Determining the order of authors on a scholarly publication can be problematic, especially among interdisciplinary groups. However, there are existing protocols that determine who should be credited as an author on a publication. Authorder® is a downloadable tool to allocate author order, and is based on internationally accepted protocols.

The Vancouver Protocol states that, in order to be credited as an author, each and every author on a publication needs to have been involved in all of the following three stages:

1. Conception and design, or analysis and interpretation of data
2. Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content
3. Final approval of the version to be published.

The Protocol was first described by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Their latest advice on authorship and contributorship is here.

The Library provides information on Compliance with publishing codes and ethics in the Writing and Publishing page.