Lab Policies
Collaborative projects
Collaborative projects leading to scientific publications are win-win endeavors that can significantly benefit from lower costs and years of ICP-MS/LA-ICP-MS research expertise. Collaborative projects can expect the following lab contributions: (1) expert analysis, data reduction (plottable data set), and statistical evaluation of data quality; (2) documentation of analytical methodology; and (3) review and editorial feedback on drafts as pertinent to the lab role in the project. Additional contributions may include project analytical design help, sample processing, data interpretation and extended editorial feedback. If a collaborative project is of interest, please contact the lab.
When should collaborative authorship be considered?
The lab takes great pride in providing high quality publishable data and does not seek gratuitous authorship. However, the lab ultimately takes public responsibility for the contributed analytical content. If the analytical component provided by the lab contributes in a meaningful and substantive way to the intellectual content of a scientific or scholarly paper (e.g., concept, design, execution, or interpretation) that is equivalent to the contributions of other listed authors, collaboration is a fair and reasonable expectation. Collaboration is particularly welcomed for projects involving specialized analysis and method development, project design benefiting from lab experience, and/or extended projects involving iterative data reduction and data quality assessment.
More on ethics and integrity of collaboration:
- Recognition, reward and responsibility: Why the authorship of scientific papers matters
- Authorship matters
- Authorship standards
- The noncontributing author: an issue of credit and responsibility
When should acknowledgement be considered?
Acknowledgement in scientific papers should be made if lab contributions represent a valuable contribution to the project.