Supporting collaborative thinking and progress on discussing authorship disputes

UKRIO is pleased to announce the launch of a new collaborative project commissioned by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to promote good authorship practices in research.

This project, entitled ‘Supporting collaborative thinking and progress on discussing authorship disputes’, will give participants an opportunity to (1) discuss the key systemic and cultural drivers for good practice in authorship and the challenges that often arise and (2) work collaboratively to develop strategies which encourage adoption of such practices.

About authorship challenges:

Authorship plays a critical role in research, as it confers responsibility and credit to research contributors and helps ensure research is transparent. While good authorship practices can be straightforward in theory, they are often complicated in practice, and disputes over authorship can arise due to differences in academic opinion, misaligned expectations, or research misconduct. When handled incorrectly, these disputes can be harmful, negatively impacting researchers and their career progression as well as damaging organisational research culture. As UKRIO has observed, authorship disputes are prevalent; in 2023, authorship disputes were the focus of 23% of all enquiries to our advisory services. 

About the project: 

This project will employ a multistep process in which stakeholders will work with UKRIO to build informed, needs-based solutions to mitigate authorship disputes by promoting good authorship practices. Critically, this project will be informed by the viewpoints and priorities of a diverse range of stakeholders from across the research system.  

Key phases:

• Pool expertise from across the research ecosystem on the topic of authorship, enabling different perspectives to be shared and understood 
• Develop strategies to enhance good practice in authorship and address associated challenges that arise 
• Develop practical tools to support the research community put these strategies into practice 

Intended outcomes:

This project will both help research stakeholders address authorship challenges and contribute to the creation of a healthier research culture. It will produce practical outputs that help stakeholders adopt good authorship practices to prevent and resolve authorship disputes. By embracing an open, collaborative process, it will also foster transparency, confidence, and cooperation within the research community, enabling stakeholders to proactively address challenges that emerge in the future. 

Outputs for the research community:

• Two stakeholder workshops for experts in the research community to meet and discuss authorship challenges (one in-person, one virtual, with an estimated 50-60 attendees per event) 
• A report summarising discussions from the stakeholders workshops and specific learning points for the community 
• A guidance on authorship to help research stakeholders understand authorship challenges and implement good authorship practices 
• A model procedure to help research organisations mitigate and resolve authorship disputes 
• A template authorship agreement to aid good authorship practices throughout a research project
• A launch event to share the projects’ outputs with the wider community and encourage uptake    

Expressions of interest:

We invite research stakeholders with experience dealing with matters in authorship to submit an expression of interest to participate in this project using the form below. Expressions of interest must be submitted before the end of January 2025.