Guidelines of the University of Zurich on the Authorship of Academic Publications

New guidelines of the University of Zurich on the authorship of academic publications, enacted and published by decision of the University Executive Board on 8 April 2025.

The University of Zurich (UZH) is committed to the core principles of good scientific practice—reliability, honesty, respect, and responsibility—and fosters an environment that supports trustworthy science. The definition and application of the principles of good scientific practice are based on the «Code of conduct for scientific integrity» of the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences.

The new guidelines apply to all members of the University of Zurich engaged in scientific research in accordance with §§ 8 ff. of the University Act, as well as to individuals pursuing habilitation without employment at UZH. The guidelines set out criteria for assessing authorship entitlement in individual cases and for determining the order in which authors are named in academic publications. They also set out principles for the publication of research findings that all participants in research projects must follow. Finally, they address issues of scientific misconduct related to authorship and outline how UZH handles suspected violations.

The Executive Board of the University, based on § 31 paragraph 4 of the University Act of March 15, 1998 (UniG, LS 415.11), resolves as follows:

¹The University of Zurich (UZH) is committed to the core principles of good scientific practice—reliability, honesty, respect, and responsibility—and fosters the conditions needed for trustworthy research. These principles are defined and applied in line with theCode of conduct for scientific integrity of the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences.

²These guidelines specify how the core principles of good scientific practice apply to authorship in academic publications at UZH. They serve to assess individual claims to authorship and reflect the readers' interest in having authors listed completely, truthfully, and accurately.

³It applies to all academically active members under §§ 8 ff. of the University Act (professors, non-professorial academic staff, administrative and technical staff, privatdozents, titular professors with and without employment at UZH, external instructors, and students, including doctoral candidates).

⁴It also applies to individuals pursuing habilitation without employment at UZH.

⁵Authorship goes beyond publications in the sense of written works, such as journals, anthologies, monographs, etc. The same criteria must also be taken into account for research results such as data sets, databases, corpora, etc.

¹All those involved in a research project should discuss at an early stage who will make what contribution to the project and in what form the research results should be published. This includes, in particular, clarifying the questions of authorship and the order in which the authors are named. All project participants must be appropriately involved in the preparation of a manuscript.

²Furthermore, they discuss the acknowledgments for contributions within the context of § 5.

³If additional individuals join the project or if the roles of existing contributors change significantly, authorship must be re-discussed and clearly defined—at the latest by the time the publication is finalized.

⁴Conflicts of interest should be avoided. They should be disclosed as early as possible and cleared up before publication.

⁵Consent to publication cannot be refused without sufficient reason. The refusal of consent must be justified with a verifiable criticism of certain sections of the text, data, methods, or results.

⁶The authorship requirements of the respective journals or publishers must be followed.

¹An author of a academic publication is an individual who cumulatively meets the criteria set out in points a to c as follows:
a.    has made a significant contribution through personal academic achievement as follows:

1. the development and planning of the research project and/or

2. the preparation, collection, procurement of data, software, sources and/or

3. the analysis/evaluation or interpretation of the data, sources with the conclusions based on them,

b.    was involved in writing the manuscript,
c.    has approved the final version of the manuscript. 

²Anyone who has made a significant contribution according to paragraph 1 point a must be allowed to fulfill the criteria according to paragraph 1 points b and c cumulatively.

³The provisions of paragraphs 1 and 2 also apply to individuals who have made a significant scientific contribution as part of a paid service.

All individuals who cumulatively meet the criteria set out in § 3 paragraph 1 points a to c must be listed as authors in accordance with the following rules:
a.    When there are multiple authors, the order in which they are listed is determined by the significance of their contributions. The weight of each contribution is assessed based on standardized criteria (e.g. the Contributor Role Taxonomy (CRediT), which is recognized by many publishers).
b.    As a general rule, the main author of the publication is listed first or last, depending on disciplinary conventions.
c.    In some disciplines, listing authors in alphabetical order is common and acceptable.
d.    The individual contributions of each author must be truthfully and appropriately declared.
e.    The names and order of the authors, along with the criteria used to determine the order, must be documented in writing in a separate document, in accordance with § 2 paragraph 1.

¹ Individuals who have contributed to academic publications but do not fully meet the criteria set out in § 3 paragraph 1 points a to c must be acknowledged in the acknowledgments section of the publication—or in another appropriate manner—with a specification of their contributions. This also applies to individuals who have contributed to research results as part of a paid service and who do not fall under § 3 paragraph 3.

²There is no entitlement to authorship based solely on an individual's role or position. Providing financial support, making instruments or infrastructure available, or holding a supervisory position does not in itself justify authorship. Honorary, guest, or gift authorship is not permitted.

¹As a rule, all authors share joint responsibility for the entire content of a publication, unless specific areas of responsibility are clearly identified.

²If parts of a publication are found to be incorrect, the authors must issue a correction or retract the publication.

¹The University of Zurich is to be listed as the affiliation when authors were members of the university, as defined in §§ 8 ff. of the University Act, during the conduct of substantial parts of the research. The date of publication is not relevant in this regard.

²Authors who indicate “University of Zurich” as their affiliation must deposit the publication in an appropriate form in the Zurich Open Repository and Archive (ZORA).

¹Violations of good scientific practice related to authorship fall within the scope of the "Ordinance on dealing with scientific misconduct at the University of Zurich (Integrity Ordinance)" of 25 May 2020 (LS 415.27) and are investigated and sanctioned in accordance with its procedural rules.

²Violations committed by students (excluding doctoral candidates) as defined in paragraph 1 fall under the scope of the University of Zurich's Disciplinary Ordinance of 25 May 2020 (LS 415.33).

These guidelines enter into force following the decision of the University Executive Board on 8 April 2025.

Regina Aebi-Müller, Inge Blatter, Joël Brigger, Edwin Charles Constable, Noëmi Eglin, Pierre Hoffmeyer, Claudia Lautenschütz, e.g. "Kodex zur wissenschaftlichen Integrität". Akademien der Wissenschaften Schweiz, 2021. https://api.swiss-academies.ch/site/assets/files/25852/kodex_layout_de_web.pdf. 

Kommission wissenschaftliche Integrität der Akademien der Wissenschaften Schweiz. Autorschaft bei wissenschaftlichen Publikationen Analyse und Empfehlungen. Bern: Akademien der Wissenschaften Schweiz, 2013. 

ETH Zürich. "Richtlinien der ETH Zürich zur wissenschaftlichen Integrität (Integritäts-Richtlinien)", 1 Januar 2022 (as of 1 June 2024)          https://rechtssammlung.sp.ethz.ch/Dokumente/414.pdf.

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. "Leitlinien zur Sicherung guter wissenschaftlicher Praxis, Kodex". Website.          https://wissenschaftliche-integritaet.de/kodex/.

KU Leuven. "KU Leuven Policy on Authorship". Website.https://research.kuleuven.be/en/integrity-ethics/integrity/practices/publication-and-authorship/authorship

Mats Johansson, Inge Lerouge, Magdalena Morawska, Rhys Morgan, and Frits Rosendaal. "Defining Responsible and Equitable Authorship by a Principle-based Approach". LERU, September 2023.            https://www.leru.org/files/Publications/2023.09.08_Authorship-paper_fullpaper_DEF.pdf.

CRediT (n.d.). Contributor Roles Taxonomy. Retrieved December, 12, 2024, from            https://credit.niso.org