Disclosure of researcher contributions: A study of original research articles in The Lancet

Background: Authorship disputes and abuses have increased in recent years. In response to a proposal that researcher contributions be specified for re aders, The Lancet began disclosing such contributions at the end of origina l articles. Objective: To analyze the descriptions researchers use for their contributi ons and to determine how the order of names on the byline corresponds to th ese contributions, whether persons listed on the byline fulfill a lenient v ersion of the criteria for authorship specified by the International Commit tee of Medical Journal Editors (the Vancouver Group), and whether the contr ibutions of persons listed as contributors overlap with the contributions o f those who are acknowledged. Design: Descriptive study. Measurements: A taxonomy of researchers' contributions was developed and ap plied to researchers' self-reported contributions to original research arti cles published in The Lancet from July to December 1997. Results: Contributors lists occupied little page space (mean, 2.5 cm of col umn length). Placement on the byline did not indicate the specific category of task performed, although the first contributor position corresponded to a significantly greater number of contributions (mean numbers of contribut ions: first-contributor position, 3.23; second-contributor position, 2.51; third-contributor position, 2.20; and fourth-contributor position, 2.51) (P < 0.01). Forty-four percent of contributors on the byline did not fulfill a lenient version of the Vancouver Group's criteria for authorship. Sixty p ercent of the most common categories of activities described on contributor s lists overlapped with those on acknowledgments lists. Conclusions: Publication of lists that specify contributions to research ar ticles is feasible and seems to impart important information. The criteria for authorship outlined by the Vancouver Group do not seem to be congruent with the self-identified contributions of researchers.