Development and Validation of Authorship Order Score (AOS) for Scientific Publication

Abstract

Purpose: To develop and validate an objective and comprehensive authorship scoring system for determining the order of authorship in a scientific publication. Methods: A multi-phased mix-method study (Delphi followed by cross sectional survey) was conducted (January 2017 to March 2019) at King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences (KSAU-HS), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The initial Delphi method was followed by a cross-sectional survey with academic faculty members (n = 132). For validity and reliability of a newly developed 15-item tool for identification of authorship order in a scientific publication, exploratory factor analysis was performed using SPSS version 22. Results: The 15-item tool for identification of authorship order was identified after consensus with 10 research experts through three Delphi rounds. The results of the exploratory factor analysis showed four-factor structure explaining 59% of the variance. The final ordering criteria consisted of 13 items; weightage for each item was normalized based on the percentage agreement of the participants from the cross-sectional survey. The total weightage was 100% for all 13 items. Discussion: The current authorship ordering criteria consists of key dimensions of research and provides a weightage which can be used to recommend the order of authorship in scientific publication. The scoring system is likely to be useful for publications in different fields in scientific publication. The scoring system is likely to be useful for publications in different fields in science.

Keywords

• Authorship
• Order
• Score
• Delphi
• Factor analysis