How to Read Science Research, Chapter 7: What Can We Learn from Author Lists?
We’ve discussed a whole lot about reading science research that doesn’t actually involve reading science research, yet, including interpreting big science words. There’s so much you can learn before even reading an article! You can get quite a bit of information just by reading about the authors of an article.
This post might be better titled “What Can - and Can’t - We Learn from Author Lists?” but that felt too unwieldy.
An author list of a peer-reviewed journal article can provide a lot of information, but it also doesn’t necessarily provide a lot of information. Huh?
Peer-reviewed journal articles often have a list of authors at the top, and can include all sorts of information about those authors. Many online publications will have a link somewhere near the author list to learn more about the authors. You might learn who contributed what and what organizations these authors represent.
The author information might include details about who contributed what to the article. Who designed the study? Who collected data? Who analyzed data? Who wrote or edited the paper?
You also might see information about what organizations these authors represent. A paper hailing from a well-known research institution might have more credibility than one that doesn’t (although it might not). You might be able to tell whether an author comes from an organization that stands to benefit from the information contained in the article, like a researcher being paid by a company to research a technology developed by that company. You might see a link to other publications from the same author, so you can learn a little more context about the author’s experience and ideas. Sometimes, you’ll even find contact information, like an email address, so you can reach out the the author yourself!
Many publications also provide disclaimers, disclosures, or competing interests, where authors can explicitly describe where they stand to benefit from the publication.
As much as we like to think that scientists are unbiased, we’re all human and all prone to all sorts of biases that may or may not influence research design and data interpretation.
That said, just because a scientist might benefit financially or is affiliated with an organization that might benefit financially from a publication, that doesn’t mean the research or data is biased. On the other hand, just because a scientist does not stand to benefit financially, or is not associated with an organization that does, doesn’t mean the research is unbiased.
In short, we can get some cool context clues from author lists and affiliations in peer-reviewed journal articles, but we should also consider additional context, like research design, journal reputation, and other research on the topic.
Stay tuned for Chapter 8: Reading an Abstract. Finally we can dive into the articles!
Sources:
https://journals.lww.com/epidem/fulltext/2004/01000/Interpreting_Authorship_Order_and_Corresponding.22.aspx