotion or a new position. Such an investigator may not have a 'first author' publication to their record but nevertheless has provided a substantial contribution to the development or execution of certain studies. Likewise, for studies that result from the collaboration of multiple laboratories, authorship order can sometimes be difficult to ascribe. Identifying who did what provides greater transparency to the process of assigning authorship.
In the same Nature Editorial, new responsibilities were announced for 'senior authors'. These responsibilities include ensuring that the original data described in the study are preserved and retrievable for reanalysis, confirming that the data presented in the manuscript are representative of the original data collected, and anticipating and minimizing any obstacles to the sharing of data, reagents, materials or algorithms described in the published work. For collaborative studies, at least one senior author who represents their group must assume these responsibilities for their contributions to the study. Often the 'corresponding author' is the laboratory chief and is thus in a position of authority to speak for others in their group. But this is not always the case. Sometimes the laboratory head, acting as a mentor, will assign 'corresponding authorship' to another author as training toward the development of independent research career skills. However, the responsibilities outlined above would remain with the most senior researcher of the group, who is not necessarily the corresponding author.
