4. Authorship in a journal-style thesis

4.1 Level of contribution

Work submitted for assessment must be chiefly your own. With respect to a journal-style thesis, this will typically mean that you should be a major contributor to the research in, and production of, all jointly-authored papers and the lead author (applying disciplinary/sub-disciplinary norms in terms of how this is interpreted) of at least one paper. 

Your school, department or centre may set a requirement around authorship (such as requiring that a certain number of papers are lead authored by the PGR), or issue guidance on the matter - see your departmental PGR handbook for more information.  

4.2 Multi-author papers

A traditional chapter may be the most appropriate choice when you have contributed to a paper but not as a major contributor; for example, if you have been responsible for a critical but small element (eg a new method) within a large collaborative project, but the main thrust of the resulting paper(s) is not on that element. In such a case, you might instead produce a traditional chapter focusing on your own work within the collaborative project and referring to the published paper as required. 

4.3 Statement of authorship

A statement of authorship must be included for each and every paper that is submitted where there has been collaboration in the research conceptualisation, and/or research work and/or research write-up, which indicates the extent and nature of the contribution of each of the parties. It is recommended to use the University template statement of authorship. Where a paper has multiple authors (see above about the inclusion of such papers) the statement of authorship can focus on the key contributing/corresponding authors).

4.3 Research conducted by more than one PGR

If you have collaborated with another PGR (or several PGRs) in the research and/or writing of a paper, it may be submitted as part of more than one thesis, provided that it meets the criteria above in terms of level of contribution and statement of authorship.