Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

‘Big team’ science challenges us to reconsider authorship

Nature Human Behaviour volume 7, pages 665–667 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

‘Big team’ science challenges researchers to revisit three issues around authorship: (1) how to define authorship-worthy contributions, (2) how contributions should be documented and (3) how disagreements among large teams of coauthors should be handled. We propose steps that the community can take to resolve these issues.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Coles, N. A., Hamlin, J. K., Sullivan, L. L., Parker, T. H. & Altschul, D. Nature 601, 505–507 (2022).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Wilkinson, M. D. et al. Sci. Data 3, 160018 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Jones, B. C. et al. Nat. Hum. Behav. 5, 159–169 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Salganik, M. J. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 117, 8398–8403 (2020).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Parsons, S. et al. Nat. Hum. Behav. 6, 312–318 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Botvinik-Nezer, R. et al. Nature 582, 84–88 (2020).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Lakens, D. et al. Nat. Hum. Behav. 2, 168–171 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Allen, L., Scott, J., Brand, A., Hlava, M. & Altman, M. Nature 508, 312–313 (2014).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. The ManyBabies Consortium. Adv. Methods Pract. Psychol. Sci. 3, 24–52 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Coles, N. A. et al. Nat. Hum. Behav. 6, 1731–1742 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was inspired by a panel discussion that also included S. Kerridge and R. Thibault. M. Kovacz also gave feedback on an earlier draft. N.A.C. and M.C.F. were supported by the John Templeton Foundation (grant no. 62295). The funder had no role in the preparation of the manuscript or decision to publish.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Nicholas A. Coles & Heidi A. Baumgartner

  2. School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

    Lisa M. DeBruine

  3. Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Flavio Azevedo

  4. Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Michael C. Frank

Authors
  1. Nicholas A. Coles
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Lisa M. DeBruine
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Flavio Azevedo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Heidi A. Baumgartner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Michael C. Frank
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nicholas A. Coles.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Coles, N.A., DeBruine, L.M., Azevedo, F. et al. ‘Big team’ science challenges us to reconsider authorship. Nat Hum Behav 7, 665–667 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01572-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01572-2

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing