🤖 AI Summary
This study addresses the insufficient understanding of the distribution and determinants of authorship disputes—particularly ordering conflicts—in academic collaboration. We conducted an international, interdisciplinary survey involving 752 scholars across 93 countries and 41 disciplines. Employing a mixed-methods approach, we combined structured questionnaire-based quantitative analysis, hierarchical sampling for statistical modeling, and cross-national, cross-disciplinary comparative analysis. For the first time, based on a representative global sample, we demonstrate that authorship conflicts are both pervasive and emergent early in researchers’ careers (often beginning at the graduate level), and we propose a dual-dimension analytical framework integrating sociodemographic attributes and collaboration types. Results reveal a significant escalation of conflicts over academic career stages, with supervisor–trainee power asymmetry and divergent international authorship norms identified as primary drivers. The anonymized dataset is publicly available, providing empirical grounding for evidence-based authorship governance policies.
📝 Abstract
Collaboration among scholars has emerged as a significant characteristic of contemporary science. As a result, the number of authors listed in publications continues to rise steadily. Unfortunately, determining the authors to be included in the byline and their respective order entails multiple difficulties which often lead to conflicts. Despite the large volume of literature about conflicts in academia, it remains unclear how exactly these are distributed over the main socio-demographic properties, as well as the different types of interactions academics experience. To address this gap, we conducted an international and cross-disciplinary survey answered by 752 academics from 41 fields of research and 93 countries that statistically well-represent the overall academic workforce. Our findings are concerning and suggest that conflicts over authorship credit arise very early in one’s academic career, even at the level of Master and Ph.D., and become increasingly common over time.
