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International - Activity
Doctoral Student Sues Over First Authorship
Volume 11, No. 1, December, 2002
A lawsuit over first authorship ended with a former doctoral
student in molecular biology winning over his professor when a
German judge ruled that an implicit contract was breached when
the professor substituted herself as first author on the final
draft according to Nature.
The judge said the original verbal agreement bestowing first
authorship on the doctoral candidate constituted an implicit contract
because first authorship was not disputed in the 14 months of
paper preparation.
The doctoral candidate sued the professor before the paper was
submitted for publication, alleging that the professor had substituted
herself as first author on the final draft without reasonable
cause. The court immediately issued an injunction preventing publication.
The professor said the contribution by the doctoral candidate
did not warrant first authorship. The doctoral student replied
that he had independently carried out experiments and helped to
write the paper.
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