In my experience, it's a marked minority in academic psychology departments. I
know some tenure and promotion committees that either don't count (or count
only minimally) articles that aren't first-authored by the candidate in
question.
Part of the problem, I suspect, stems from the fact that last authorships
in both psychology and psychiatry (and perhaps other areas of medicine,
although I'm far less knowledgeable on that score) are sometimes "ceremonial" -
they are given to the lab advisor, regardless of whether he/she had anything to
do with the article. When I published some articles in psychiatry journals
early in my career, a few folks whom I'm quite certain never even read the
paper took last authorships - on the grounds that they started the labs,
launched the overarching research topics in question, and the like. So last
("senior") authorships are often justifiably viewed with some skepticism.
So, for Ubel's suggestion (which I do think has some merit) to come to
fruition, one would need a massive change in not only institutional culture but
institutional practices. ..Scott
Scott O. Lilienfeld, Ph.D.
Professor
Editor, Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice
Department of Psychology, Room 473 Psychology and Interdisciplinary Sciences
(PAIS)
Emory University
36 Eagle Row
Atlanta, Georgia 30322
[email protected]
(404) 727-1125
Psychology Today Blog:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-skeptical-psychologist
50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology:
http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-140513111X.html
Scientific American Mind: Facts and Fictions in Mental Health Column:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/sciammind/
The Master in the Art of Living makes little distinction between his work and
his play,
his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his
recreation,
his love and his intellectual passions. He hardly knows which is which.
He simply pursues his vision of excellence in whatever he does,
leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing.
To him - he is always doing both.
- Zen Buddhist text
(slightly modified)
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Smith [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, October 13, 2009 1:18 PM
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)
Subject: Re: [tips] An outsider's view of authorship
I thought that's the way it was in psych---the grad students and
post-docs get first authorship and the PI gets the last position.
Everyone I know in my area of research works that way. I have heard in
some related area where perhaps some 'old school' types always take
first authorship, but I think that is the minority. No?
--Mike
On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 7:01 AM, Paul C Bernhardt
<[email protected]> wrote:
>
> I find a lot to admire about what Ubel is suggesting in this short article.
> His main point is that Psychology would reduce authorship controversies by
> adopting the model used in Medical publication of research. That is: Younger
> authors, who usually are doing the predominance of day-to-day work and
> writing on the article, should be first author and the most senior person
> overseeing the research lab should be last author. He says Tenure committees
> for physician researchers actually expect more advanced faculty to be
> sliding to increasingly later positions in the authorship and that too many
> first authorships is considered a mark against you.
>
> http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/getArticle.cfm?id=2563
>
> --
> Paul Bernhardt
> Frostburg State University
> Frostburg, MD, USA
>
>
> ---
> To make changes to your subscription contact:
>
> Bill Southerly ([email protected])
>
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