1
|
Badreldin H, Aloqayli S, Alqarni R, Alyahya H, Alshehri A, Alzahrani M, Al Tawalbeh A, Ismail WW. Knowledge and Awareness of Authorship Practices Among Health Science Students: A Cross-Sectional Study. Adv Med Educ Pract 2021; 12:383-392. [PMID: 33907488 PMCID: PMC8069121 DOI: 10.2147/amep.s298645] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2020] [Accepted: 03/22/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors has published clear guidelines on the authorship of scientific papers. It is the research team's responsibility to review and ensure those guidelines are met. Authorship ethics and practices have been examined among healthcare professionals or among particular health science students such as medical students. However, there is limited evidence to assess the knowledge of authorship roles and practices among health science students. METHODS We conducted a cross-sectional study to assess the knowledge of authorship guidelines practices among health science students at King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A survey was developed and distributed. It covered several domains, including demographic characteristics, participant's knowledge and attitude of authorship practices, knowledge and experience with ghost and guest authorships, and knowledge of institutional authorship policies. Moreover, a score was computed to reflect the respondents' knowledge about authorship practices. RESULTS Among the 321 participants who agreed to take the survey, two-thirds agreed with and supported that multi-authored articles' credit allocation should be based on the most significant contribution and contributions to the manuscript writing. Almost 47% agreed that team relationships would influence authorship allocation. The majority of the participants were not aware of their institutional research and publication policies. Also, around 50% of participants were not aware of guest or ghost authorships. Finally, the knowledge score about authorship credits, allocation, contribution, order, and guidelines was higher among students who were assigned as corresponding authors and those who were aware of their institutional authorship guidelines and policies. CONCLUSION In conclusion, our findings suggest that health science students may have limited knowledge about authorship guidelines and unethical behaviors involved in a scientific publication. Universities and research centers should make more efforts to raise the awareness of health science students regarding authorship guidelines while ensuring that they comply with those guidelines.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Hisham Badreldin
- Department of Pharmacy Practice, College of Pharmacy, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Department of Pharmaceutical Care Services, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
| | - Saud Aloqayli
- Department of Pharmacy Practice, College of Pharmacy, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Department of Pharmaceutical Care Services, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
| | - Reem Alqarni
- Department of Pharmacy Practice, College of Pharmacy, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Department of Pharmaceutical Care Services, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
| | - Hayaa Alyahya
- Department of Pharmacy Practice, College of Pharmacy, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Department of Pharmaceutical Care Services, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
| | - Abdulmajeed Alshehri
- Department of Pharmacy Practice, College of Pharmacy, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Department of Pharmaceutical Care Services, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
| | - Mohammed Alzahrani
- Department of Pharmacy Practice, College of Pharmacy, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Department of Pharmaceutical Care Services, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
| | - Amjad Al Tawalbeh
- Faculty of Pharmacy, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Ar-Ramtha, Jordan
| | - Wesam W Ismail
- Pharmacy Practice and Science Department, College of Pharmacy, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
| |
Collapse
|