Hi All,
I am a medical student interested in surgery who submitted a short research proposal on how social issues impact surgical outcomes (title changed for anonymity) to a surgical journal actively seeking out papers from med students a while ago.
The opportunity was made known to me by a school admin who has an interest in these issues, but is not a surgeon himself, and he has influence over what is written in the MSPE. He emailed me saying that if I was interested, we could submit a proposal together.
After expressing my interest, I ended up having to write the paper myself. I sent the admin periodic email updates about my progress, but I didn't get a response (he frequently travels for work, but has regular access to email). I also asked if we could meet up to discuss the paper, but again, no response.
The deadline was coming up, and I met a surgical professor in our hospital who has previously published papers in the journal I was submitting to. I was looking for help with the paper, and I told him that if he was interested, I could sent him a draft for him to look over, and add his name to the paper if he was interested. He agreed, and sent me some articles/materials which helped me complete my paper. I emailed the admin after this to tell him that I would be adding the surgeon on the co-author list, and again I got no response.
In the co-author section, based on relative contributions, I listed myself as the primary author, the surgeon as the second author and the school admin as the third author. I sent them a copy of the final draft before submission. After submitting, all three of us were notified by an email confirmation of receipt of the proposal. The review of the paper is still pending.
My question is:
1) Should I have asked for the admin's permission to add the surgeon to the publication list, since the admin originally made me aware of the opportunity?
2) Was it inappropriate for me to decide on the authorship order without consulting the admin member?
3) And lastly, should I have added the admin member to the author list at all if he did not respond to my messages?
I am fine with listing both as co-authors; however, I am wondering if I did anything inappropriate in this process. The admin member has a great deal of authority for residency. I am unsure if there is any potential conflict of interest here and how I should move forward working with both parties if the proposal is accepted.
Thank you in advance for reading.
