Authorship Guidlines for READISCA Publications
READISCA Steering Committee
May 26, 2022
Authorship for any READISCA publications will be agreed upon in the READISCA Steering Committee on a case-by-case basis within the following framework:
Lead authors:
First Author and Last Author will be provided by the READISCA team which has had the lead for a particular publication. In cases where two or more READISCA teams have conceptualized and generated a publication in equal shares, there will be joint first authorship and joint last authorship between these teams.
Any persons from the lead team(s) who have had major contributions to the publication besides the first and last author will be listed right after the first author(s).
Default co-authors:
For any publications including READISCA data and/or materials, the multiple principal investigators (MPIs) of READISCA, i.e., Tetsuo Ashizawa, Gulin Oz, Henry L. Paulson, Thomas Klockgether, and Alexandra Durr, should always be acknowledged by a co-authorship in the main author list.
Further co-authors:
In terms of further authors, the READISCA Steering Committee will decide the number of authors for each READISCA site based on the contribution to the particular publication. For manuscripts including follow-up data, not the number of enrolled study participants but the number of study visits from which data was contributed will determine the number of author slots for that site. Each READISCA team can then appoint the respective number of contributors for the authors list (to be placed before the last author), with the order sorted based on the resources the respective team contributed for the publication (e.g. number of datasets).
If any READISCA member(s) submit a pre-submission review that significantly changes the manuscript content, the READISCA team may change the authorship order or category of the READISCA member(s) in the particular publication.
READISCA investigators:
In case that either (a) the number of authors for a publication in a certain journal is limited by the journal or (b) the contribution of some investigators is below the level that would justify a full co-authorship, those who made contributions but are not listed as authors with their full name will appear as “READISCA investigators” (if permitted by the respective journal). This typically applies for clinical investigators who performed only a small number of assessments and ensures that all READISCA contributors will be findable in PubMed also when they do not have an individual author slot in a certain publication (https://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/ma08/ma08_collaborators.html).
Whether or not it is indicated to use the “READISCA investigators” for a particular manuscript will be decided by the READISCA Steering Committee on a case-by-case basis.
For the “READISCA investigators” the Steering Committee trusts all sites to appoint the people who contributed significantly to the collection of data and material, therefore the full list of names submitted by the sites will be used for the study group. The list of “READISCA investigators” can be found on the READISCA website (www.readisca.org). Each site is responsible for informing the Steering Committee through one of the MPIs of any necessary adjustments. The website also lists clinical research coordinators and key personnel of the consortium. The READISCA team is welcome to use the information on this website to make the list of “READISCA investigators” and, if needed, the acknowledgment for the particular publication.
Addendum (September 8, 2023):
For future READISCA publications, the corresponding author will send the latest manuscript to Tetsuo Ashizawa, MD, Houston Methodist Research Institute, who will distribute the draft to all READISCA consortium members for further input and discussions. The corresponding author can find all members under “READISCA Team” at readisca.org/readisca-team/. The corresponding author will abide the authorship guidelines of READISCA. The consortium authorship will depend on the nature of the paper and the impact of contributions of each individual to the work described in the manuscript. The corresponding author will draft criteria for primary and secondary authorships and submit them to the entire party who receives the manuscript. After receiving feedback, the corresponding author will finalize the authorship and discuss the final manuscript in the SC before submitting it to the journal editorial office.