Question about authorship contribution in a journal paper
Hello,
I recently completed my PhD in a neuroscience research lab. I am currently working on draft for a paper where I am the first author (the data is from my thesis). I wanted to ask a question about authorship contribution.
In my work, I analyzed mouse brain lysates through Western blotting. I analyzed brain lysates from young (early postnatal) and adult mice. To prepare the brain lysates, you first need to make brain homogenates and measure the protein concentration using the BCA assay. The brain homogenates are then lysed in brain lysis buffer.
For the adult mice, all the brain homogenates were prepared by another PhD student in the lab. This student, at the request of my supervisor, shared me his samples so that I could make brain lysates for my Western blot experiments. This student also measured the concentrations of the adult brain homogenates using the BCA assay, which I used for making the brain lysates.
I wanted to ask if I should include this student as an author in my paper? I am not sure because I have read the following on this guide about authorship:
Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for its content. All co-authors should have been directly involved in all three of the following:
- planning and contribution to some component (conception, design, conduct, analysis, or interpretation) of the work which led to the paper or interpreting at least a portion of the results;
- writing a draft of the article or revising it for intellectual content; and
- final approval of the version to be published. All authors should review and approve the manuscript before it is submitted for publication, at least as it pertains to their roles in the project.
The student has left the lab several years ago, and joined another lab overseas as a post-doc. He was not involved in performing the Western blot experiments or in the data analysis or making figures, or in the writing of the draft. I am not sure whether I should include him as an author or not.
Any advice is appreciated.
Posted May 2, 2026, 4:30 AM UTC