Authorship and Acknowledgment for the UC San Diego Cryo-EM Facility
Co-authorship for a member of the facility staff should be considered when a staff member contributes in a substantial way to the production of publication. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) outlines 4 criteria for consideration of co-authorship.
- Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
- Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
- Final approval of the version to be published; AND
- 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.
Examples
Examples in evaluating contribution for a cryo-EM project are provided in the following table adapted from the chart drafted by the New York Structural Biology Center (nysbc.org) electron microscopy consortium.
| Not Substantial (Supervised Category) | Substantial (Collaborative Category) | |
|---|---|---|
| Conception and design | Provides guidance on latest or most appropriate versions of experimental protocols available at UC San Diego |
Meets with investigators at beginning or during project to develop the experimental protocol to be utilized, when the Staff Member is providing major guidance |
| Acquisition of data | Provides basic training afforded to all users of UC San Diego and gives occasional advice on experimental protocols or provides occasional assistance in acquisition | Provides continued substantial assistance to a user in setting up experiments or acquires key data on behalf of the user |
| Analysis or interpretation of data |
Confirms to investigator that a given experiment ran successfully by preliminary assessment of data quality | Performs more than preliminary data assessment or participates in interpretation of the data towards goals of the investigation |
Requirement
It is required that the cryo-EM facility at UC San Diego be acknowledged in publications and presentations resulting from access to our instrumentation and expertise. Acknowledgments are evidence that investments in the equipment and people of the UC San Diego cryo-EM facility translate into important scientific outcomes. This helps us to make the case for future investments – both in next generation instrumentation and the people needed to support the researchers at UC San Diego.
Please include the following acknowledgement in your scientific publications.
The authors acknowledge the facilities, along with the scientific and technical assistance of the staff of the cryo-EM facility at UC San Diego, Dr. Mariusz Matyszewski and Dr. Inga Kuschnerus.
In addition, please include a mention and acknowledgment in your presentations and posters.
