With the release of AASTeX v7.0, AAS Journals authors now have the ability to include Author Contribution statements in their manuscripts.
Author Contribution sections are already common in many academic journals, and they provide an opportunity for increased transparency while also helping to ensure that everyone receives appropriate credit for their work. Furthermore, Author Contribution statements aid in compliance with some funding agencies’ guidelines, including the National Science Foundation.
While in the past, AAS Journals has tried to accommodate the occasional author request on a case-by-case basis, there has not been a standard mechanism for sharing author contribution information in manuscripts. In the absence of a clear and consistent policy, members of the community often attempt to infer something about author contributions from the ordering of the author list, such as when reviewing applications for jobs, promotion and tenure packets, or admissions to PhD programs. However, there are many different schemas in use among the members of our community when it comes to deciding the criteria for authorship and the order of authors on a paper, as well as recognition of all the ways in which contributions are made to complete a manuscript. In some cases, authors are listed roughly in order of effort expended on the project; in others, students and early career researchers are listed first for increased visibility. Some large collaborations specify that authorship in articles must be listed alphabetically; others group the authors by tiers according to their level of contribution, and may or may not list them alphabetically within each tier. Yet other collaborations have specific agreements in place that prescribe authorship criteria and listed author order. Furthermore, as names must be listed sequentially in some way, co-leadership of a paper cannot easily be indicated. The Author Contribution section is intended to provide enhanced clarity in all these situations and more.
Because of the wide variety of possible contributions to a paper and the many different approaches to categorizing those contributions, the Author Contribution section is a free-form text field in the AASTeX v7.0 manuscript template, rather than a formulaic set of checkboxes. When used, it will be included immediately after the Acknowledgements section, just before the Facilities and Software keywords and the References.
Below, we provide several possible examples for the Author Contribution section. We note that these examples are not exhaustive, and authors are encouraged to develop their own simple and succinct text for the Author Contribution section. While the Author Contribution section will not add to the total word count when calculating page charge tiers, the most helpful Author Contribution statements will be concise while including all authors listed on the paper. Inclusion of an Author Contribution statement is currently optional, but when used, the corresponding author shall be responsible for ensuring that all authors agree with the statement text.
Example 1: Simple Case #1
A.B.C. led the analysis and writing of the paper. D.E. acquired the observations and oversaw the project progress. F.G, H.J., and K.L.M. contributed to the interpretation.
Example 2: Simple Case #2, Principal Investigator Listed Last
A.B. Castor led the observations and analysis. F. Gemini, H. Indus, and K.L. Monoceros contributed to the interpretation. The principal investigator, P. Regulus, acquired the funding to support the project, oversaw the project progress, and wrote the paper.
Example 3: Tiered Author List #1
Authors 1-4 (Y.H. through R.P.) led the analysis, writing, and interpretation. Authors 5-13 (E.M.C. through H.L.) contributed to the analysis and interpretation. All other authors (N.A. through Y.Z.) are listed alphabetically and were instrumental in acquiring the observations or contributed relevant scientific expertise to the project.
Example 4: Tiered Author List #2
A.B.C. led the analysis and writing of the paper. D.E. led the project and oversaw the project progress. F.G, H.J., and K.L.M. led the modeling efforts. Authors E.A. through H.Y. contributed to the analysis and interpretation. All other authors (N.B. through R.T.) are listed alphabetically and were instrumental in acquiring the observations or contributed relevant scientific expertise to the project.
Example 5: Other Contributions
A.B. Castor led the analysis and writing of the paper. P. Regulus led the project and oversaw the project progress. F. Gemini, H. Indus, and K.L. Monoceros led the modeling and interpretation. Authors 6-132 provided analysis/data collection/contributions through the citizen science program Black Hole-apalooza. Authors 133-150 include institutional volunteers and members of departments who facilitated or contributed support necessary for this work, including technical laboratory support staff.
Example 6: Collaboration #1
All authors are listed alphabetically according to the Big Cosmology Data Experiment collaboration agreement. Authors J.J. , L.L., M.M., and N.N. led the analysis and writing.
Example 7: Collaboration #2
All authors from the SIRIUS collaboration played either leadership or significant supporting roles in one or more of: the management, development and construction of the SIRIUS telescope, the SIRIUS instrument and the SIRIUS software data pipeline, the commissioning and operations of the SIRIUS instrument, or the data analysis and preparation of this manuscript.
Example 8: Co-leadership of a Paper
A.B. Castor and F. Gemini were equally responsible for the analysis and modeling as well as the preparation and presentation of this manuscript. P. Regulus acquired the funding and the observations. H. Indus and K.L. Monoceros provided expertise and contributed to the interpretation.