Authorship is fundamental within the academy. Writing allows for scholars to contribute to scholarly debate and advance new theories; and publications are key to presenting a compelling case for hiring, tenure, and promotion.

Mentors and mentees should discuss the authorship process from conceptualization to publication, including addressing peer review comments, navigating failure and fatigue, and determining authorship order.

Mentor Commitments

As a mentor, I will …

• communicate and model ethical research practices (e.g., protect participants, maintain data integrity, present original work).
• establish, communicate, and refine authorship guidelines with input from my mentee and/or research group.
• advise my mentee as they seek potential venues to disseminate their work (e.g., policy reports, empirical articles).
• guide my mentee to establish, develop, and advance a research pipeline (e.g., papers in different stages), and build a publication record.
• clarify and answer questions about preparing, submitting, and disseminating scholarly work for conferences, journals, etc.
• recognize and treat my mentee as a thought-partner while providing guidance on publications and other scholarly work.

Mentee Commitments

As a mentee, I will …

• engage in ethical research practices (e.g., protect participants, maintain data integrity, present original work).
• secure authorship guidelines from my mentor and contribute to their refinement.
• work with my mentor to identify potential venues to disseminate my research (e.g., conference presentations, empirical articles, policy briefs, brown bag luncheons)
• ask my mentor for guidance to establish, develop, and advance a research pipeline (e.g., papers in different stages) and build a publication record.
• seek clarity from my mentor about preparing, submitting, and disseminating authored scholarly work for conferences, journals, etc.
• aspire to engage with my mentor as a thought-partner while seeking guidance on publications and other scholarly work.

Additional Resources

• International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE): Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors
• Elsevier Publishing, CRediT author statement
• The National Science Foundation (NSF), conducting ethical and rigorous research
• Pain, E. (2021, May 6). How to navigate authorship of scientific manuscripts. Science. https://www.science.org/content/article/how-navigate-authorship-scientific-manuscripts
• Liboiron, M., Ammendolia, J., Winsor, K., Zahara, A., Bradshaw, H., Melvin, J., Mather, C., Dawe, N., Wells, E., Liboiron, F., Fürst, B., Coyle, C., Saturno, J., Novacefski, M., Westscott, S., & Liboiron, G. (2017). Equity in author order: A feminist laboratory’s approach. Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience, 3(2), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.28968/cftt.v3i2.28850
• Bozeman, B., & Corley, E. (2004). Scientists’ collaboration strategies: implications for scientific and technical human capital. Research Policy, 33(4), 599–616. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2004.01.008