This page is part of MIT's Guidelines for Ethical Authorship and Publication Practices.
At MIT, Principal Investigators (PIs) and faculty supervisors play an important role in setting clear authorship and publication expectations. The key is to talk openly and early—both within your research or scholarly group and with internal and external collaborators—and to keep those conversations going as the project evolves.
Before you start
- Discuss authorship early: Talk openly about who may be listed as an author, what qualifies for authorship in your field, and how you’ll handle questions or disagreements if they come up.
- Know your co-authors and funding sources: Confirm the accuracy of all co-authors’ affiliations and confirm all the funding sources for the project to ensure compliance with funder requirements, research security and export control regulations and policies.
- Agree on authorship criteria: Confirm which guidelines you’ll use (e.g., discipline norms, ICMJE, etc.).
- Clarify roles and contributions: Identify who will do what (data collection, analysis, writing, etc.).
- Document expectations: Consider a brief written agreement that can be updated as the project scope, team, or contributions evolve (e.g., Authorship Agreement template developed by UNC at Charlotte Graduate School (NSF grant #2024200)
- Align on authorship order: Make sure everyone understands how the order of authorship works in your discipline.
During the project
- Track contributions: Keep notes or use tools to document evolving roles and contributions. Consider the use of contribution tracking tools (e.g., project logs, collaborative writing platforms, CRediT taxonomy log).
- Check in regularly: Revisit authorship expectations if the project scope, team, or contributions change.
- Be inclusive and ethical: Include as authors those who meet the criteria; acknowledge others when appropriate.
- Avoid honorary authorship (aka guest/gift authorship): Do not add authors who have not met the authorship criteria. Again, confirm your co-authors’ affiliations and all the funding sources for the project to ensure compliance with funder requirements and research security and export control regulations and policies.
Before submission
- Confirm final authorship, order, and affiliations: Make sure all authors agree on the final list and sequence, and that all institutional affiliations are accurate.
- Prepare contribution statements: Complete any required contribution disclosures that are often required by journals (e.g., CRediT roles).
- Get final approval from all authors: Ensure everyone has reviewed and approved the final manuscript.
- Confirm readiness to submit: In many disciplines, the PI or faculty supervisor makes the final decision on submission timing and venue. With limited exceptions depending on discipline, a manuscript should not be submitted to a public platform without the prior knowledge and approval of the PI or faculty supervisor of the related project.