Where Are the Missing Coauthors? Authorship Practices in Participatory Research

Abstract

Originally marginal, participatory research has become an increasingly important methodology in the social, biophysical, and interdisciplinary sciences. The overall increase in publications based on participatory research has raised questions about crediting the contributions of nonacademic collaborators. Using qualitative and quantitative methods, we analyzed trends and patterns in authorship and acknowledgment practices in a sample of 262 journal articles reporting on participatory research on rural livelihoods published from 1975 to 2013. Six percent of the researchers recognized the intellectual contributions of their nonacademic collaborators with coauthorship and 51 percent with acknowledgment. Through interviews with lead authors of coauthored articles, we analyzed factors that shaped whether authorship was shared with nonacademic collaborators. Despite facing numerous barriers, researchers were motivated to coauthor in order to recognize intellectual contributions, practice research ethics, and work toward epistemic decolonization. We argue that coauthorship can be an important component of epistemic justice in participatory research and encourage participatory researchers to discuss authorship with their nonacademic collaborators as a routine component of engaged scholarship. We also note that nonacademics’ contributions to scientific knowledge need to be taken into account in understandings of the practice of science.

Citizen Science Terminology Matters: Exploring Key Terms

“…In addition, ECSA's "Ten principles of citizen science" lay out the commitments that projects should have to their participants (ECSA 2015). In general, these principles position the public participants within the science program or project as allies and collaborators with professional scientists, given the same respect that a professional scientist would be accorded in conceiving of, implementing, interpreting, and publishing scientific results (see Sarna-Wojcicki et al 2017 for a discussion about participatory work and coauthorship). Much as standards of ethics change over time, the ethical criteria that a project must meet to qualify as citizen science may shift over time-the ECSA principles may currently be ahead of their time and/or may someday become outdated, but the boundaries of citizen science are ethical boundaries, as we pointed out in our theoretical grounding (Gieryn 1999;Barad 2007).…”

Transdisciplinarity in Research about Agrifood Systems Transitions: A Pragmatist Approach to Processes of Attachment

“…This implication in knowledge production implied an iterative process and adjustments (e.g., the article co-authored by the researchers and actors was the result of dozens of successive versions and interactions). It also led to different modes of communication and publications corresponding to different "layers" of knowledge and details [48] and co-authorships [49].…”

Tropical marine sciences: Knowledge production in a web of path dependencies

“…How our data can nevertheless be interpreted is that the need to consciously reflect on the current role of tropical marine sciences in, either, further affirming existing divides between the respective science systems involved, or, substantially contributing to overcoming this divide by fostering actual joint collaboration. Perhaps, starting with jointly formulating research agendas, jointly looking for funding, which should go beyond the nation state, jointly conducting the research and finally taking equal turns in taking the lead in publishing the results [79]. One might ask, when does the 'epistemic privilege' of the well-funded marine science systems of North America, Australia and Europe result in negative or disempowering patterns [72][73][74] for the research partners in the tropics-who do not define the global research agenda dominated by the English language, but largely arrange the practicalities for accessing the field (e.g., research licenses/ permits, the provision of research assistants and translators), only later acting as local correctives in writing processes (often by national mandates for co-authorship by the partner country, or for maintaining geopolitical relations or field access for future projects), but rarely leading them.…”