Authorship Criteria and Disclosure of Contributions

Comparison of 3 General Medical Journals With Different Author Contribution Forms

Bates, Tamara MD
Anić, Ante MD
Marušić, Matko MD, PhD
Marušić, Ana MD, PhD

Zagreb University School of Medicine, Zagreb, Croatia.

Corresponding Author: Ana Marušić, MD, PhD, Zagreb University School of Medicine, Šalata 3, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia ([email protected])

Author Contributions: As principal investigator, Dr Ana Marušić had full access to all of the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.

Study concept and design: M. Marušić, A. Marušić.

Acquisition of data: Bates, Anić.

Analysis and interpretation of data: Bates, Anić, A. Marušić.

Drafting of the manuscript: Bates, Anić, A. Marušić.

Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: M. Marušić.

Statistical analysis: Bates, Anić, A. Marušić.

Obtained funding: M. Marušić.

Administrative, technical, or material support: M. Marušić, A. Marušić.

Supervision: M. Marušić, A. Marušić.

Funding/Support: This study was supported by research grant 0108182 from the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of Croatia.

Role of the Sponsor: The sponsor had no role in any aspect of the study, including data collection and analysis, manuscript preparation, or authorization for publication.

Disclosure: Drs A. Marušić and M. Marušić are editors of a general medical journal.

Acknowledgment: We thank Ivan Krešimir Lukić, MD, for statistical advice.

JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association 292(1):p 86-88, July 7, 2004.

Context

A number of general medical journals and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) request authors to disclose their contributions. Little is known about the effect of journal policies on authors' disclosure of their contributions.

Objective

To determine the number of named authors who do not meet ICMJE criteria for authorship, according to their published contributions, in 3 medical journals with different contribution disclosure practices.

Design

Observational study of authors' contributions in research articles published in 2002 in Annals of Internal Medicine (n = 72), BMJ (n = 107), and JAMA (n = 81). BMJ asks authors to describe research contributions in their own words; Annals asks authors to choose from a list of coded contributions; and JAMA uses a structured checklist with instructions on contributions that qualify for ICMJE authorship criteria. Honorary authorship was defined as the lack of contribution from the first ICMJE criterion (study conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data) and/or second (drafting the article or critical revision for important intellectual content) ICMJE criterion.

Results

According to authors' published contributions, the number of honorary authors was highest in Annals (121/562 authors, 21.5%), followed by BMJ (46/482, 9.5%), and JAMA (3/641, 0.5%) (χ²₂ = 146.67, P<.001). The number of articles with honorary authors was 60% in Annals, 21% in BMJ, and 4% in JAMA. Honorary authors had fewer published contributions than authors who met ICMJE criteria and were positioned more toward the end of the byline. Honorary authors either lacked contributions for both ICMJE criteria (10% in Annals and 22% in BMJ) or contributions to the second ICMJE criterion (75% in Annals, 67% in BMJ, and 2 out of 3 in JAMA).

Conclusions

General medical journals differed in prevalence of honorary authors according to published research contributions of named authors. Different authorship/contributorship policies and procedures should be explored as a possible explanation for the differences in contributions disclosed by authors among these journals.