Authorship Procedure

1. Purpose

1.1 The Authorship Procedure (the procedure) guides researchers on acceptable practice around the recognition of significant intellectual or scholarly contribution to a research output.

2. Scope

2.1 The procedure applies to all those under the scope of the Research Policy (the policy) who have made a significant contribution to a research output and have agreed to be included as an author.

3. Principles

3.1 The principles outlined in the policy apply for this procedure.

4. Procedure statements

Authorship criteria

4.1 An author is an individual who has made a significant intellectual or scholarly contribution (as defined in Authorship (an Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research guide)) to research and its output, and who agrees to be included as an author.

4.2 Only individuals who have made a significant contribution to a research output and agree to be named as authors should be listed on the output.

4.3 Students and research trainees who have made a significant contribution to the research are entitled to authorship.

Authorship arrangements

4.4 It is good practice to formalise an authorship agreement before writing up a research project. An individual who meets the criteria for authorship must not be included or excluded without their written agreement.

4.5 Written agreement on authorship should be sought and provided in a reasonable timeframe (refer example Statement of authorship template (Word) (SharePoint)). Authorship agreements should consider:

corresponding authorship – there may be cases where more than one corresponding author is required between institutions
author order – this should be based on accepted practice within the disciplines.

4.6 The corresponding author should keep a vital record of each agreement in approved UTS record systems in line with the Records Management Policy.

4.7 If an author has died, or cannot be contacted despite reasonable attempts, all co-authors must have confidence in the accuracy and integrity of that individual’s contribution and have no reason to believe that the person would have objected to being included as an author.

Author responsibilities

4.8 All authors listed on an output are collectively responsible for the whole research output, and individually responsible for the integrity and accuracy of their contribution to the output.

4.9 Authors must approve a research output before its submission for publication and, in doing so, agree to be accountable for it. If an individual does not agree to be accountable for their contribution, their contribution should not be included in the output and that individual should not be listed as an author.

4.10 The corresponding author must seek approval from all authors on all versions of an output that are submitted for publication, including the final version prior to publication (except in cases where a publisher’s stated practice is to seek author approval). The corresponding author must keep written records (in accordance with the Records Management Policy) to confirm that approval has been obtained from all authors.

4.11 Authors must raise any concerns about the integrity and accuracy of the research before submission or publication.

4.12 Following publication, authors must respond appropriately to any concerns raised about the integrity or accuracy of the research. This means providing all necessary evidence and data to justify the research or correcting the public record in instances where the research cannot be justified or verified.

Appropriate and fair attribution

4.13 The corresponding author must ensure that all contributors to the output are appropriately recognised, regardless of any changes in their position, role or affiliation with UTS.

4.14 All authors should notify the corresponding author of any contributors who have been omitted.

4.15 UTS authors should provide their Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID (Staff Connect)) digital identifier to the corresponding author before submission or publication of the output.

4.16 Contributions to research that do not meet the criteria for authorship, for example contributions to technical support or the provision of data, funding or infrastructure, should be acknowledged in an output where appropriate. Permission should be obtained from contributors before including any acknowledgement.

4.17 The corresponding author must follow the acknowledgement requirements of funding bodies such as the Australian Research Council's Acceptable Forms for Acknowledgement of ARC Funding and the National Health and Medical Research Council’s Funding Agreement.

4.18 Research outputs involving Indigenous knowledge should seek approval from Indigenous people or communities from which that knowledge originates and appropriately acknowledge the individual and collective contributions (refer to Ethical conduct in research with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and communities: Guidelines for researchers and stakeholders).

Institutional attribution and affiliation

4.19 Authors must cite their institutional affiliation as 'University of Technology Sydney' on research outputs generated by UTS expertise, resources, facilities or services as outlined in the Research Management Procedure (SharePoint).

4.20 The by-line must begin with 'University of Technology Sydney', followed by any relevant centre/institute/faculty information. To ensure the university is correctly attributed, do not include any comma in the UTS name. Other wording, use of acronyms or different order of by-line information is not allowed. This may result in the publication being mapped to another institution in external publications databases.

4.21 The following examples show how a publication should be attributed, where the publisher's convention permits. Centre/institute/faculty and location are used only where space allows, as follows:

researcher name, University of Technology Sydney, centre name, Ultimo NSW 2007, Australia
researcher name, University of Technology Sydney, faculty name, Ultimo NSW 2007, Australia.

4.22 For authors holding an honorary appointment at UTS, with a primary affiliation at another university, the UTS affiliation should appear in addition to the primary affiliation, where the publisher’s convention permits.

4.23 UTS authors must maintain up-to-date records of their research outputs in Symplectic and ensure their academic profile on external databases accurately reflects their affiliation with UTS. An academic profile should identify the 'University of Technology Sydney' as the primary affiliation and/or employer.

Breaches and dispute resolution

4.24 Demanding, accepting or claiming authorship on an output without having made a significant contribution is a breach of this procedure and the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research (Australian Code).

4.25 Ghost or gift authorship is not acceptable practice and is inconsistent with the principles and responsibilities outlined in the Australian Code.

4.26 Disputes relating to authorship (inclusion, exclusion, order and merit) may arise from time to time, either before, during or after a research output has been published. Authorship disputes do not necessarily relate to a research integrity breach.

Disputes relating to work (published and unpublished) should be managed where possible between authors, including the corresponding author, and should refer to any formalised statements of authorship.
Disputes that cannot be resolved between authors may be referred to the head of department or associate dean (research) for mediation.
In the case of published works, if remediation is unsuccessful the dispute may be referred to the publisher.

4.27 The aim of authorship dispute resolution is to reach an agreement on appropriate authorship of a research output so that it can be published. If authorship cannot be agreed, then the output cannot be published in its current form.

4.28 All other breaches will be managed in line with the policy.

5. Procedure owner and contact

5.1 Procedure owner: The Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) is responsible for enforcement of and compliance with this procedure, ensuring that its principles and statements are observed, and for the approval of associated university-level procedures, guidelines and user guides.

5.2 Procedure contact: The Manager, Research Integrity and Governance is the primary contact for advice on implementing, administering and monitoring compliance with this procedure.

6. Definitions

The definitions outlined in the policy apply for this procedure. The following definitions are in addition to those definitions. Definitions in the singular include the plural meaning of the word.

Corresponding author is the author responsible for communicating with publishers, managing communication between co-authors and maintaining a record of the authorship agreement. All co-authors must agree on who is the corresponding author.

Approval information

Procedure contact	Manager, Research Integrity and Governance
Approval authority	Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research)
Review date	Three years post approval
File number	UR20/1823
Superseded documents	Guidelines for authors of research outputs