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Papers should spell out authors' roles

Nature volume 399, page 406 (1999)Cite this article

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Sir

When scientific papers with multiple authors are published, an indication should be given of the contribution that each author has made to the research. Nature recently published a paper by more than 20 authors. We can only guess what the contribution of author No.17 might have been, but it might be important to let the reader know about that, not least for the benefit of author No.17 himself. We propose the following system, which would take up minimal space in the journal.

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References

  1. Tarnow, E. Nature 398, 657 (1999).

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  2. Schiermeier, Q. Nature 397, 640–641 (1999).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Center Borstel, Parkallee 1-40, Borstel, D-23845, Germany

    A. Zyzik & T. Goldmann

Authors
  1. A. Zyzik
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  2. T. Goldmann
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Zyzik, A., Goldmann, T. Papers should spell out authors' roles. Nature 399, 406 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/20789

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