At the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering research is being conducted in numerous varying research disciplines. Most of these disciplines have their own specific customs and rules concerning authorship on scientific publications. These are mostly internationally recognized practices, universally applied within this research area.

Notwithstanding this diversity of discipline specific rules and practices, at the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering a number of fundamental interdisciplinary arrangements are being complied with concerning authorship on scientific publications:

• within the research units there is an open communication culture on authorship on publications between supervisors, doctoral researchers, and everyone involved in research activities;
• specific arrangements on authorship are made as early as possible when a research project or experiment is started, at least before writing of the publication begins. These arrangements take into account the commonly accepted rules for author positions in the discipline concerned. In joint consultation with all persons concerned a clear explanation will always be given as to why someone will or will not be mentioned on the publications;
• each author on a publication has made a substantial contribution to the study, and has read and approved the text of the publication. On the other hand one needs to be attentive that everyone who has made a substantial contribution is also effectively mentioned as one of the authors.

Based on the general arrangements within the Faculty as mentioned above, attempt will be made to always reach in joint consultation a clear, concrete and supported agreement on this matter for each specific project or experiment. As support for making specific arrangements on authorship the following useful texts on this subject are recommended:

• recommendations concerning scientific authorship made by the ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors): http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html
• publication in Nature (2012) on this subject matter: Dance, A. (2012). Authorship: who’s on first? Nature 489, 591-593, also to be found on http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/science/articles/10.1038/nj7417-591a

Questions or problems concerning authorship on scientific publications may be reported to the Faculty’s contact person on this matter, Prof. Luc Tirry.