WHEN AUTHORSHIP FAILS - A PROPOSAL TO MAKE CONTRIBUTORS ACCOUNTABLE

A published article is the primary means whereby new work is communica ted, priority is established, and academic promotion is determined, Pu blication depends on trust and requires that authors be held to standa rds of honesty, completeness, and fairness in their reporting, and to accountability for their statements. The system of authorship, while a ppropriate for articles with only 1 author, has become inappropriate a s the average number of authors of an article has increased; as the wo rk of coauthors has become more specialized and relationships between them have become more complex; and as both credit and, even more, resp onsibility have become obscured and diluted. Credit and accountability cannot be assessed unless the contributions of those named as authors are disclosed to readers, so the system is flawed. We argue for a rad ical conceptual and systematic change, to reflect the realities of mul tiple author ship and to buttress accountability, We propose dropping the outmoded notion of author in favor of the more useful and realisti c one of contributor. This requires disclosure to readers of the contr ibutions made to the research and to the manuscript by the contributor s, so that they can accept both credit and responsibility, In addition , certain named contributors take on the role of guarantor for the int egrity of the entire work. The requirement that all participants be na med as contributors will eliminate the artificial distinction between authors and acknowledgees and will enhance the integrity of publicatio n.