Faculty‐student authorship: Policy development

In academic settings, including nursing, scholarship expectations with the intent of publication are required of both faculty and students often under time constraints and excessive workloads. Successful scholarly completion is considered a measure of achievement for faculty and graduate students often associated with personal and professional rewards such as tenure and promotion, career advancement, and funding opportunities. In order to be a successful scholarly collaboration, guidelines in the form of policy can protect author teams and provide clarity and direction regarding authorship criteria and authorship order. For faculty, scholarship is integrated into newly hired tenure track roles and is expected to be achieved within established timeframes while teaching full time, developing/updating course content and advising and mentoring students. Academic positions are often dependent upon successful completion and presentation of such projects.1 These scholarly requirements for faculty are associated with professional credibility and career satisfaction. Moreover, there can be ongoing scholarly mandates for faculty to achieve after securing tenure status which may present similar challenges.1 For students at the graduate level, scholarship requirements are built into the curriculum with faculty approval and oversight. Students work with faculty mentors who advise, monitor progress toward completion, and possibly contribute to scholarly work, allowing for faculty-student authorship collaborations.3 Ongoing clarification of author roles and responsibilities early and often throughout the scholarly process can decrease author conflicts.2-8 The literature highlights faculty-student authorship among many disciplines, including accounting, psychology, chemistry, mental health, family relations and nursing with differing authorship guidelines.2-8 In nursing academia, a study found that faculty conflicted on criteria that warranted authorship.2 Some faculty agreed that authorship was warranted for editing and revising while others did not.2 Nursing faculty agreed that acquiring funding and completing the review of the literature warranted authorship credit while other disciplines discredited these criteria.2 Regardless of discipline, the inherent power differential between faculty and students in academia is a complex and critical issue that can have a significant implications for collaboration, ethical behavior, and quality of scholarship.2 This power differential arises from the faculty's position as the gatekeeper of academic opportunities leading to the potential for unethical behavior.2 Moreover, policy development supporting ethical practices for faculty-student authorship in nursing academia was recommended.2-4 Additionally, House & Seeman6 suggest education of faculty regarding responsible conduct of research which can augment both faculty-faculty and faculty-student authorship collaborations. While the importance of scholarship expectations among these disciplines was universal, there was disparity noted among the disciplines regarding authorship criteria and authorship order.2, 3 Collins, et al4 assert co-author with seniority take the lead author role, while House & Seeman6 suggest authorship credit decisions should be based on existing guidelines including American Chemical Society and other professional societies and journals. Furthermore, the student was designated as primary author and faculty as second author with outlined role expectations in the family relations discipline and nursing experts recommended signage of a memorandum stating authorship order and expected contributions from each author.8, 9 Regardless of the discipline, academic collaborative authorships can experience author conflicts.9 With the lack of recent literature in the last 10 years, the findings support the development and standardization of guidelines for collaborative authorship practices, specifically with regard to authorship criteria and authorship order. Authorship collaborations among faculty-faculty members both inside and outside the academic setting as well as faculty-student collaborations can be more effective partnerships if designed and guided by a policy that highlights these deficiencies while decreasing and ultimately preventing conflicts and disputes concerning authorship criteria and order. Development of authorship policy addressing authorship criteria and authorship order is essential for successful scholarly collaborations in nursing academia. The purpose of this project was to explore the presence of an authorship policy in nursing academic programs and subsequent development of a collaborative authorship policy. Our data collection for policy development was a review of academic institutions from comparable schools, including two private schools where the authors are employed. This included 17 Mercy colleges and universities and 28 Jesuit colleges and universities with a combined count of 45 academic institutions. Mercy and Jesuit schools are academic institutions with distinct religious affiliations and similar educational philosophies. Of the 45 academic institutions, 37 have a school of nursing. A systematic search process was conducted to collect data from each institution's website. First, each institution's website was accessed via a Google search. Second, the institution's homepage “search” feature was used to search for authorship-related terms, including authorship policy, authorship agreement, and authorship guidelines. Third, results of the search were reviewed for anything related to authorship policy. Lastly, the deans or directors from the 37 schools of nursing were emailed to request a copy of their authorship policy, if applicable. This resulted in four policies that were reviewed. Given the few policies that were found through these methods, a Google search of authorship policy at universities was conducted and a request on the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) discussion board asking for nursing faculty to share their faculty-student authorship policy was posted. The Google search yielded 11 policies and the AACN discussion board post yielded zero policies. Upon completion of our Internet search of the institutions, responses from deans or directors, responses from the AACN discussion board and a Google search, there were 15 institutions with an authorship policy. The policies were reviewed for the following six aspects: (1) outlining authorship criteria, (2) recommending when to discuss authorship, (3) procedure for dispute resolution, (4) guidance on faculty-student collaboration, (5) objective tool for determining authorship credit, and (6) objective tool for determining authorship order. Of the 15 institutions with an authorship policy, 15 discussed authorship criteria, 12 recommended when to discuss authorship, 12 provided a procedure for dispute resolution, six discussed guidance on faculty-student collaboration, one provided an objective tool for determining authorship credit, and zero provided an objective tool for determining authorship order. A summary of the findings was used to highlight common guidelines and best practices regarding authorship and faculty-student collaboration. Based on these findings, an authorship policy was drafted. The policy consisted of five headings, including authorship policy, authorship criteria, order of authorship, faculty-student collaboration, and dispute resolution. Under the first heading, the policy identifies who the policy applies to and the purpose of the policy. Under authorship criteria, the policy outlines the criteria that warrants authorship as defined by the International Committee for Medical Journal Editors and American Psychological Association.10-12 The order of authorship section provides a rubric on how to determine who deserves authorship and the order of authorship based on the author's contributions to scholarly activity. The faculty-student collaboration heading outlines the ethical practices that should be followed. Lastly, the policy ends with a discussion and guidelines on dispute resolution. See Figures 1 and 2 for the faculty-student authorship policy and contract for publication. Authorship policy. Contract regarding publication intent. A review of the literature showed the need for a faculty-student authorship policy in nursing academia. Nursing academic institutions were explored to identify a faculty-student authorship policy. The summary of findings in this project were consistent with the review of the literature in that a few academic institutions have an authorship policy that addresses faculty-student collaboration, and zero institutions use or developed an objective tool to assist with authorship discussions. Further exploration identified six common aspects in the authorship policies that were used to develop a faculty-student authorship policy for academic nursing programs. In addition to the six aspects found in the authorship policies, faculty-student collaboration was an additional aspect included in the policy. Addressing these criteria address the challenges and contribute to the fair attribution of authorship in faculty-student collaboration, including authorship disputes, credit and recognition, power imbalance, intellectual property rights, communication issues, and time commitment. Acknowledging these common conflicts in the authorship policy can ensure that ethical considerations, interdisciplinary collaborations, and the diverse nature of scholarship are taken into consideration. The implications of the policy can positively impact both faculty and students. These guidelines provide faculty with structure, clarity, and a framework for effective collaboration with students. Additional benefits for faculty include improved communication, efficient task allocation, mitigation of authorship disputes, and enhanced mentorship opportunities. Clear guidelines ensure that both faculty and students understand their roles, responsibilities, and expectations in scholarship or research minimizing potential conflicts. This ensures that each team member contributes in a meaningful way, optimizing the use of resources and time. This can create a structured mentorship environment where faculty can provide guidance and direction to students. Collaborating with students introduces faculty to new perspectives and innovative ideas. A transparent process for faculty-student collaboration can provide an environment for academic and personal development for the student. Participating in the research process under a transparent policy exposes students to various aspects of the research process, including literature review, data collection, analysis, and manuscript preparation. Successful collaboration and publication can increase a student's confidence in their capabilities that can extend into other endeavors. The contributions to scholarship can be advantageous for career opportunities, as well. Limitations of this research project include institutional implementation. The policy may need to be revised to align with the institution's current practices. The policy may require faculty discussion and training for integration in the institution. There may be faculty who disagree with publishing with students regardless of a policy or an objective tool. Additional limitations include a small sample size where only Mercy and Jesuit institutions were explored. Future research should assess the effectiveness of the policy in real-world scenarios and its impact on faculty-student collaborations. Collaborative authorships are essential to developing, synthesizing, and disseminating new knowledge for the growth and advancement of disciplines, particularly the nursing profession. Faculty-student collaborative authorships are designed to be effective interactive networks in nursing academia to foster intellectual growth through mutually agreed upon goals and benefits. Therefore, it is imperative that both parties resolve and ultimately prevent conflicts related to authorship. The initiation of authorship expectations, review of guidelines or authorship contracts, and documentation of contributions early in the authorship process are key to successful collaborations. Transparency and crucial communication can alleviate many stressors and anxiety related to complex topics and disciplinary norms regarding authorship. It is vital that this topic continues to be a key conversation in academia to support both the student and faculty collaborative scholarly works and endeavors. The data used in this study is available upon request. Interested parties are invited to contact the corresponding author Emily Eiswirth via email at [email protected] to obtain access to the dataset. We are committed to facilitating transparency and collaboration in research and will respond promptly to requests for data sharing. Please note that access to the data is subject to compliance with ethical and privacy considerations, and requests will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. The authors declare no conflict of interest or competing interests. Emily Eiswirth, DNP, APRN, FNP-C, ANP-BC, earned a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree from Vanderbilt University and Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) degree from the Goldfarb School of Nursing at Barnes Jewish Hospital. She is an assistant professor at Loyola University New Orleans. Currently, she holds a position within a Federally Qualified Health Center where she plays a crucial role in ensuring access to affordable, high-quality healthcare for individuals and families, particularly those with limited financial resources or living in medically underserved communities. Ann Miller, DNP, MSN, APRN/CCNS, CCRN-K, earned a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree from Governors State University in 2011. She is a certified acute care advanced practice nurse specializing in Critical Care and Cardiology. She is currently a full-time assistant professor in the College of Nursing at St. Xavier University in Chicago, IL.