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David W. Shapiro, MD, JD; Neil S. Wenger, MD, MPH; Martin F. Shapiro, MD, PhD

JAMA. 1994;271(6):438-442.

Abstract
Objective.
—To determine the contributions of each author to multiauthored biomedical research papers.

Design.
—Mailed, self-administered survey.

Participants.
—A total of 184 first authors from a consecutive sample of 200 papers with four or more authors published in 10 leading biomedical journals.

Main Outcome Measures.
—First authors' ratings of which authors had made substantial contributions to the following: initial conception of the study, design of the study, provision of needed resources, collection of data, analysis and interpretation of data, and writing the first draft of the paper or revising drafts for important intellectual content.

Results.
—The contributions of nonfirst authors varied greatly within and among papers. Even second and last authors—though they generally contributed more than other nonfirst authors—were markedly inconsistent in the extent and pattern of their contributions. Time spent on the research differed among authors by orders of magnitude. An appreciable number of authors made few or no substantial contributions to the research.

Conclusions.
—The nature and extent of contributions of nonfirst authors to biomedical research reported in multiauthored papers cannot reliably be discerned (or discounted) by authorship or order of authors. The two core purposes of scientific authorship—to confer credit and denote responsibility for research—are not adequately being met by these authorship practices.

(JAMA. 1994;271:438-442)

Author Affiliations
From the Divisions of General Internal Medicine, Veterans Affairs Medical Center (Dr D. Shapiro) and UCLA Medical Center (Drs Wenger and M. Shapiro), Los Angeles, Calif. Dr D. Shapiro is now with the Division of General Internal Medicine, San Francisco (Calif) General Hospital.

Footnotes
The authors indicated in parentheses made substantial contributions to the following tasks of research: initial conception (M.F.S.); design (D.W.S., N.S.W., M.F.S.); provision of resources (D.W.S.); collection of data (D.W.S.); analysis and interpretation of data (D.W.S., M.F.S.); writing and revision of paper (D.W.S., N.S.W., M.F.S.).

The views expressed herein are those of the authors and not necessarily their institutions or sources of support.

Reprint requests to 130 Washington Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94301-3945 (Dr D. Shapiro).

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