Guidelines for co-publication
These guidelines are designed for students and supervisors to discuss issues relating to publications and presentations. This document is intended for consideration by supervisors and students within the Graduate School of Education, this document is also intended for those who are considering publishing work arising from their thesis but are not enrolled as a student within the Graduate School or The University of Melbourne.
Students and supervisors should refer to, in the first instance, to Regulation 17.1.R8 The University of Melbourne Code of Conduct for Research.
Guidelines
The following is intended to guide students and supervisors in regard to co-publication. Supervisors should raise the issue of publications early in the student’s candidature with a view to creating an expectation of publication as an outcome of research and of creating an open atmosphere for discussing co-publication. It should be made clear early that co-publication is a desirable and common but by no means expected and certainly not a required aspect of Higher Degree by Research. The Graduate School encourages student and supervisors to form individual contracts in relation to co-publication:
The following guidelines were suggested for publications/papers:
- Supervisors are encouraged to discuss publication attributions before a publication is written or a recommendation has been made to the student to commence writing a publication. In this discussion supervisors should discuss possible topics, sets of data, arguments, publication outlets such as journals or edited books, and issues surrounding author attribution and the bases for discussing the latter;
- If a student collects the data then it is preferable that they be listed first on the publication. If it is a collection of student work and the data collection workload has been shared, then the person who took the initiative or was instrumental in drafting or coordinating the publication or overseeing the project should be considered to be listed first on the publication;
- If the work of others was utilised to produce the publication then such a contribution should be acknowledged;
- An individual contract should be negotiated between the student and supervisor but the student should not feel obligated to include their supervisor as a contributor to the paper. A student may choose to write a paper and invite the supervisor as a named contributor;
- If a student is enrolled then a supervisor should read at least the abstract and feel comfortable with any acknowledgement of the supervisor’s contribution made by the student;
- In cases where there is more than one supervisor per student then all parties should be involved in making decisions about acknowledgements, author contributions and order;
- Where a student is enrolled with the Graduate School and works for another institution and would like to acknowledge the other institution then this should be discussed by the student and supervisor/s;
- Where a supervisor/s actively works on the publication concerned by either reviewing drafts, shaping papers or the publication stems from work arising from the supervised research it is advisable that the student and supervisor discuss acknowledgment/s;
- In general, acknowledging contributions should be openly discussed specifically addressing:
- Proportional naming: Acknowledgements can either be represented by listing the authors in order of their contribution on the publication or by using footnotes within the publication. When proportions of work done must be explicitly stated on a publication then it is advisable for the student and supervisor to discuss;
- Institutional acknowledgment: If a student is enrolled or is producing a paper that has arisen out of the work produced out of the supervised thesis then The University of Melbourne should be acknowledged;
- Required acknowledgements: When research is sponsored by an external organisation then consideration must be given to acknowledgement of that organisation in any publication.
The following was suggested in relation to conference presentations:
- If a student is taking part in a symposium then it is not necessary to acknowledge or list their supervisor. The Annual Postgraduate Research Conference is an example where it is not necessary to state the supervisor’s contribution;
- If a student is presenting externally then it is appropriate but not necessary to acknowledge the contribution of supervisor/s. In this case it is advisable for the student and supervisor to discuss;
- If a student is presenting externally then it is appropriate to acknowledge the Supervisor, Graduate School and the University;
- If there are funding implications related to a student presentation externally then it is appropriate but not necessary to acknowledge the contribution of supervisor/s. In this case it is advisable for the student and supervisor to discuss;
- If there are funding implications related to a student presentation externally then it is appropriate to acknowledge the Graduate School and the University.