Procedure: Authorship disputes

Purpose

An authorship agreement is put in place by ANU researchers when planning a research publication or other output. The Form: Responsible conduct of research authorship can be used as a guide and as a record of authorship discussions.
Confidential advice may be sought from a Research Integrity Advisor (RIA). RIAs from any College may be approached.
In the case of an authorship conflict or dispute, every attempt is made to resolve matters locally, with Director/Dean input as appropriate.
Resolution of an authorship dispute may include agreement from all authors that:

identifies those authors who meet the requirement for authorship (see Procedure: Authorship);
identifies how those who do not meet the requirement of authorship are appropriately acknowledge;
identifies the order of authorship to be listed on a publication; and/or
no author is excluded without their written permission.

If agreement on the content or authorship of an output cannot be reached, then alternatives are considered. This may include revision of the content into separate outputs.
If the dispute remains unresolved, the matter may be referred for review by ANU Research Integrity. Such a referral may not constitute an allegation of research misconduct. However, if there has been an intentional and reckless breach of the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research (2018), the authorship dispute may be dealt with under Procedure: Research misconduct and serious research misconduct.

Information	Printable version (PDF)
Title	Authorship disputes
Document Type	Procedure
Document Number	ANUP_000701
Version
Purpose	To address disputes over the inclusion, exclusion or order of potential authors which sometimes arise, especially where an informal approach to authorship has been adopted.
Audience	Staff-Academic-Research, Students-Graduate-Research
Category	Academic
Topic/ SubTopic	Research - Integrity & Ethics

Effective Date	25 Oct 2022
Next Review Date	25 Oct 2027

Responsible Officer:	Chief, Research and Innovation services
Approved By:	Vice-Chancellor
Contact Area	Office of Research and Innovation Services
Authority:	Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research, 2018 : NHMRC Academic Integrity Rule 2021 Copyright Act 1968 National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research 2007
Delegations	0
Information generated and received by ANU staff in the course of conducting business on behalf of ANU is a record and should be captured by an authorised recordkeeping system. To learn more about University records and recordkeeping practice at ANU, see ANU recordkeeping and Policy: Records and archives management.