How we can calculate author contribution percentage of research papers and review articles?

Percentages are straightforward and can be universally applied independent of research field, the number of co-authors or the nature of the paper (e.g. experimental, review, perspective, etc.). Because the authors of a paper are the best placed to make a judgement call about the value of each contribution, it is essential that percentage contributions are determined by authors rather than by a model based solely on the authors’ rank.

All co-authors discuss and agree on their respective contributions prior to submitting their manuscript and these figures be provided by the corresponding author at the submission stage. By confirming their authorship, all co- authors confirm their agreement with their contributions and that of all other authors.

A possible starting point is to divide 100% by the number of authors and then estimate whether and to what extent each author provided more or less work than the others. The use of author-provided percentages has been proposed before to reflect the contribution of co-authors accurately but with limited guidance about how to implement it. Quantitative Uniform Authorship Declaration (QUAD) approach is usually used, where each author is attributed percentage contributions in four categories: Conception and design, data collection, data analysis and conclusion and manuscript preparation.

Using the calculated author contribution percentage, we may calculate Author Contribution Index (ACI), using the attached formula.

Where for author i,

Ci = contribution of author i in percentage (must be > 0 and < 1)

n = total number of authors including i (must be > 1).

Example,

On a paper written by three authors, where author i contributed 60% of the paper, ACI(i) = 3, meaning that author i contributed three times more than what the other authors contributed on average.

Regards,

I don't think it's useful to quantify everything. The share of different authors in a publication is usually difficult to estimate, and it also only makes sense if one wants to draw any conclusions from it, e.g. about the authors' share of citations. For my general scepticism about counting publications, citations, etc., see e.g. my reply to this request: https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_do_we_evaluate_our_best_research_efficiency_Published_by_high_impact_factor_journal_or_by_patent_or_by_any_other

Sometimes the order of authors is alphabetical, and in this case no distinction between the authors can be made. Most of my papers written together with others have an alphabetic order of authors.

This is an important question and always debatable. One way to recommend is summarised in this paper

The proposed Author Contribution Index (ACI) is based on contribution percentages provided by the authors, preferably at the time of submission. Researchers can use ACI to compare the contributions of different authors, describe the contribution profile of a particular researcher or analyse how contribution changes through time. The authors provide such an analysis based on contribution percentages provided by 97 scientists from the field of ecology who voluntarily responded to an online anonymous survey.

Divide the number of authors by 100% and estimate whether and to what extent each author provided more or less work than the others.

Thank you all for your responses.

In my opinion, the issue of authors credit is generally subjective and relies on trust and honesty. It works somewhat better when students and professors are involved because contributions are often discussed openly, and you always know who did what.