​​​​The Bioinformatics Core Facility must charge for services rendered by its staff. However, charging for services does not preclude authorship on scientific publications. As in commonly accepted scientific practice, co-authorship is warranted whenever an individual has made a significant contribution to the scientific work being described. 

The Bioinformatics Core facility personnel are scientists. When they make a substantial intellectual contribution to a publication they deserve to be credited just as any other co-author. In most projects, bioinformatic analysis is not routine and heavily involves intellectual contribution. In particular, advanced data analysis that makes a publication possible or significantly enhances its value merits co-authorship as the appropriate scientific credit.
 
According to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE​), the following conditions must be met for authorship credit:
 
  • - Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work
  • - Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content​
  • - Final approval of the version to be published
  • - Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved

According to the Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities (ABRF​), the activities for which authorship is recommended are:

  1. ​Author should make substantive contributions to the project
    • ​- Conception, design of project, critical input, or original ideas
    • - Acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation, beyond routine practices
    • - Draft the article or revise it critically for intellectual content
    • - Write a portion of the paper (not just materials and methods section)
    • - ​Intellectual contribution
    • - Final authority for the approval of article
  2. ​ Each author should have participated enough to accept responsibility for the content of the manuscript
All contributors that do not meet the criteria of authorship should be recognized in the acknowledgements section. In these cases, please send us a reprint or a link to the publication.

Please note that research products, including co-authorship on publications, are one of the key factors taken into account when our staff scientists are considered for promotion and tenure at the University.

Principal investigators that are not present when members of their research groups are using the Bioinformatics Core Facility services are expected to discuss co-authorship issues with their group members, to sensitize them to the importance of this issue.

It is recommended to discuss scientific credit at the beginning of a project. If you are uncertain about co-authorship or have any questions or concerns about it, please discuss it with the head of the Bioinformatics Core Facility.