Credit where credit is due? Ideal and reality of co-author name ordering

Co-authorship is common in most research disciplines and has been continuously expanding for decades (Thelwall & Maflahi, 2022). Often the order of authors on a publication is considered in research assessments of individuals and sometimes for bibliometric indicator (i.e., author position-dependent counting methods). Several studies have investigated researchers’ normative conceptions of authorship inclusion criteria and author order criteria (Macfarlane, 2017; Moore & Griffin, 2006; Spiegel & Keith-Speigel, 1970). However, these were restricted to specific disciplines and did not cover the consistency of ideals and reality. This study investigates researchers’ appraisals and experiences with criteria for ordering author names on scientific publications. We analyze survey responses (n=15,778) of researchers from Austria, Switzerland, and Germany collected by the Zurich Survey of Academics (Rauhut, Johann, Jerke, Rathmann, & Velicu, 2021). The respondents rated the importance of seven criteria according to, respectively, their personal preference (ideal), the practice in their own publications, and the practice in their research field (reality). We find that researchers give normatively highest priority to the extent of research contribution. Relative minorities also favor alphabetical ordering and special treatment of researchers facing assessments. In comparison to these ideals, the practical relevance of research contribution is attenuated at the expense of status-based criteria (academic rank), which researchers normatively reject. Preferred criteria do not differ between genders. In practice, broad domains of science have diverging profiles of the relevance of applied criteria. References Macfarlane, B. (2017). The ethics of multiple authorship: Power, performativity and the gift economy. Studies in Higher Education, 42(7), 1194–1210. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2015.1085009 Moore, M. T., & Griffin, B. W. (2006). Identification of factors that influence authorship name placement and decisions to collaborate in peer-reviewed, education-related publications. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 32(2), 125–135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stueduc.2006.04.004 Rauhut, H., Johann, D., Jerke, J., Rathmann, J., & Velicu, A. (2021). The Zurich Survey of Academics: Methods, design, and data. https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-204689 Spiegel, D., & Keith-Speigel, P. (1970). Assignment of publication credits: Ethics and practices of psychologists. American Psychologist, 25(8), 738. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0029769 Thelwall, M., & Maflahi, N. (2022). Research coauthorship 1900–2020: Continuous, universal, and ongoing expansion. Quantitative Science Studies, 3(2), 331–344. https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00188