Ethical aspects of coauthorship in scientific publications

Abstract

Scientific co-authorship presupposes the active intellectual participation of all authors in the elaboration of a research. However, there are many understandings about the concepts of scientific collaboration and coauthorship activities, which sometimes confuse researchers during the authorship attribution process in collaborative research. This essay aims to reflect on the ethical aspects of the attribution of authorship in scientific publications, from the reflection and debate about participation and collaboration in the development of scientific research and, subsequently, responsibility on the results generated and communicated to the scientific community. Specifically, it aims to analyze the concepts and functions of an author, to highlight the distinction between the activities of scientific collaboration and co-authorship and to deal with the ethical aspects in the attribution of authorship in science. Although there are norms of ethical conduct in science we consider that researchers should reflect about the problems of attribution of authorship, since the ethical aspects of scientific practice are inseparable from socials, and political questions and praxis of a scientific field. It concludes that dealing with the ethical aspects of co-authorship during the formation of the researcher can be a strategy to minimize problems associated with this issue and encouraging studies of this nature tends to provide discussions about the subject, making it part of the Knowledge construction process.