New guidance from UKRIO: authorship in academic publications

UKRIO has published a guidance note on good practice in the authorship of research publications. The publication is available for download on our website:

UKRIO Good practice in research: authorship

Written by Dr Elizabeth Wager, former Chair of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), this guidance note focuses on good practice in the authorship of research publications and covers issues relevant to all disciplines of research. Aimed at both researchers and research organisations, it highlights particular challenges relating to authorship and aims to foster discussion on what might constitute good practice in this fundamentally important part of the research process.

As with all of our publications, it is underpinned by ‘lessons learned’ from UKRIO’s confidential Advisory Service on the conduct of research, which has operated since 2006 and covers all disciplines, from the arts and the humanities to health and biomedicine.

Research organisations will be able to use this guidance to raise awareness of the practicalities of good authorship practices, and also as material for staff and student development and training. It can also be used as a reference tool by organisations who wish to create specific policies on authorship or revise existing policies, or who need guidance on how to resolve problems and disputes.

This document will be periodically revised to reflect developments in authorship and publication ethics, new examples of good practice and additional ‘lessons learned’ from UKRIO’s Advisory Service and other work. UKRIO welcomes feedback from researchers, research organisations, editors and publishers to inform the future development of this guidance.