Authorship challenges & solutions: ISMPP Authorship Algorithm Tool update

The final session of the 18th ISMPP conference provided an update on the society’s recently published Authorship Algorithm Tool. This tool is designed to assist in evaluating authorship eligibility relative to the first ICMJE authorship criteria, which requires authors make a substantial contribution to the work. The tool outputs a relative score based on a weighted assessment of contributions to study concept or design, data acquisition, data analysis, and data interpretation. Members of the algorithm taskforce discussed the key features of the newly developed tool and, most importantly, delivered a demonstration of the algorithm. Establishing who is eligible for authorship, and in what order, can be a difficult topic when it is time to publish. With this tool, the taskforce hopes to provide an objective means to guide these discussions and ensure ethical and consistent decisions are made industry-wide.