case analysis

AUTHORSHIP AND PEER REVIEW

answer the case analysis questions below

Case #1: Tenisha is a graduate student in social work who has been hired as a research assistant (RA) on a project being conducted by Dr. Lane. Dr. Lane was one of the most well-known researchers in his field, so Tenisha was pleased to be able to work with him. Tenisha’s responsibilities as Dr. Lane’s RA included doing a literature search, arranging focus groups and transcribing the focus group tapes. She very much enjoyed the work but found that she was often spending more time than originally anticipated to be able to accomplish the assigned tasks. Because she became so interested in the project, she also found she was spending more time with Dr. Lane discussing the findings and their implications. The extra time on this project was beginning to take a toll on Tenisha doing her highest quality work in her courses, but she felt it was worth the trade-off because she assumed she would be a co-author with Dr. Lane on publications from the project. She was also building a relationship with Dr. Lane that would be useful when she went on the job market. As the project was coming to an end, Dr. Lane asked Tenisha to proofread a manuscript he was submitting for publication. It was a paper with preliminary findings from the project on which Tenisha had been working with Dr. Lane, and Tenisha was not listed as an author. Tenisha was dismayed since she feels her contributions warranted authorship on publications coming from this project.

Case analysis questions:

1. Who are all the affected (or potentially affected) parties in this situation? Explain in what way they are (or may be) affected.

2. What interest(s) does each party have in the situation? Which interests are in conflict?

3. What courses of action are open to each of the affected parties? What is the likely outcome of each course of action?

4. What do the reading(s) say about this issue?

5. For each party involved, what course of action would you take and why? What ethical principles are guiding your decision?

6. What actions could have been taken to avoid the conflict/issue?