CONFLICT BETWEEN TWO AUTHORS
An article was published in a journal. Seven months later an email was received from an author declaring that he was invited by the lead author of the article to help with statistical analysis and had made significant contributions to the paper. To his surprise, he realised that the article was published and he was not listed as a coauthor.
The editor asked the complaining author to respond to several questions, including: whether he had contributed to the manuscript in accordance with COPE authorship criteria? Was there a written agreement with the lead investigator and other authors to include him as a coauthor of the article for the support he provided: Was he listed, at some point, as an author of the manuscript, and then removed without his knowledge? The author responded that he believed he fulfilled some of the criteria for authorship. He only had a verbal agreement with the main author and he had never been listed on the paper.
The lead author maintains that the contribution of the complaining author was not significant to warrant authorship.
COPE advice
Authorship disputes are normally very difficult to adjudicate, and COPE recommends that journals do not enter into such disputes. Furthermore, they recommend that journals may not make authorship changes unless the reasons are clear and all of the authors agree to the change.
The editor should contact the lead author informing them that, unless the parties involved can reach a prompt agreement on this matter themselves, it will be referred to the university, in accordance with the COPE flowchart on adding authors after publication.
