Honorary Authorship Practices in Environmental Science Teams: Structural and Cultural Factors and Solutions.
Overinclusive authorship practices such as honorary or guest authorship have been widely reported, and they appear to be exacerbated by the rise of large interdisciplinary collaborations that make authorship decisions particularly complex. Although many studies have reported on the frequency of honorary authorship and potential solutions to it, few have probed how the underlying dynamics of large interdisciplinary teams contribute to the problem. This article reports on a qualitative study of the authorship standards and practices of six National Science Foundation-funded interdisciplinary environmental science teams. Using interviews of the lead principal investigator and an early-career member on each team, our study explores the nature of honorary authorship practices as well as some of the motivating factors that may contribute to these practices. These factors include both structural elements (policies and procedures) and cultural elements (values and norms) that cross organizational boundaries. Therefore, we provide recommendations that address the intersection of these factors and that can be applied at multiple organizational levels.
['Elliott|Kevin C|KC|', 'Settles|Isis H|IH|', 'Montgomery|Georgina M|GM|', 'Brassel|Sheila T|ST|', 'Cheruvelil|Kendra Spence|KS|', 'Soranno|Patricia A|PA|']
D000328:Adult D001319:Authorship D035843:Biomedical Research D004463:Ecology D005260:Female D006126:Group Processes D006801:Humans D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D009042:Motivation D011643:Publishing D036301:Qualitative Research
honorary authorship interdisciplinary teams inclusive research practices research ethics team science