Graduate Group in English
Policy on Collaborative Authorship
In general, students and faculty in English are expected to produce individual scholarship, and to cite the contributions of others in accordance with the conventions of the discipline (e.g. as specified in the guidelines of the Modern Language Association). When students and faculty in the department enter into projects of collaborative research and writing, each participant should receive due acknowledgment of his or her contributions when the work reaches publication. It is particularly important that students' work be appropriately acknowledged in joint faculty-student collaborations. The Department therefore expects that whenever faculty and students are collaborating on a project that may lead to publication, the faculty member(s) will initiate a discussion at the outset of their collaboration regarding the way authorship credit will be handled, and will distribute a written record of this discussion to all members of the collaborative team. The collaborative work should proceed only if all parties involved are satisfied with the terms of the arrangement as regards authorship credit. If, as the work proceeds, any party believes that the original terms are in need of revision, he or she should initiate a discussion with the other member(s) of the collaborative team, and again a written record of the discussion should be distributed. Where irresolvable differences arise among the members, one or more of them should approach the Undergraduate or Graduate Chair (as appropriate) for mediation and guidance. If that officer cannot help them resolve the dispute, then the matter should be referred to the Undergraduate or the Graduate Executive Committee (as appropriate).