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Previous Volume 347:1118 October 3, 2002 Number 14 Next

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To the Editor: The change in the Journal's policy on authorship (July 4 issue),¹ which previously restricted the number of authors for an article, is appropriate and is to be welcomed. However, this change does not protect persons who have contributed substantially to a scientific work but who are deliberately excluded from the list of authors. To avoid this problem, we suggest that the Journal go a step beyond the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors² and require authors to declare that no person who would meet the criteria for authorship has been excluded.

Jayesh Mehta, M.D.
Seema Singhal, M.D.
Northwestern University
Chicago, IL 60611
j-mehta{at}northwestern.edu

References

1. Drazen JM, Curfman GD. On authors and contributors. N Engl J Med 2002;347:55-55. [Free Full Text]
2. Authorship. Philadelphia: International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, October 2001. (Accessed September 13, 2002, at http://www.icmje.org/index.html#authorship.)

Drs. Mehta and Singhal raise the issue of exclusion of authors. We believe that the onus lies with the corresponding author to ensure that all named authors meet authorship criteria. It stands to reason that the corresponding author would also be responsible for ensuring that all authors who merited inclusion were included. Such matters need to be adjudicated locally, with the corresponding author making the final decisions about authorship.

Jeffrey M. Drazen, M.D.

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