Journal Information
Journal ID (publisher-id): BM
Journal ID (nlm-ta): Biochem Med
Title: Biochemia Medica
Abbreviated Title: Biochem. Med.
ISSN (print): 1330-0962
ISSN (electronic): 1846-7482
Publisher: Croatian Society of Medical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine
Article Information
Copyright: 2015, Croatian Society of Medical Biochemistry
Date received: 02 July 2015
Date accepted: 09 September 2015
Publication date (electronic): 15 October 2015
Publication date (print): 15 October 2015
Volume: 25
Issue: 3
Pages: 324-334
Publisher ID: bm-25-324
DOI: 10.11613/BM.2015.033
ICMJE authorship criteria are not met in a substantial proportion of manuscripts submitted to Biochemia Medica
Ana Mlinarić[4]
Dragana Antončić[2]
Martina Horvat[4]
Jelena Omazić[5]
[1] Biochemia Medica, Zagreb, Croatia
[2] Clinical Department for Laboratory Diagnostics, Clinical Hospital Centre Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia
[3] Department of Medical Informatics, Rijeka University School of Medicine, Rijeka, Croatia
[4] Clinical Department for Laboratory Diagnostics, Clinical Hospital Centre Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
[5] Department of Clinical Laboratory Diagnostics, University Hospital Centre Osijek, Osijek, Croatia
[6] University Department of Chemistry, University Hospital Centre Sestre milosrdnice, Zagreb, Croatia
Author notes:
Corresponding author: vesnasupak@gmail.com
Introduction
Our aim was to investigate if: (a) authors of Biochemia Medica meet authorship criteria given by International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), (b) authorship violations are more frequent in submissions containing some type of scientific misconduct.
Materials and methods
Self-reported authorship contributions regarding the three ICMJE criteria were analysed for all submissions to Biochemia Medica (February 2013-April 2015) which were forwarded to peer-review. To test the differences in frequencies we used Chi-squared test. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results
186 manuscripts were authored by 804 authors. All ICMJE criteria were met by 487/804 (61%) authors. The first and the last author met all the criteria more frequently than those authors in between (P < 0.001). The degree to which ICMJE criteria was met for the first author did not differ between manuscripts authored by only one author and those authored by >1 author (P = 0.859). In 9% of the manuscripts ICMJE criteria were not met by a single author. Authors of the 171/186 manuscripts declared that all persons qualify for authorship but only 49% of them satisfied all ICMJE criteria. Authors have failed to acknowledge contributors in 88/186 (47%) manuscripts; instead these contributors have been listed as authors without fulfilling ICMJE criteria. Authorship violation was not more common in 42 manuscripts with some type of scientific misconduct (P = 0.135).
Keywords: authorship; acknowledgement; research integrity; editorial practice
