Giving Credit for Contributions to Research Outputs

Published: 15 November 2019

An invitation to browse the CRediT taxonomy and consider how it applies to the roles that you fulfil in your collaborations

Research outputs are increasingly the result of a team effort. We currently capture the varied contributions that colleagues make to an output either alongside the author list or in the acknowledgments section. However, an easier and more consistent way of highlighting who did what in a research study is by listing, in the output itself, the individual contributions that each author has made. There is a straightforward way of doing this, by selecting from the 14 standard role descriptors included in the CRediT taxonomy. Roles include drafting or revising an article, analysing and interpreting data, or programming.

We invite you to browse the CRediT taxonomy and consider how it applies to the roles that you fulfil in your collaborations.

Over 120 journals now use the CRediT taxonomy, so you might have already encountered it. Where a journal does not include CRediT roles in the submission system, we encourage authors to include the role descriptors in the text of their article. Even when the journal does not allow CRediT roles to be listed at all, the roles can now be captured in Enlighten, and thus be included in the public record. You can find more information on CRediT roles at the link below. Note that the corresponding Glasgow author is responsible for discussing and agreeing the roles for each Glasgow author.

The University promotes a positive research culture in which colleagues are recognised and valued for their different contributions to a research activity. Ensuring that collaborators get due credit for their activities is good practice: it promotes fairness, supports careers, and increases the transparency of, and trust in, our findings.

Information on recording author contributions:

https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/openaccess/howdoimakemypublicationsopenaccess/beforesubmittingyourmanuscript/ 

Research culture at the University of Glasgow:

https://blog.f1000.com/2019/11/01/reimagining-research-culture/

Code of Good Practice in Research:

https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_490311_smxx.pdf  

Questions? 

If you have questions or suggestions about the use of CRediT please contact the Open Access Team in the University Library (research-openaccess@glasgow.ac.uk)


First published: 15 November 2019