Authorship changes when publishing the works presented in national student forums

Abstract

Introduction: The problems with the articles' authorship are frequent; however, in Cuba there are few investigations on the topic. Objective: To determine the authorship changes in the publication of works presented in medical student forums at national level in Cuba and its associated factors. Methods: Observational and cross-sectional study using analytical techniques, that included all the works presented in 2016, 2017 and 2019 editions of the medical student forums at national level. A Google Scholar search strategy was carried out in order to check if these works had been published in scientific journals. After, authorship changes were identified and associated factors were looked for. Prevalence ratios (aPR), 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CI) and p values using generalized linear models were obtained. Results: Of the 129 published works, 89,9 % (n= 116) had authorship changes. In the multivariate analysis, there was more frequency of authorship changes when the articles were published in professionals' journals (aPR: 1,29; IC 95 %: 1,11 - 1,50; p= 0,001) and when the publication occurred later to the event (aPR: 1,20; IC 95 %: 1,01 - 1,42; p= 0,042); that which was contrary when the corresponding author was a student (aPR: 0,79; IC 95 %: 0,66 - 0,95; p= 0,010), adjusted by three variables. Conclusion: Almost the entirety of the articles had authorship changes and some factors associated to a higher or smaller frequency in those changes were determined (publication, time and corresponding author).

Keywords

• autoría y coautoría en la publicación científica
• ética en la publicación científica
• mala conducta científica
• eventos científicos y de divulgación.