Q: Can my ex-colleagues publish my research in a scientific journal and use it for academic benefits without acknowledging my authorship?
I work in the microelectronics industry. When I was employed at company X, I had an assignment of doing some research work in order to improve a product. After a year of research without any supervision, I delivered a new Intellectual Property which got patented and sold at X. 2 years after having left X, my senior colleagues published the research with their names. The paper also shows an affiliation to a university, at which one of my colleagues had applied for a PhD. Is it legal and are they allowed to do it? Even if X has detailed documents of the invention disclosure signed by me?
We understand your concern. Let us first clarify what “authorship” entails.
The ICMJE considers four criteria for authorship. All authors should meet all four criteria to be considered authors, and those who do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged. These criteria are (i) substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; AND (ii) drafting the work or revising it critically for intellectual content; AND (iii) final approval of the version to be published; AND (iv) agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work.
To understand these criteria better, ask yourself the following:
- Besides your research for the improvement of the process, which led to a patent, did you provide intellectual contributions to the paper?
- Were you involved in drafting or revising the paper?
- Can you be held accountable for the contents of the paper?
- Are you confident of integrity of the contributions of authors of the paper?
We are assuming that your answer is “No” to the above, and therefore, you are not an author but a “contributor.” Contributors who meet fewer than four of the above criteria for authorship should be acknowledged. Therefore, you might have wanted your name to be included in the “Acknowledgments” section of that paper. What you could do (now that the paper is already published) is openly and amicably discuss the matter with your former colleagues. You could ask if they are open to approaching the journal to publish an erratum, in which your contribution can be acknowledged. However, please be warned that this might be a cumbersome process; the authors might be reluctant to do so, and the more the time elapses from the date of publication, the less inclined journal editors will be to publish the erratum. You may be interested in reading about errata and corrigenda here.
Knowing that you are aware of this publication and that you might be keen to be involved in future publications based on your work, your former colleagues might be willing to work together or at least be sure to mention your contribution in future publications.
Now, coming to the legal aspects. It is not clear from your question if the authors declared the invention details and credited you and/or company X. If they haven’t, it would definitely be unethical. The second part that is unclear is whether one of the authors is indeed studying/working at the university that was credited as an affiliation (you mention that they have “applied” to it). If that author is enrolled and has carried out related research at that university, it should be fine. However, if the university has been falsely named, that too is unethical.
Ethical issues such as these are grave, but taking legal action is complicated. For the first issue, you could approach the intellectual property rights cell/department of company X to ensure that the published paper is not in violation of company policy and accordingly determine next steps. For the second issue, if you are sure that the university name has been falsely added, you may approach the journal editor to alert them to this infraction in the paper published in their journal.
Additionally, you may find the below resources helpful:
- Can my ex-coworkers publish data I obtained for my PhD thesis without my assent?
- What action should I take if I am not being permitted to publish my research outcome?
- How to handle a dispute regarding ownership of biological samples?
- How should a journal address an authorship dispute?
Hope it helps. If you provide more details we can help further! :-)
Answer: Thank you for your answer, it is helpful. It's true that I do not meet all the 4 criteria, simply because the colleagues that have published the article have written it without making me aware of it. The point is that no one of them is passing this criteria: "substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data". Having developed the IP by myself and having fully designed and verified it without any supervision (working during days, nights and holidays), I think that there is no justification for a colleague to write an article about it as author, adding some minor details (mostly simulation data that can be obtained in 1 day). So, if you say that I don't pass the 4 criteria as author and I can only be added in the acknowledgements, neither of them is passing those criteria either. I had extensive material that would have allowed me to write a more detailed article; the reason why I didn't do it is because I maintained the confidentiality of the work that I have done, as I had been asked to. Furthermore the paper has an acknowledgements section, in which I have not been cited. And the reference to the patent that I wrote is badly inserted, without indicating clearly that the article is based on the idea and figures from the patent (plagiarism of figures reused in the article). On the other hand, my colleagues had plenty of written documents from me, explaining how I developed the concept, which benefits it gives, characterization data from simulations and measurements, and a detailed "Invention Report" that I submitted to Company X, signed by me as main author. This is the intellectual contribution that my colleagues have used to write the article. Allowing people to write an article as authors only because they pass the criteria 2 and 3 (plus adding some minor technical details that can't be considered as "substantial") is a way to allow theft and unethical behavior in authorship. My understanding is that this is what happened: - After I left the company, manager A offered to colleague B to start a phd with university Y, sponsored by company X. Colleague B had a master degree from 20 years before from another university and the phd would have allowed him a promotion (I am aware of this). The phd would have been done together with professor C, that was long time friend with manager A and is known for unethical behaviors. - In order to avoid that colleague B invested too much time for the phd, they could have reused some research work that the group has done (my assumption). I am aware that the group had done many researches, but all the other works were from people that were still having an active contract with company X, or already published. - The most simple way was to use my work, as I would have not become aware of it. - The paper got submitted to a conference, possibly as a milestone in obtaining the phd. This explains why both the name of Colleague B and Professor C appear on the article, with an affiliation with company X. Professor C was not involved with my work and he never spoke with me; Manager A would have never disclosed an IP to Professor C (confidentiality issues) without obtaining a benefit. Subsequently the article got published on journals with reference to the conference. Possibly this process is done by the organizers of the conference and the authors were not aware that the paper would have become visible. As you have suggested, I have contacted university Y and I have suggested the unethical behavior. I have asked if I can know which affiliation colleague B had with the university when the research was submitted and if he obtained degrees with the university (this should be public information, as this university is public). I will also contact the department of intellectual properties of company X and report about the publication. I have many documents and emails showing the work that I have done and they have too. Unluckily manager A and professor C are known for their unethical behaviors with students or young employees, as they both oblige people to reward them with "gift authorships" both in articles and patents. But I think that there is a limit to any unethical behavior and this limit is when their actions involve something that is outside of the jurisdiction of their company, as scientific conferences, academical titles and publications in journals.
