Authorship ethics in global health research partnerships between researchers from low or middle income countries and high income countries

BMC Medical Ethics

Zubin Master¹  Matthew Hunt²  Elise Smith³ 

[1] Health Law Institute, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada;Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation, Montreal, Canada;Applied Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada

关键词: Ranking of authorship;    Collaboration;    Global health research partnerships;    Global health research;    Authorship;   

Others  :  799516
DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6939-15-42

 received in 2014-02-04, accepted in 2014-05-09,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

Over the past two decades, the promotion of collaborative partnerships involving researchers from low and middle income countries with those from high income countries has been a major development in global health research. Ideally, these partnerships would lead to more equitable collaboration including the sharing of research responsibilities and rewards. While collaborative partnership initiatives have shown promise and attracted growing interest, there has been little scholarly debate regarding the fair distribution of authorship credit within these partnerships.

Discussion

In this paper, we identify four key authorship issues relevant to global health research and discuss their ethical and practical implications. First, we argue that authorship guidance may not adequately apply to global health research because it requires authors to write or substantially revise the manuscript. Since most journals of international reputation in global health are written in English, this would systematically and unjustly exclude non-English speaking researchers even if they have substantially contributed to the research project. Second, current guidance on authorship order does not address or mitigate unfair practices which can occur in global health research due to power differences between researchers from high and low-middle income countries. It also provides insufficient recognition of “technical tasks” such as local participant recruitment. Third, we consider the potential for real or perceived editorial bias in medical science journals in favour of prominent western researchers, and the risk of promoting misplaced credit and/or prestige authorship. Finally, we explore how diverse cultural practices and expectations regarding authorship may create conflict between researchers from low-middle and high income countries and contribute to unethical authorship practices. To effectively deal with these issues, we suggest: 1) undertaking further empirical and conceptual research regarding authorship in global health research; 2) raising awareness on authorship issues in global health research; and 3) developing specific standards of practice that reflect relevant considerations of authorship in global health research.

Summary

Through review of the bioethics and global health literatures, and examination of guidance documents on ethical authorship, we identified a set of issues regarding authorship in collaborative partnerships between researchers from low-middle income countries and high income countries. We propose several recommendations to address these concerns.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Smith et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 参考文献 】

• [1]Bast C, Samuels L: Plagiarism and legal scholarship in the age of information sharing: the need for intellectual honesty. Cathol Univ Law Rev 2007, 57:777.
• [2]Wager E: Authors, ghosts, damned lies, and statisticians. PLoS Med 2007, 4:e34.
• [3]Wager E: Recognition, reward and responsibility: why the authorship of scientific papers matters. Maturitas 2009, 62:109-112.
• [4]Coats AJS: Ethical authorship and publishing. Int J Cardiol 2009, 131:149-150.
• [5]Ross JS, Hill KP, Egilman DS, Krumholz HM: Guest authorship and ghostwriting in publications related to rofecoxib. J Am Med Assoc 2008, 299:1800-1812.
• [6]Hvistendahl M: China’s publication bazaar. Science 2013, 342:1035-1039.
• [7]Martinson BC, Anderson MS, de Vries R: Scientists behaving badly. Nature 2005, 435:737-738.
• [8]Martinson BC, Anderson MS, Crain AL, de Vries R: Scientists’ perceptions of organizational justice and self-reported misbehaviors. J Empir Res Hum Res Ethics 2006, 1:51-66.
• [9]Okonta P, Rossouw T: Prevalence of scientific Misconduct among a group of researchers in Nigeria: scientific misconduct in Nigeria. Dev World Bioeth 2013, 13:149-157.
• [10]Zachariah R, Reid T, Van den Bergh R, Dahmane A, Kosgei RJ, Hinderaker SG, Tayler-Smith K, Manzi M, Kizito W, Khogali M, Kumar AMV, Baruani B, Bishinga A, Kilale AM, Nqobili M, Patten G, Sobry A, Cheti E, Nakanwagi A, Enarson DA, Edginton ME, Upshur R, Harries AD: Applying the ICMJE authorship criteria to operational research in low-income countries: the need to engage programme managers and policy makers. Trop Med Int Health 2013, 18:1025-1028.
• [11]Costello A, Zumla A: Moving to research partnerships in developing countries. BMJ 2000, 321:827-829.
• [12]Emanuel EJ, Wendler D, Killen J, Grady C: What makes clinical research in developing countries ethical? The benchmarks of ethical research. J Infect Dis 2004, 189:930-937.
• [13]Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals [http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/archives/2007_urm.pdf webcite]
• [14]Seipel MMO: Assessing publication for tenure. J Soc Work Educ 2003, 39:79-88.
• [15]Rennie D, Flanagin A: Authorship! Authorship! Guest ghosts, grafters, and the two sided coin. J Am Med Assoc 1994, 271:469-471.
• [16]Ezsias A: Authorship is influenced by power and departmental politics. Br Med J 1997, 315:746.
• [17]Seeman JI, House MC: Influences on authorship issues: An evaluation of giving credit. Account Res 2010, 17:146-169.
• [18]Koplan JP, Bond TC, Merson MH, Reddy KS, Rodriguez MH, Sewankambo NK, Wasserheit JN: Towards a common definition of global health. Lancet 2009, 373:1993-1995.
• [19]Zarowsky C: Global health research, partnership, and equity: no more business-as-usual. BMC Int Health Hum Rights 2011, 11:S1.
• [20]Simon C, Mosavel M, van Stade D: Ethical challenges in the design and conduct of locally relevant international health research. Soc Sci Med 2007, 64:1960-1969.
• [21]Ridde V, Cappelle F: La recherche en santé mondiale et les défis des partenariats Nord-Sud. Revue Canadienne de Santé Publique 2011, 102:152-156.
• [22]Policy Statements — World Association of Medical Editors [http://www.wame.org/ resources/policies#authorship webcite]. last accessed June 2013
• [23]Committee on Publication Ethics: Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors. [http://publicationethics.org/files/Code_of_conduct_for_journal_editors.pdf webcite]
• [24]Wager E: Do medical journals provide clear and consistent guidelines on authorship? Med Gen Med 2007, 9:16.
• [25]Bates T, Anić A, Marušić M, Marušić A: Authorship criteria and disclosure of contributions. J Am Med Assoc 2004, 292:86-88.
• [26]Hwang SS, Song HH, Baik JH, Jung SL, Park SH, Choi KH, Park YH: Researcher contributions and fulfillment of ICMJE authorship criteria: analysis of author contribution lists in research articles with multiple authors published in Radiology. Radiology 2003, 226:16-23.
• [27]Salager-Meyer F: Writing and publishing in peripheral scholarly journals: how to enhance the global influence of multilingual scholars? J Engl Acad Purp 2014, 13:78-82.
• [28]Resnik DB: The Ethics of Science: An Introduction. London: Routledge; 1998.
• [29]Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Ethical Considerations in the Conduct and Reporting of Research: Authorship and Contribution [http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/archives/2007_urm.pdf webcite]
• [30]Street JM, Rogers WA, Israel M, Braunack-Mayer AJ: Credit where credit is due? Regulation, research integrity and the attribution of authorship in the health sciences. Soc Sci Med 2010, 70:1458-1465.
• [31]Waltman L: An empirical analysis of the use of alphabetical authorship in scientific publishing. J Informetr 2012, 6:700-711.
• [32]Akhabue E, Lautenbach E: “Equal” contributions and credit: an emerging trend in the characterization of authorship. Ann Epidemiol 2010, 20:868-871.
• [33]Lucas L: The Research Game in Academic Life. McGraw-Hill International: Berkshire; 2006.
• [34]Johri M, Morales RE, Hoch JS, Samayoa BE, Sommen C, Grazioso CF, Boivin JF, Matta IJB, Diaz ELB, Arathoon EG: A cross-sectional study of risk factors for HIV among pregnant women in Guatemala City, Guatemala: lessons for prevention. International journal of STD & AIDS 2010, 21:789-796.
• [35]Rennie D, Yank V, Emanuel L: When authorship fails: a proposal to make contributors accountable. J Am Med Assoc 1997, 278:579-585.
• [36]Horton R: North and South: bridging the information gap. Lancet 2000, 355:2231-2236.
• [37]Langer A, Díaz-Olavarrieta C, Berdichevsky K, Villar J: Why is research from developing countries underrepresented in international health literature, and what can be done about it? Bull World Health Organ 2004, 82:802-803.
• [38]Mendis S, Yach D, Bengoa R, Narvaez D, Zhang X: Research gap in cardiovascular disease in developing countries. Lancet 2003, 361:2246-2247.
• [39]Sumathipala A, Siribaddana S, Patel V: Under-representation of developing countries in the research literature: ethical issues arising from a survey of five leading medical journals. BMC Med Ethics 2004, 5:5. BioMed Central Full Text
• [40]Salager-Meyer F: Scientific publishing in developing countries: challenges for the future. J Engl Acad Purp 2008, 7:121-132.
• [41]Landa LGG: Academic language barriers and language freedom. Curr Issues Lang Plan 2006, 7:61-81.
• [42]Yousefi-Nooraie R, Shakiba B, Mortaz-Hejri S: Country development and manuscript selection bias: a review of published studies. BMC Med Res Methodol 2006, 6:37. BioMed Central Full Text
• [43]Tutarel O: Composition of the editorial boards of leading medical education journals. BMC Med Res Methodol 2004, 4:3. BioMed Central Full Text
• [44]Matías-Guiu J, García-Ramos R: Editorial bias in scientific publications. Neurol Engl Ed 2011, 26:1-5.
• [45]Godlee F, Dickersin K: Bias, subjectivity, chance, and conflict of interest in health sciences. In Peer Review in Health Science. 2nd edition. Edited by Jefferson T, Godlee F. London: Wiley; 2003:91-118.
• [46]Lillis T, Magyar A, Robinson‒Pant A: An international journal’s attempts to address inequalities in academic publishing: developing a writing for publication programme. Comp J Comp Int Educ 2010, 40:781-800.
• [47]AuthorAID [http://www.authoraid.info/en/ webcite]
• [48]Research4Life [http://www.research4life.org/ webcite]
• [49]Publication Fees PLOS [http://www.plos.org/publish/pricing-policy/publication-fees/ webcite]
• [50]Ana J, Koehlmoos T, Smith R, Yan LL: Research misconduct in low- and middle-income countries. PLoS Med 2013, 10:e1001315.
• [51]Shefer T, Shabalala N, Townsend L: Women and authorship in post-apartheid psychology. South Afr J Psychol 2004, 34:576-594.
• [52]Duncan N, van Niekerk A, Townsend L: Following apartheid: authorship trends in the South African Journal of Psychology after 1994. South Afr J Psychol 2004, 34:553-575.
• [53]Afsana K, Habte D, Hatfield J, Murphy J, Neufeld V: Partnership assessment toolkit. Ottawa, ON: Canadian coalition for global health research; 2009.
• [54]Resnik DB, Master Z: Policies and initiatives aimed at addressing research misconduct in high-income countries. PLoS Med 2013, 10:e1001406.
• [55]National Science Foundation (NSF): Responsible conduct of research. Fed Regist 2009, 74(160):42126.
• [56]Update on the Requirement for Instruction in the Responsible Conduct of Research [http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-10-019.html webcite]
• [57]Resnik DB: International standards for research integrity: an idea whose time has come? Account Res 2009, 16:218-228.
• [58]Jaykaran YP, Chavda N, Kantharia ND: Survey of “instructions to authors” of Indian medical journals for reporting of ethics and authorship criteria. Indian J Med Ethics 2011, 8:36-38.