COMMENTARY Authorship Considerations for Publishing in Pharmacy Education Journals Lana M. Minshew, PhD, Jacqueline E. McLaughlin, PhD University of North Carolina Eshelman School of Pharmacy, Chapel Hill, North Carolina Submitted December 5, 2018; accepted March 4, 2019; published August 2019. The distinction of authorship and its associated credit has important implications for academia. Phar- macy education encompasses faculty members from a wide and diverse range of disciplines, including the clinical, basic, and social sciences. These disciplines embody varying traditions and perspectives concerning who qualifies for authorship. As an academy, pharmacy education must do more to equip education researchers with the tools needed to navigate authorship decisions. The following commen- tary provides examples and recommendations concerning the issue of authorship within pharmacy education. We define authorship, examine authorship guidelines from health professions and education disciplines, and discuss authorship order. We then provide authorship recommendations for pharmacy education with the goal of supporting authorship decisions and further promoting discourse about authorship. Keywords: authorship, reproducibility, collaboration, research, commentary INTRODUCTION The distinction of authorship and its associated credit has important implications for members of academia. Knowledge is advanced through scholarly discourse, 1 making authors of scholarly work contributors to the col- lection of knowledge within and across disciplines. The number and impact of publications are often used as ev- idence of expertise, demonstrating a faculty member’s ability to conduct research and help individuals obtain grant funding. 1 Additionally, being an author can influ- ence subsequent professional opportunities, such as in- vitations from a journal to peer review the work of others. The recognition associated with authorship is clearly significant, as scholarly publications and service are a central component for professional development and advancement in academia. Pharmacy education encompasses faculty members from a wide and diverse range of disciplines, including clinical, basic biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences, and social sciences. These disciplines embody various perspectives and methodologies, along with customs and traditions, about who qualifies for authorship. 1,2 Varying norms and expectations for authorship can result in conflicting views about who and in what order individ- uals receive authorship credit for contributions to re- search. The ongoing emphasis on interdisciplinary research further necessitates the need for authorship con- sensus when working with individuals from an array of disciplines as a means to mitigate disputes and grievances among collaborators. 3 In the health sciences, more than 600 journals follow the authorship guidelines established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). 4,5 One hundred of these registered journals are pharmacy-related; however, only one has the word “education” in the title. 5 Given the prevalence of authorship guidelines across the health sciences, the lack of guidelines or standards for pharmacy education is somewhat surprising. Authorship guidelines for pharmacy education could help gener- ate consistent practice among scholars, provide clarity about individual contributions to scholarly work, and promote the quality and integrity of pharmacy education research. This commentary provides examples and recom- mendations concerning the issue of authorship within pharmacy education. We define authorship, examine au- thorship guidelines from health professions and education disciplines, and discuss authorship order. Then, we pro- vide authorship recommendations for pharmacy educa- tion with the goal of promoting discourse and providing support for decisions concerning authorship. Authorship Defined As the Authorship Guidelines of Harvard Medical School state, “[A]uthorship is an explicit way of assigning responsibility and giving credit for intellectual work” and is “important to the reputation, academic promotion, and Corresponding Author: Jacqueline McLaughlin, UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599. Tel: 919-966-4577. E-mail: Jacqui_mclaughlin@unc.edu American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education 2019; 83 (6) Article 7463. 1189