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We wrote a case report (1 + 2 co authors). The case report was not accepted. I tried to convince the other co-authors to re-write and submit. I waited for 3 years and 6 months. The co-authors showed no interest after repeated calls. I wrote the case report completely fresh with review of literature.
Can I send for publication without the co-authors as they did not take part in preparing this revised manuscript?
It depends what the co-authors did. If they were involved in the work they should normally be authors of the paper. I think the important questions you need to answer are:
What exactly do you mean by "showed no interest after repeated calls"? I have never heard of someone who does not want a "free" paper published, unless they disagree with the methods or conclusions in the paper. What is the reason they are not interested?
Did you ask them if they agree to not have their name on it? If they agree: problem solved. If not, that means they do agree to be co-authors: problem solved.
All persons that made a significant intellectual contribution to the paper need to be included as authors, even if they were not involved in the writing of the actual draft.
To still publish the paper without the co-authors, you need to remove all parts that contain a significant contribution by one of them.
It is not ethical to remove them as co-authors if they have made an intellectual contribution, no matter how long ago, but nor is it ethical to include them as co-authors if they have not explicitly consented. This presents a conundrum.
The way I have dealt with unresponsive co-authors has been to give them an ultimatum and deadline. Something like: "I will be submitting this manuscript on Tuesday next week. If I do not hear from you by them, I will assume that I have your consent to publish with the author list as attached." Depending on which way you have gone, add either "If you feel you should be included as a co-author, please let me know before then," or "If you would rather be taken off the author list, please contact me before then."
Well, you can't include someone else's name on a paper if they don't want it to be included. And their acceptance must be affirmative, i.e., there must be no doubt that they are OK with that. Sending them an ultimatum won't be enough if you can't prove that they read it (for example, you can't be sure some e-mail was delivered and read). It might even become a legal case, and laws might be different in your country/state, since in some cases it's required that an action must be done signaling that they are OK – simply not answering the ultimatum isn't enough to say that they agreed.
You can't take authorship for something that you didn't write. So if someone wrote a paragraph, you can't use it literally, but you could rewrite it.
Results, au contraire, are public to who was informed about it, and that person can do anything they want about it. If someone paints a wall blue, anyone can write a paper about the wall becoming blue. If someone tells you "I painted the wall blue and 53% of the viewers said it was better", you can write about that. Of course, you can't say that you did the painting and observation. The exception to that would be some non-disclosure agreement, where you explicitly had to agree that you won't disclose the information you are about to receive.
It's expected that you offer the co-authorship to everyone that was involved in the analysis and conclusions of the research. For example, a laboratory technician that just measured some variable and gave you a table with values won't be a co-author. But if the person isn't interested in doing so, well, use the result and publish your paper.
Edit
Also found this piece of interesting information:
But until the results are so widely known and familiar that they have become common knowledge, people who use them are obliged to recognize the discoverer by means of citations [1]
The matter is simple. Two authors did not want to participate or further improve the manuscript. They made the third one wait for 3 years. If the third one wants to report the case without copying the matter from the first manuscript, then it is ethically and morally acceptable
I think the question is deep rooted. Always happens between the seniors and juniors. In my opinion the co-authors should be removed as second time around they did not participate in the writing up. It appears the co-authors gave up thinking it is not publishable. Moreover >3 years is a long time to wait to get an answer. My vote go ahead and publish without their name.
Consultant
