Project Credit: Amy Brand - Beyond authorship: recognising the contributions to research
Download as PPTX, PDF2 likes795 views
The document summarizes feedback from researchers on a proposed taxonomy of contributor roles in research publications. Key findings include: - Respondents generally agreed with the proposed 14 terms and definitions, with some suggestions for clarification or additional terms. - Most felt contributor roles should be assigned by the corresponding author and confirmed by other contributors. - A majority supported expressing degree of contribution for each role on a coarse scale (e.g. substantial/equal/supporting). - Recommendations included adopting the proposed terms and approach, gathering more input from different fields, and documenting additional feedback.
![Beyond authorship: recognising
the contributions to research
Researcher Responses to
the CReDIT Taxonomy
[David Baker, Jo Scott,
Micah Altman]](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/crworkshop101214finaldbmaadded-150107113339-conversion-gate02/85/Project-Credit-Amy-Brand-Beyond-authorship-recognising-the-contributions-to-research-1-320.jpg)
Project Credit: Amy Brand - Beyond authorship: recognising the contributions to research
- 1. Beyond authorship: recognising the contributions to research Researcher Responses to the CReDIT Taxonomy [David Baker, Jo Scott, Micah Altman]
- 3. First Draft: What respondents liked • Using the taxonomy was generally clear/well defined • All contributors should be recognised for their work • Formalising the process is a good idea Researcher Responses to the CReDIT Taxonomy 12/10/14 3
- 4. First Draft: Respondents’ concerns • Ensuring that taxonomy is – comprehensive – Inclusive – fit-for-purpose • Challenging to – appreciate all aspects of author contributions in a paper – ensure agreement among authors – ensure the system is fair Researcher Responses to the CReDIT Taxonomy 12/10/14 4
- 6. Term Definition Conceptualization Ideas; formulation or evolution of overarching research goals and aims. Methodology Development or design of methodology; creation of models. Software Programming, software development; designing computer programs; implementation of the computer code and supporting algorithms; testing of existing code components. Validation Verification, whether as a part of the activity or separate, of the overall replication/reproducibility of results/experiments and other research outputs. Formal Analysis Application of statistical, mathematical, computational, or other formal techniques to analyse or synthesize study data. Investigation Conducting a research and investigation process, specifically performing the experiments, or data/evidence collection. Resources Provision of study materials, reagents, materials, patients, laboratory samples, animals, instrumentation, computing resources, or other analysis tools. Data Curation Management activities to annotate (produce metadata), scrub data and maintain research data (including software code, where it is necessary for interpreting the data itself) for initial use and later re- use. Writing – Original Draft Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically writing the initial draft (including substantive translation). Writing – Review & Editing Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work by those from the original research group, specifically critical review, commentary or revision – including pre- or post-publication stages. Visualization Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically visualization/data presentation. Supervision Oversight and leadership responsibility for the research activity planning and execution, including mentorship external to the core team. Project Administration Management and coordination responsibility for the research activity planning and execution. Funding Acquisition Acquisition of the financial support for the project leading to this publication.Researcher Responses to the CReDIT Taxonomy 12/10/14 6
- 7. Summary of Findings Who responded? Predominantly senior male researchers located in the US or UK conducting work in biological or biomedical sciences. How did they respond to terms? A clear majority agreed with almost all of the proposed terms. How did they respond to other questions? A strong majority were in favor of having the contributing author assign roles, with some form of confirmation from other contributors, and reporting coarse-grained degree of contribution 12/10/14 Researcher Responses to the CReDIT Taxonomy 7
- 8. Consultation on the taxonomy Aim • To obtain feedback on the refined 14-term contributor role taxonomy and to think about implementation Method • An online feedback form to collect views from the scientific community (i.e. researchers, funders, publishers etc.) around the 14 terms in the taxonomy • 116 complete responses were received Researcher Responses to the CReDIT Taxonomy 12/10/14 8
- 9. Respondent Characteristics 12/10/14 Researcher Responses to the CReDIT Taxonomy 10
- 10. Term 4: Validation Term 13: Project Administration Term 11: Visualization Term 8: Data Curation Term 14: Funding Acquisition Term 7: Resources Term 10: Writing - Review & Editing Term 3: Software Term 12: Supervision Term 2: Methodology Term 5: Formal Analysis Term 9: Writing - Original Draft Term 1: Conceptualization Term 6: Investigation Strongly disagree Tend to disagree No strong opinion either way Tend to agree Strongly agree To what extent do you agree or disagree that this term should be included in a contributor roles taxonomy? Base: All, n=116 50% Researcher Responses to the CReDIT Taxonomy 12/10/14 11
- 11. Term 4: Validation Term 13: Project Administration Term 11: Visualization Term 8: Data Curation Term 14: Funding Acquisition Term 7: Resources Term 10: Writing - Review & Editing Term 3: Software Term 12: Supervision Term 2: Methodology Term 5: Formal Analysis Term 9: Writing - Original Draft Term 1: Conceptualization Term 6: Investigation Strongly disagree Tend to disagree No strong opinion either way Tend to agree Strongly agree To what extent do you agree or disagree that this term should be included in a contributor roles taxonomy? Base: All, n=116 50% Researcher Responses to the CReDIT Taxonomy 12/10/14 12
- 12. Coarse-Grained Degree of contribution 73 43 Yes No In any given implementation of the taxonomy, in your opinion, should contributors be able to express what degree of contribution they made in relation to each role? Base: All, n=116 Researcher Responses to the CReDIT Taxonomy 12/10/14 13
- 13. Who should assign contributor roles? 14 10 66 26 Corresponding author Self-assigned by each contributor Corresponding author initially, followed by confirmation by each contributor Other In any given implementation of the taxonomy, in your opinion, who should assign contributor roles? Base: All, n=116 Researcher Responses to the CReDIT Taxonomy 12/10/14 14 Unpacking other… Most favored some form of confirmation. E.g. corresponding author with appeal, consensus, or self assigned with confirmation by corresponding author.
- 14. Selected Critical Comments Funding acquisition – main issue was that this should not count as authorship. If this is implemented need to make sure that researchers recognise that this system is moving away from the concept of author Data curation – part of methodology or analysis? Visualization – not worth a separate category, should be within data analysis? Project administration - should be with supervision, shouldn’t qualify for authorship Validation – shouldn’t be a separate activity; part of methodology/investigation Researcher Responses to the CReDIT Taxonomy 12/10/14 15
- 15. Current Profile Terms and Definitions • Each term received suggested alternate terms. – For example: • Each term received alternate or expanded definitions. – For example: Current Term: Methodology Methods development Designing the experiment Methodology designer Method planning Study design Optimization of methodology Definition of Methodology: Development or design of methodology; creation of models. Creation of procedures or methods. Development of methodological plan; design of new methodology; creation of models. The planned process of creating an action plan for procedures, that when carried out, will produce an analysis of data that answers the hypothesis. It includes both a plan for conducting the experiment, collecting and managing data, and analysis of data for answering the hypothesis. Researcher Responses to the CReDIT Taxonomy 12/10/14 16
- 16. Selected Additional Terms • Over 30 new terms suggested, most with definitions – Examples include: Term Definition Interpretation Using results to produce sound conclusions. Data Illustration Production of illustration, graphics and figures essential to the data production, publication or presentation. Ethics Approval Responsibility for acquiring and compliance with ethics approval. Useful Discussions Informal discussions about the research work that lead to refinement of ideas and/or approaches/methodologies. Communication Similar to visualisation but broader - can include summarising, blogging, press/media work. Communicating the results of research, either to a specialist or lay audience. Editorial Journal editor who curated from submission to publication. Researcher Responses to the CReDIT Taxonomy 12/10/14 17
- 17. Recommendations 1. Adopt all proposed terms, as defined 2. Adopt coarse-grained degree of contribution (e.g. “substantial/equal/supporting”) 3. Recommend practice for implementers: corresponding author assign roles, with review and confirmation by all contributors. 4. Gather targeted input from social scientists, natural scientists, junior researchers (e.g. through field test) 5. Capture additional suggestions from responses {terms, clarifications, synonyms} in user-facing documentation (e.g. online contextual “help”) Researcher Responses to the CReDIT Taxonomy 12/10/14 18