Publishing and authorship

Authorship of research outputs must comply with the Macquarie University Research Authorship Policy and the Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research.

Authorship must be based on substantial intellectual contribution to the research. This includes contribution to at least one, and often two or more of the following:

• contribution to the conception or design of the project
• contribution to the analysis or interpretation of research data
• drafting significant parts of the work or critically revising it in a way that contributes to interpretation

Authorship is not determined by seniority, position or whether a contribution was paid or voluntary. Providing funding, materials, routine technical support or undertaking data collection alone does not normally justify authorship.

Note:

• Gift, honorary or guest authorship is not acceptable.
• Individuals who do not meet authorship criteria must not be listed as authors. However, their contributions should be appropriately acknowledged in the publication.

Authorship (including author order) must be discussed, agreed, and documented before a research output is submitted for publication or dissemination, and reviewed as contributions evolve throughout the project.

All authors must:

• agree to be listed as an author
• approve the final version of the work prior to submission or publication
• be able to identify and take responsibility for their contribution to the work

No person who meets authorship criteria should be included or excluded without their agreement, except in limited circumstances approved under University processes.

A written record of authorship decisions and contributions must be maintained. This may include an authorship planning form, contribution statement, or documented agreement (such as email confirmation or meeting notes).

Supervisors and research mentors have a responsibility to support students to understand and apply these authorship requirements.  If authorship concerns or disputes arise, these should first be discussed with your supervisor. Further support is available through your Faculty Research Integrity Champions.

Macquarie provides guidance and tools to support transparent and responsible authorship practices, including:

• Research Authorship Policy
• Authorship Planning Form Template
• Authorship Contribution Statement Form
• Macquarie University Research By-Line Guideline

All Macquarie University authors are required to have an ORCID iD to support accurate attribution of research outputs.

If you publish during your candidature, your research outputs can be showcased on the Macquarie University Research Portal. To enable this, you will need to create a profile in the Pure Research Management System (Pure RMS).

Once your Pure profile is created, you can link it to your ORCID iD to ensure your research outputs are correctly attributed and visible.

For further information on publishing during your candidature, see Research Impact Metrics.