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Since Eftimie’s research group has collaborations with various other local, national and international research groups, working on a range of topics in applied mathematics (from the very applied biological side to the more abstract mathematical side), it is important to (i) be clear what are the group guidelines for collaboration and authorship; (ii) be consistent in the collaborations with other groups on different research projects.

These guidelines are based on the 2005 Lewis lab authorship guidelines (in 2005, R. Eftimie was a PhD student in the Lewis lab, and took part in the discussion of these guidelines). 

Moreover, these guidelines are based on the following references:

Who can be an author:

Following the advice of Sahu & Abraham (2000), authorship is awarded to collaborators that:

(1) contribute to the conception and design of the work/manuscript ; and/or acquisition of data ; and/or analysis of data ; and/or the analytical mathematical results (for theoretical papers); and/or interpretation of data/simulation results/analytical results.
(2) are involved in drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content
(3) approve the final version to be published.
All these conditions must be met to satisfy the authorship criteria.

Who is not an author: as stated by Sahu & Abraham (2000), “Simply by virtue of being the head of the department or institute, one does not get an automatic right to be an author. Though excluding a non-contributing colleague or the head may at times be difficult, authorship cannot be granted for departmental peace and amity. Authorship cannot be gifted as a means for appreciation or encouragement.“

Order of authors:

There are various ways in which authors are ordered, depending on the scientific communities. Traditionally, the mathematical community lists authors alphabetically, while the very applied scientific communities list authors in the order of their contribution (with the 1st author doing most of the work, the 2nd author doing the second-most of the work, etc.; the last author is the senior author, grant owner, head of the group or the supervisor).

For research done by members of Eftimie’s group:

  • The primary/first author is usually the person who writes most of the manuscript and/or does most of the research work. The senior author (usually the supervisor or the person who has obtained the funding supporting the research) is typically the last author.
  • Remaining co-authors are to be listed either (i) in order of level of contribution to the manuscript or (ii) alphabetically, if the level of contribution from the remaining
    coauthors is similar. A note can be added describing the method of ordering the authors.
  • Authors can also be listed alphabetically if the manuscript is very mathematical and most of the collaborators prefer to follow the rules of the mathematical community. A note can be added describing the method of ordering the authors.
  • In the unusual case of no clear primary authorship, then the listing of all authors is to be alphabetical.

Any authorship issues are typically resolved by the first author through discussion with the senior author.

If more research groups collaborate on the same manuscript, the leader of the group who has done most of the work (e.g., more than 55% if there are 2 groups; more than 35% if there are 3 groups; …) is the last/senior author. In such cases, there is always a junior researcher of the same group that has done most of the work and who is the 1st author. (Again, in the very usual case of no primary authorship, or of similar contribution from all research groups, authors are to be listed alphabetically).

Rights and responsibilities of authors:

Following Sahu & Abraham (2000), all co-authors must have participated sufficiently in the work to take full responsibility for the content of the manuscript. Moreover, all co-authors are accountable for the published work: they must acknowledge and rectify any errors that are brought to light and be able to defend the work and the results, regardless of whether they were directly involved in all parts of the paper.

Notes (to avoid delaying publications for funded-projects that have deadlines):

These extra notes, aimed at avoiding delaying publications for funded-research projects that have specific deadlines, are inspired by the University of New Brunswick COBRA team authorship rules and responsibilities.

  1. If a person leaves a project at a certain stage, his/her progress on the project will be assessed within a meeting with all collaborators involved in that particular project. A new collaborator might be designated to continue the work on that particular project. If the leaving person has made some contribution towards the project (at least 5%) then the leaving person will remain as a co-author on the manuscript (although his/her order in the list of authors might change); otherwise the leaving person will be removed from the authors list and his/her contribution will be acknowledged in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript.
  2. If a person could not finish the assigned task by due date, or within a reasonable time from the last group discussion (e.g., 2-3 months for writing a few paragraphs in the introduction/discussion of a manuscript, and/or giving some feedback to the co-authors; 5-6 months for effective work on the project to advance it), then the same rule as for the leaving person may be applied to him/her.