Paper is based completely on my thesis, but I'm mentioned in the acknowledgements only, not as a co-author, what should I do?

Question

I developed a medical device for my master's project. The general idea was initiated by my supervisor but the rest of the work is mine (Design, build up, test, measurements, results and some additional functions I added to the idea).

After finishing the master thesis my supervisor started to write a paper about my project. The information in the paper comes from my master thesis and it merely rewrites and summarizes ideas from my thesis. Additionally, all the results and discussions were also picked from it. I was away during this because I found a job in a different city. My supervisor then started to contact me and asked me to give him feedback about what he wrote and to explain the results and said that he would name me as the co-author. I was supporting until the point that I got very busy, but soon his questions become orders and he started to ask very silly questions so I stopped responding.

Finally, he threatened to acknowledge my contribution only, that is, to only mention my name in the acknowledgement and not as a co-author, because he was not satisfied with my support / me not responding to his requests for help with the paper.

The whole paper is taken from my thesis and all the results are mine on top of the added support that I gave but finally, he'll mention me in the acknowledgements only.

Is he right in doing this / allowed to do this and if not what can I do?

I am thinking of contacting the journal and explain all of this. What do you think?

Answer 1

I will try to give my perspective, on both sides if possible. In many countries, most incentive professors have for supervising undergraduate or MSc theses, is that some of them (or all if possible) may actually lead to a publication. There is a problem though: Most of the time undergraduate or MSc students leave the university and the paper usually can only be prepared after the student graduates. Unfortunately, at that time the student has already left academia and has really no interest in publishing, since he has more important things to do (like finding a job). This is quite the setting that the OP describes.

Still in your case, your supervisor of the thesis has started writing the paper himself and he needs your help. Initially you provided the help needed but you became frustrated because it was more work than you wanted / expected to do, because (let's face it) the paper really does not make a huge difference to you. On the other hand, you want to stop him from publishing it solo. So, both parties are partially right to be angry at each other. You do not want to take orders from him and he does not want to be treated like an idiot (who calls his questions silly) from his former student.

So, how can you fix this? For me, writing emails back and forth is not the way to discuss details for a paper. Why don't you use a better mean of communication such as skype, face-to-face meeting, phone call etc. You can there discuss all the details and your problem will be resolved. Of course he writes the paper and he will be the first author. But you get a publication and everyone is happy. And who knows? In the future you may collaborate further.

Answer 2

As described by you, the situation demonstrates completely unethical behavior by your supervisor. You should not only be an author, you should be first author. However, your options may be limited by the fact that you have no way to exert leverage on him and/or by your need to maintain a relationship with him.

It's not completely clear what you mean when you say that you "stopped supporting" him in writing up the paper. At a minimum, you need to read one draft of the paper and give substantive comments before it goes out with your name on it. If you are willing to do that much, then any threat by your supervisor to remove your name is a major ethical breach.

You say that his questions were "very silly" and that his question became orders. Keep in mind that your supervisor wouldn't ask the questions if he believed they were silly. If you haven't told him that it's a problem that he's giving you orders, then he doesn't know that it's a problem. If "stopped supporting" just means that you stopped answering his emails, then his reaction becomes more understandable. If you simply stop communicating without telling him there's a problem, then he doesn't know that his style of interaction is a problem for you.

This depends somewhat on culture -- what country are you in? In US academic culture, the way I would suggest handling this is to send him an email saying something like the following.

Joe, I used to be your student, but now I've graduated, and our relationship is a relationship between colleagues. I have a problem with the language you've been using in your emails to me, because your phrasing sounds like you're giving orders. Moving forward, please use more respectful language. I am willing to provide a reasonable amount of help with any difficulties you have in interpreting my old lab notes, etc., and putting my thesis in shape as a scientific paper. But I have a new job, and the time I have for this kind of thing is limited. I would like to advise you formally at this time that it is not acceptable to me for these results to be published without my name as an author; in fact, I should be first author on any paper that comes out of this. It is also not acceptable to me to enter into discussions in which putting my name on the paper is a bargaining chip. That issue is not negotiable.

Answer 3

Publish the paper by yourself. Just put it in the archive. Don't let him steal your work. Seems like your adviser just manipulated the situation so you lost the will to publish your work. As you mentioned he made it impossible for you to publish and he asks silly questions, its the very same experience that I had with my adviser.