Authorship, publication & dissemination of findings

Authorship

To be named as an author, a researcher must have made a substantial scholarly contribution to the work and be able to take responsibility for at least that part of the work they contributed.

Attribution of authorship depends to some extent on the discipline, but in all cases, authorship must be based on substantial contributions in a combination of:

  • conception and design of the project
  • analysis and interpretation of research data
  • drafting significant parts of the work or critically revising it so as to contribute to the interpretation

The right to authorship is not tied to position or profession and may include research trainees. It does not depend on whether the contribution was paid for or voluntary.

It is not enough to have provided materials or routine technical support, or to have made the measurements on which the publication is based. Substantial intellectual involvement is required.

A person who qualifies as an author must not be included or excluded as an author without their permission. The offer of authorship, basis for authorship and permission or decline should be recorded.

Where a work has several authors, one should be appointed senior author to record authorship and to manage communication about the work with the publisher.

Publication & dissemination of findings

Alfred Health recognises that dissemination of research findings is an important part of the research process, passing on benefits to other researchers, professional practitioners and the wider community.

Researchers need to be aware of a number of obligations:

  • Contractual obligations in research agreements in relation to confidential information, data ownership, publication and dissemination of findings.
  • Obligations relating to ownership and protection of Alfred Health Intellectual Property as described in the Intellectual Property Policy.
  • The obligation to acknowledge funding bodies where appropriate.
  • NHMRC obligations as described in the Open Access Policy (if applicable). The NHMRC requires that any peer-reviewed publication (journal article, conference paper) arising from a NHMRC supported research project must be deposited into an open access institutional repository and/or made available in another open access format within a 12 month period from the date of publication. Metadata for the peer-reviewed publication must be made openly accessible via an institutional repository as soon as possible but no later than 3 months from the date of publication.
  • Obligations imposed by journals. Many journals now require researchers to make the raw de-identified data underlying the findings described in their manuscript available to the journal and/or other researchers. Researchers should check the policies of the journal/s they intend to submit to and ensure they follow their data management plans. Researchers must take particular care to ensure data is de-identified and should consult the Office of Ethics & Research Governance.

Communicating research findings through the media

Contact Alfred Health Public Affairs prior to communicating research findings through the media.