The Development of a Worksheet for Authorship of Scientific Articles
One of my most unique articles published was not on science, but on the process of reporting science. In 1985, I was a graduate student at UC Davis. I was asked by a faculty member to help two researchers from another university with a project I was familiar with. Easy enough. A few months later, in a pleasant surprise, I received a draft manuscript, with the two researchers listed as authors one and two, me as third, and the faculty member as fourth. I provided some important methodological revisions, and returned the manuscript. Later, I found that the fourth author had only a single comment... replacing me with him as third author! As any graduate student knows, authorship is a big deal. I stewed over my "demotion" for a few weeks, then set down my thoughts on authorship (below). I submitted it to a journal in my professional area ( Wildlife Society Bulletin ), and it was rejected ("no real contribution," reviewer number 2 wrote). I resubmitted it to a non-peer...