The Doctoral Committee adopted the following guidelines on February 23, 1995:
- Early in their work with students, faculty members have a responsibility to discuss each contributor's responsibilities and authorship expectations so that all participants can give informed consent. Faculty has a special responsibility to help students make as much contribution as they are able to.
- All contributors making a substantial contribution ("professional contribution" as described by Fine & Kurdek, 1993) should be listed as authors.
- Order of authorship generally should reflect extent of contribution, except that the level of contribution required for students to be listed as authors may be less than that required of faculty. When individuals' contributions are approximately equal, preference in order of authorship should be given to students. In some cases, Winston's (1985) criteria may be useful for determining relative levels of contribution.
- If a student and faculty member are unable to reach agreement regarding authorship, the student should first seek assistance from her or his adviser, then from the chair of the doctoral committee, the dean, and/or the campus ombudsperson.
- Because faculty have the responsibility to assure that students' dissertations represent original, independent work, articles that students prepare directly from their dissertation findings would be expected to list the student as first author.