Q: Is it normal for the person who designed and created a database
which allows other researchers to conduct their study, to have their
name appear on the final research paper which is submitted for
publication?

If database designer also has credentials which lend "domain
expertise" to that field, (i.e. database designer also has marine
biology degree, and is designing database for marine biology research
project), is it a reasonable request to make that the database
designer (which many traditional biolgists may consider "computer
stuff" outside of the realm)? The research cannot be conducted without
a database.

I would like some precedence cited, if possible, which shows whether
or not software developers or database designers typically receive
credit on science research papers submitted to accepted journals of
science.

I would prefer that this question be answered by a scientist, but it's
open to anyone who can make a convincing, citable case either way.

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Clarification of Question by omniscientbeing-ga on 10 Mar 2003 19:51 PST

Thank you for your comments. Request for "acknowledgment for software
developer contributions" is what I think is applicable in my
situation. What type of phrasing should be employed?

My understanding, as a scientist, is that authorship of a paper is
extended to those who have both formulated and discussed the
hypothesis that is being tested, and also helped in one way or another
to obtain the data used to arrive at the conclusions. (The exception
to this tends to be departmental and/or group heads, who sometimes get
their names of papers to which they have not really contributed.)
Others, with a more peripheral part tend to get thanked in the
acknowledgements. To me the answer would centre on whether the
database designer got involved in any of the discussions about the
implications to marine biology (or whatever other discipline) of the
results obtained from the database.

I would offer a similar comment as tehuti.  As a scientist - having
had many a discussion on the appropriate authors for publications
(more often the order is more difficult to agree to than just the
presence) - the criteria I use, and have seen used most is similar to
the criteria for writing a paper in the first place.  The
contributions to a paper must be unique advancements.  Additionally,
their contribution should represent significant contribution to the
rationale, planning, analysis and discussion of the experiments
reported in the paper.  In my experience, authors are also expected to
contribute to the writing of the paper.

Database designers, mathematicians, technicians are often excluded
when their work does not aid in the design, rationale or
interpretation of the data and their approach is not unique - even if
it was required to collect the data in the first place - ie. I do not
list the statistician who performs routine statistical analyses on the
data as an author, but as an acknowledgement - similarly I do not
credit the Excel design team for their software, or Fourier for his
wonderful formulas as authors - but as comments/acknowledgements in
the methods section.

I would list individuals of the same categories above if their
contributions are unique approaches to solving the problems or
analyzing the data involved - ie, a statistician who develops a new
statistical method for the analysis of the data, a technician who
develops a new technique for obtaining the data in question, or a
software engineer that develops a crtical algorithim for the
interpretation of the data.

I am not aware of any formally posted rules for including database
designers as authors on papers - the only papers which I have seen
tend to be in relation to new analysis algorithims which are part (and
often parcel) of the new database.