Editage Blog
ICMJE, the International Council of Medical Journal Editors, asserts that only those who have made substantial intellectual contribution to a study qualify as authors. The Council lays down three criteria, namely substantial contribution to the study, a role in drafting or revising the article critically, and a share of responsibility in approving the final version [1]. Generally, an author takes public responsibility of the work.
Although many journals accept these criteria, it is hard to clearly define substantial intellectual contribution, which makes it difficult for journal editors caught in disputes over authorship to interpret the criterion. In fact, COPE, the Committee on Publication Ethics, suggests the best way forward is to ask the institution(s) with which the authors are affiliated to investigate the matter and suspend the review process until the matter is resolved. While the issue of who qualifies to be an author was hotly debated at the conference of the European Association of Science Editors in 2009, the consensus was that journals should move toward contributorship rather than authorship [2]. For instance, The Lancet asks authors to provide details of the exact role and contribution of each author. However, even this is not a perfect system and is difficult for journal editors to police. At the end of the day, we have to trust the authors to do this themselves and be transparent about it.
Two other problems related to authorship are guest authors and ghost authors. A guest author is somebody who is an author not because of direct involvement in the study but because of his or her position in the institution or involvement in acquiring funds for the study. According to a recent post on the COPE website by Virginia Barbour, medical students are taught – or rather led to believe – early in their career that guest authorship is acceptable [3]. Clearly it is not! A study by Flannette and co-workers revealed that 21% of the papers published in 2006, and 19% in 2008, listed guest authors [4]. In some countries, especially in Asia, it is acceptable for the head of the department to be included as an author as a mark of respect, which is both a problem of culture and ignorance. There have been a few cases when a well-known academic has been approached to lend his or her credibility to a study funded by a commercial sponsor without any involvement in the actual study. When data are analysed post-publication and such a person asked to defend the study, they might deny any involvement in the study.
A ghost author, on the other hand, is somebody who helps researchers in writing the paper or even writes the entire paper but is seldom acknowledged, let alone considered for an authorship. The proportion of ghost writers and guest authors reported by authors who publish in the Chinese Medical Journal is similar to those previously reported in general medical journals in the USA [5]. Many authors may be unaware of the authorship criteria defined by ICMJE, but the culture in many countries considers guest authorship as acceptable. Although the proportion of guest authors has not changed significantly since 1996, that of ghost authors has declined significantly, as reported in a study of six general medical journals [6]. In the meantime, guest and ghost authors continue to be of concern to journal editors and institutions. A recent paper in PLoS Medicine showed that only 13 of 50 (26%) academic medical centers in the USA publicly prohibit their faculty from participating in ghost-writing [3].
Problems often come to light when authors disagree among themselves and contact the journal editor after a paper is published. COPE publishes several such cases along with helpful flowcharts on what journal editors can do. However, the deeper issue is the attitude to authorship in research institutions and differences about who qualifies as an author. The solution perhaps is to teach students early on in their research career about authorships and the pitfalls of guest and ghost authorships. COPE has developed some useful guidelines for students or young researchers, who often face this problem. Education, awareness, and ethical standards are the way forward. Authors should consider authorship a serious issue, and all those involved in a study should participate in deciding on who should qualify as the authors of papers based on that study.
References
1. Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals: ethical considerations in the conduct and reporting of research: authorship and contributorship. http://www.icmje.org/ethical_1author.html
5. Hao X, Qian S, You S, and Wang M. Ghost writers and honorary authorship: a survey from the Chinese Medical Journal. http://www.ama-assn.org/public/peer/abstracts_2009.html#6
6. Wislar J, Flanagin A, Fontanarosa PB, DeAngelis CD. Prevalence of honorary and ghost authorship in 6 general medical journals, 2008. http://www.ama-assn.org/public/peer/abstracts_2009.html#7
[Shehnaz Ahmed is the Managing Editor of Rheumatology.]
In an earlier post, I mentioned using advanced learners’ dictionaries. I cannot recommend these too highly, since they will give you information on grammar (countability, for instance), pronunciation, usage and spelling, among other things.
There are now six of these dictionaries available online free of charge. The first five use British English (but give US variants) and the last is an American English dictionary:
Collins Cobuild Advanced Dictionary
Which is my favourite? That’s a secret! They all have different features and links, and one layout might appeal to you more than another. I suggest you try them all and see which one you like best, then add it to your favourites list, so you’re never without a dictionary when you’re working online. Remember, they’re all available in hard copy too, with a CD-Rom, so you can buy one and keep it on your computer for when the Internet fails!
[Julia Miller works at the University of Adelaide and is a contributor to the Grammar Gang blog. The blog is the new electronic home for Purdue Unviersity's OWL (Online Writing Lab) Help Nest, a forum for discussing difficult questions about grammar, style, and usage.]
Our three posts so far have been about using articles in English. Many people don’t have articles in their first language, so the hardest things are deciding whether to use an article at all, and whether that article should be definite. Some people, however, do have articles in their first language, but use them very differently.
My knowledge of article use in other languages is limited to French, Spanish, and Portuguese, and a small amount of German, so this is where you can contribute to the comments section and help each other. You might also want to correct what I say, as I am a native speaker only of English.
My impression is that other languages use the definite article more. For instance, you might put an article in front of a country name: “la France,” “o Portugal.” Many languages also seem to use articles before abstract nouns, when we usually don’t in English. For example, French, Spanish, and Portuguese have articles in “l’amour,” “el amor,” and “o amor,” but I don’t think German uses an article here. (Since German and English are closely related this makes sense, though the rules can’t always be transferred directly.) Portuguese as spoken in Portugal generally seems to use lots of articles, even before possessives (“a minha tia”) and names (“o Nuno”). Can anyone tell me where that influence comes from?
On the other hand, you may not use an article in the same place in your language. In English, “I play the violin” (badly, in my case!), but in Portuguese “toco violino,” or in German “ich spiele Geige” with no article. American bloggers can tell me here whether “I play violin” without the article is acceptable in American English.
It seems, then, that there is great variation in the way we use articles. Do add your comments to the blog, as it would be really interesting to make comparisons and perhaps draw up a chart to help each other.
[Julia Miller works at the University of Adelaide and is a contributor to the Grammar Gang blog. The blog is the new electronic home for Purdue University's OWL (Online Writing Lab) Help Nest, a forum for discussing difficult questions about grammar, style, and usage.]
In the last two posts, we looked at the articles “a” and “the.” Sometimes, however, we don’t use an article at all. (After all, we wouldn’t want to make it too easy for everyone, would we?!) There are several places where we don’t need an article, and you’re probably familiar with them already.
If a noun is plural and not definite, we do not need an article. For instance, we can say “articles are generally difficult to use.” A good test is to see if you can add the word “generally,” which means the noun is not definite. Another case is when we have an uncountable noun that is not definite, such as love: “Love makes the world go round.”
If there is another word first, such as a number (three), possessive (my), quantifier (several, most) or demonstrative adjective (that), we do not need an article. Thus we have “three wise monkeys,” “my favourite aunt,” “several researchers,” or “that journal.”
Many proper nouns also do not take articles: John, Monday, Delhi, Japan, Christmas, Ramadan. On the other hand, some proper nouns, such as rivers (the Nile) and mountain ranges (the Snowy Mountains), usually take articles, so it’s best to check in a dictionary if you’re not sure. (I’ll be doing a dictionary post soon.)
Many of you don’t have articles in your first language, so knowing when to use an article is difficult. Others do have articles, but use them differently. Next time, we’ll look at some incorrect uses of articles in English. We’d welcome your comments on this, and tips for other speakers of your language when writing in English!
[Julia Miller works at the University of Adelaide and is a contributor to the Grammar Gang blog. The blog is the new electronic home for Purdue University's OWL (Online Writing Lab) Help Nest, a forum for discussing difficult questions about grammar, style, and usage.]
Last time in this blog we looked at that tricky word “the.” This time we’re going to look at the indefinite article “a.” We mentioned earlier that “the” is the definite article, and that deciding what is definite in English can be very difficult. “A” is not definite, so we use it when we are referring to something that is not specific. Remember that we use “a” before a consonant sound, not just before a consonant, and we use “an” before a vowel sound. We can say a uniform because “uniform” starts with a consonant sound, even though the letter “u” is actually a vowel; we say an hour because the “h” here is silent.
Did you know that “the” is the most used word in the English language? If you’re a non-native speaker of English, you will know that this tiny word causes some of the biggest headaches when you’re writing an academic paper. You will probably also know that “the” is known as the definite article.
What do we mean by “definiteness”? I think that is one of the hardest things for a non-native speaker to comprehend. “Definiteness” refers to shared knowledge. For example, if I say, “I went to a lecture. The lecture was about grammar,” then we know that “a lecture” and “the lecture” are the same thing. The first time I mention it I use “a,” because you do not know which lecture I am talking about; it could be any lecture. In the second sentence, though, the article has become definite, because we both know which lecture is being referred to. In another example, I could say, “I went to a concert on Saturday. The orchestra played beautifully.” Although we only mention the word “orchestra” once, we associate it with the concert I attended, and I assume you will understand which orchestra I am referring to, so I use the definite article again.
There are many other cases where I assume that we share the same knowledge. For example, there are some things, places or people that are unique: the earth; the equator; the Ganges; the Queen of England. In other cases, I may have used a superlative or an ordinal number: the best; the second. Many organizations also take “the”: the World Health Organisation; the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. (Notice here that when we refer to an organization by its acronym, then we don’t add “the”: NATO, UNESCO.) Often, the word “of” causes us to use a definite article: the use of this procedure; the completion of the survey; none of the people in the study. Decades, centuries and currencies also take “the”: the 1990s; the twentieth century; the dollar; the rupee.
One major problem is that what is definite in one culture or context may not be definite in another. If I say, “X is the prime minister,” you would need to know which country I’m talking about. The examples above, however, give some idea, and it really is worth working on your articles and checking example sentences online to see if you’ve got it right. Try feeding your sentence into a search engine, and see if similar patterns come up in texts by native speakers.
If you find articles difficult, don’t despair. Remember that your content is the most important thing. If you can get most of the articles right, though, you are well on your way to writing excellent English.
[Julia Miller works at the University of Adelaide and is a contributor to the Grammar Gang blog. The blog is the new electronic home for Purdue University's OWL (Online Writing Lab) Help Nest, a forum for discussing difficult questions about grammar, style, and usage.]
Publishing research papers in peer-reviewed journals is an industry in which researchers are both producers and consumers. Yet, it is an industry where the researchers are neither direct sellers nor direct buyers—and much of the debate on open access revolves around this apparent contradiction.
The fact that you are reading this blog suggests that you are a researcher who wishes to publish research papers. And it you are a researcher, you also regularly read papers published by your peers—researchers working in the same field as you are. When a journal publishes your paper, the journal does not pay you; in fact, some journals expect authors to pay the journals for publishing their papers. At the same time, if you want to read a paper that somebody else has written, very often you are required to pay for it, either indirectly (because your employer pays for access to journals, typically through the library) or directly, when you want to read a paper in the electronic form and cannot access the full paper unless you pay for it.
When most of the research is funded through public money or by funding agencies, and research papers are the product of that research, such products should be freely available. Which is what open access is all about; EPrints defines it as "free, immediate, permanent online access to the full text of research articles for anyone, webwide." <http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/>
To begin with, open access to published papers is provided either by journals that publish the papers or by institutional repositories, typically maintained by academic and publicly funded institutions that employ researchers. And one immediate benefit for researchers is that their work is available to a much wider readership, well beyond that with access to good libraries or with the funds to buy access.
I plan to write in more detail about the topic in future posts in this blog.
["Publish and prosper" is a series of posts about tips for researchers whose first language is not English but who submit papers to journals published in English. The series touches upon not only writing (spelling, grammar, punctuation, usage, and style) but everything else relevant to publishing research papers that journal editors wish their authors knew.]
As mentioned in an earlier post in this blog, poor English can delay the publication of research. Even after a research paper is published, if it is written in poor English, the impact of the paper is reduced because the paper is less likely to be cited because fewer people – especially among those publishing in mainstream English-language journals – are likely to read it.
If English is not your first language, you may resent this unfair advantage held by those to whom English does not present a serious obstacle. Incidentally, do not assume that all native speakers of English can write faultless English: you only have to visit Paul Brian’s website, which confines itself to errors frequently seen in the writing of native speakers of English <http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/>. After all, how confident are you that whatever you write in your first language will be error-free?
The question is, are you willing to work on your English? To be able to write well in any one language, even when that language in question is your first language, is a skill. And like all skills, it can be mastered with practice combined with adequate instruction. To be able to write in your second language is a skill that needs constant development until you master it. On the other hand, you may conclude that you are better off spending your time on research than on learning English—after all, you can always engage a copyeditor to work on your paper.
["Publish and prosper" is a series of posts about tips for researchers whose first language is not English but who submit papers to journals published in English. The series touches upon not only writing (spelling, grammar, punctuation, usage, and style) but everything else relevant to publishing research papers that journal editors wish their authors knew.]
In the Harvard system of citing references, which typically uses a combination of names of authors and the year of publication to refer to a source, the name is confined only to the surname or family name. For instance, “Gupta (2009) developed a new method to examine paints,” and not “Gupta A. C. (2009) developed a new method to examine paints.” Similarly, it is correct to say “A recent review (Wright 2010) concludes that . . .,” and not “A recent review (Patricia Wright 2010) concludes that...”
Sometimes, a person has two or more names besides a surname, in which case the full name is a combination of initials and the surname, as in J F Kennedy (for John Fitzgerald Kennedy). However, in citing the name in a research paper, this will be confined only to the surname—initials or forenames are not included (therefore, Kennedy 1962, for instance, and not J F Kennedy 1962 or John Kennedy 1962).
["Publish and prosper" is a series of posts about tips for researchers whose first language is not English but who submit papers to journals published in English. The series touches upon not only writing (spelling, grammar, punctuation, usage, and style) but everything else relevant to publishing research papers that journal editors wish their authors knew.]
A recent article in New Scientist, a British weekly science magazine, mentions that poor English “is another factor that puts some scientists at a disadvantage. Rudolf Jaenisch at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the leading US-based researcher working on iPS cells, argues that some papers from Asia are so badly written that they are difficult to assess . . ." [New Scientist, 9 June 2010 www.newscientist.com/article/mg20627643.700]. The article, titled “Paper trail: Inside the stem cell wars,” explores why research papers from laboratories in the USA are published faster than those from other laboratories in the field of stem cell research.
Poor English includes not only outright errors of spelling, grammar, and punctuation but also faulty construction of sentences, unidiomatic expressions, and odd usage that is obtrusive enough to deflect a reviewer’s attention from the substance of the paper to its style. The fact that the manuscript under review is written by someone to whom English is not the first language is irrelevant to judging the scientific worth of the paper, but it may delay both the review and the subsequent editing of that manuscript. In the worst-case scenario, poor English makes it impossible for a reviewer to assess the paper.
It is for this reason that this blog deals with issues that are trivial individually but of some significance collectively. A few errors related to language are minor blemishes in a research paper, and reviewers might not even notice them, but too many errors are bound to reflect adversely on the research paper.
["Publish and prosper" is a series of posts about tips for researchers whose first language is not English but who submit papers to journals published in English. The series touches upon not only writing (spelling, grammar, punctuation, usage, and style) but everything else relevant to publishing research papers that journal editors wish their authors knew.]
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The most meticulous study may be rejected if the Discussion is not impressive. Learn to write a Discussion that will do justice to your research.