Discussion: View Thread

I think Nayak's situation may be different from those of us on a university payroll.  I agree that in the latter case, helping out colleagues to some extent is in our job description, and co-authorship is the preferred reward, where appropriate.  But for sure, if one's consultancy is your "bread and butter", then a fee would be required for most work, with publication being a bonus.  (I was somewhat in that situation before finally landing here in academia.)

Bill

-------------------------------------------
William Goodman
University of Ontario Institute of Technology
-------------------------------------------

I completely disagree. The journal guidelines explicitly state that criteria for authorship has to with intellectual contribution, and it goes on to specify what qualifies as intellectual contribution. There is no mention of where the payment comes from. You could just as easily argue that no one should get authorship, because the PI's are being paid by the grant.

-------------------------------------------
JoAnn Alvarez
Biostatistician
Department of Biostatistics, Vanderbilt University SOM
-------------------------------------------