Creating a responsible authorship culture in science: Anchoring authorship practices in principles of transparency, credit, and accountability

A responsible authorship culture is the cornerstone of a responsible research enterprise. It is the collective responsibility of the entire scholarly community—including researchers at all levels of seniority, journals, research funders, scholarly societies, and research institutions. We examined authorship guidelines issued by journals and research institutions and found that their recommendations to researchers are highly variable. We argue that harmonization of guidelines can help but also that guidelines alone are insufficient to promote culture change. A responsible authorship culture requires a principle-based reflection by research teams on what it means to be an author with support and encouragement from research institutions. Accordingly, we propose three interconnected principles that form the foundation for responsible authorship: transparency, credit, and accountability. We also offer three ways in which research team leaders can embed best practices for transparency, credit, and accountability in their ongoing work.