Supervisor as Co-Author

Arne Veum is in the process of completing his doctoral research in biology on environmentally induced diseases in wild and farmed fish, when Professor Lien, Veum’s supervisor, demands to be listed as a co-author on Article III, in addition to Article I, where she is already listed as a co-author.

Lien secured the funding for Veum’s project and has served as his supervisor throughout the entire PhD program. Lien has also assisted by referring Veum to relevant contacts during data collection.

For Article I, Lien contributed input to the study design and provided substantial feedback throughout the process, particularly in the data analysis.

For Article III, Lien’s contribution was more limited, but she also gave comments on various drafts leading up to publication. At the same time, Professor Lien is writing a separate article on fish vulnerability to environmentally induced disease. This article is largely based on Articles I and III from Veum’s doctoral work. So far, Veum is not listed as a co-author, but he is cited in the reference list.

Questions:

• Does Lien meet recognized research ethics standards for co-authorship with regard to Article I?
• Does Lien meet the same criteria with regard to Article III?
• What is required for a supervisor to reasonably qualify as a co-author of research that is primarily conducted by a PhD student?
• Should the same criteria for contribution apply when the PhD student is to be listed as a co-author on an article written by the supervisor?

Read more:

• Co-authorship
• Guidelines for Research Ethics in Science and Technology