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Authorship guidance

Authorship provides credit for an individual’s contributions to a research output and carries accountability. Responsibility for decisions regarding the authorship of publications lies with those who carried out the work reported in the publication. Researchers should be aware of the authorship practices within their own disciplines and should always abide by any authorship requirements stipulated by journals as part of their instructions. Journals in medicine, for example, typically follow the ICMJE guidance on the role of authors and contributors.

Section 5 of the University of Nottingham Code of Research Conduct and Research Ethics explains the expectations relating to publications and authorship for all research carried out across the University of Nottingham. The code states that authors should have made “a significant intellectual or practical contribution to the work” and all those who have fulfilled the “criteria for authorship should be included as author.” This means that no-one should be excluded from authorship because of their student status, job role (e.g. as technical or support staff) or seniority/grade.

Corresponding author

A corresponding author (also known as Lead Author) takes the lead, communicating with the journal during the manuscript submission, peer review and publication process. Prior to submission the authorship list and order must be agreed between all listed authors. Cambridge University Press have produced guidance on what 'corresponding author' means and what the role entails. 

Order of authors

The first author is usually the person who performed the central research to the project and also prepared the first draft of the manuscript. The order of authors can be arranged in whatever order suits the research group best, but the submission must be made by the corresponding author.

Acknowledgements

Individuals who contributed to the work but whose contributions were not of sufficient magnitude to be listed as authors should be properly acknowledged, usually in an acknowledgements section.  

Always read the author guidelines produced by the journal you are looking to publish with, and also check any funder expectations.

Correctly attribute your publications

The University

Give the full University name in the institutional affiliation or contact address.

The preferred version for each campus is below.

If you’d prefer to list your primary affiliation as your school or institute please ensure that you also list the University of Nottingham following this, examples are below:

Nottingham University Business School, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

Mental Health and Clinical Neuroscience, Institute of Mental Health, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

Name and ORCID iD

It is recommended that authors register for an ORCID iD and use this in the submission process for publications to ensure that all research outputs are correctly attributed to them. ORCID iDs are unique identifiers and so avoid issues of confusion over multiple people with the same name and use of different name variations by the same person.

More on ORCID

Research funder

Make sure you acknowledge the contribution of any research funder appropriately.

Further information