Overview

This study aims to explore the understanding of researchers working in biomedical and health sciences in India on authorship guidelines, assigning authorship, and navigating through various authorship issues. It also hopes to understand the researchers’ and other stakeholders, like journal editors and deans of research institutes’, perspectives on encouraging appropriate authorship. This project will be a 10-month-long qualitative study exploring the knowledge of authorship guidelines, the experiences of researchers in navigating authorship issues and challenges, and how we may best encourage appropriate authorship practices.

Rationale

Fairness in credit is important given the collective efforts of teams in both academic and professional research. But in reality, authorship practices are greatly affected by an understanding of ethics, power dynamics across professional hierarchies, professional designations, ambitions, relationship-building, and multiple other factors. It is important to not just understand the knowledge levels and what is right normatively but to humanize the discourse on this topic, to understand how researchers and students navigate through fear, pressures, and stress and what they think can help researchers alike.  

Progress till date

The project is set to begin on 1st April 2024.