Contribution Based Author Categorization to Calculate Author Performance Index

Rahman, Mohammad Tariqur and Regenstein, Joe Mac and Abu Kassim, Noor Lide and Karim, Muhammad Manjurul (2020) Contribution Based Author Categorization to Calculate Author Performance Index. Accountability in Research, 27 (8). E-ISSN 1545-5815 (In Press)

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Abstract

Despite the widely used author contribution criteria, unethical authorship practices such as guest, ghost, and honorary authorship remains largely unsolved. We have identified six major reasons by analyzing 78 published papers addressing unethical authorship practice. Those are lack of: (i) awareness about and (ii) compliance with authorship criteria, (iii) universal definition and scope for determining authorship, (iv) common mechanisms for positioning an author in the list, (v) quantitative measures of intellectual contribution; and (vi) pressure to publish. As a possible measure to control unethical practice, we have evaluated the possibility to adopt an author categorization scheme – proposed according to the common understanding of how first-, co-, principal-, or corresponding- author is perceived. Based on an online opinion survey, the proposed scheme was supported by ~80% of the respondents (n=370). The impact of the proposed categorization was then evaluated using a novel mathematical tool to measure “Author Performance Index (API)” that can be higher for those who might have authored more papers as primary and/or principal authors than those as coauthors. Hence, if adopted, the proposed author categorization scheme together with the API would provide a better way to evaluate the credit of an individual as a primary and principal author.

Item Type:	Article (Journal)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Authorship critera, hyperauthorship, relative intellectual contribution, principal author, primary author
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BJ Ethics > BJ1725 Ethics of social groups, classes, etc. Professional ethics
Kulliyyahs/Centres/Divisions/Institutes (Can select more than one option. Press CONTROL button):	Kulliyyah of Education > Department of Language & Literacy
Depositing User:	Prof Dr Noor Lide Abu Kassim
Date Deposited:	09 Dec 2020 17:53
Last Modified:	17 Jan 2021 13:29
URI:	http://irep.iium.edu.my/id/eprint/86138

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