| As the number of academic researchers increases and the division of labor within research teams becomes more specialized,a new type of research role has emerged-the supporting author.The identity of the supporting author,as an important productive force in contemporary scientific development,has not been accurately defined.This study extensively searched and organized relevant research,policies,and data both domestically and abroad,and found two shortcomings in current research:(1)There is a limited amount of research on the definition of the supporting author,and there is no consensus on the definition of this author type.The distinction between main authors and supporting authors is not clear.(2)The identification methods for supporting authors have varying degrees of flaws,making it difficult to accurately distinguish the identity of the supporting author and classify authors.(3)Previous research based on the contribution declaration algorithm cannot accurately measure the actual contribution of co-authors,making it difficult to accurately calculate author contributions.This study starts from the perspective of the author contribution declaration,investigates the implementation status of the author contribution declaration,and constructs an identification method for supporting authors in the field of biology based on the importance classification of author contribution elements domestically and abroad.Then,an academic contribution weight algorithm based on the author’s contribution rate measurement method and author contribution element weight scores is constructed to quantify author contributions.Based on the contribution types of researchers,this study compares and analyzes the professional characteristics of supporting authors and main authors from four perspectives: authorship order,the number and type of contribution elements,and the degree of participation in the co-occurrence relationship of contribution elements.Finally,this study analyzes the application of supporting authors in four scenarios: optimizing authorship order,improving author contribution declaration mechanisms,formulating more reasonable talent evaluation standards,and improving scientific research social networking sites and journals.This study mainly draws the following conclusions:(1)The criteria for determining authorship indicate that individuals who solely participate in acquiring funding or project management do not qualify as authors.The core contributions for authorship include conceptualizing the paper and writing the initial draft.Therefore,individuals who contribute to the conceptualization and initial drafting of the paper can be recognized as primary authors,while others are considered supporting authors.Additionally,in the field of biology,there are fewer supporting authors compared to the number of primary authors,with nearly half of the researchers engaged in supporting roles.(2)Common characteristics shared by supporting authors and primary authors include the majority of authors occupying intermediate positions in the order of authorship and contribution ranking in the paper.This may be attributed to primary authors occasionally assuming supporting roles in other publications.Furthermore,both types of authors are more involved in "writing review and editing," "investigation and research," and "methodology" contributions,while their involvement in "software" contributions is relatively less.The significant differences between primary authors and supporting authors in terms of the order of authorship and ranking based on contribution are as follows: the contributions made by primary authors in research work often exceed their position in the authorship order,while the contributions made by supporting authors in research work often fall below their position in the authorship order.In terms of contribution categories,primary authors are more focused on proposing research topics,drafting papers,and determining research directions and methods,while supporting authors tend to participate in both experimental investigation and analysis,as well as paper review work.Considering the quantity and types of contributions,along with the co-occurrence relationship between the elements of author participation,it can be inferred that primary authors have a higher degree of involvement in different types of contributions.In contrast,supporting authors tend to engage in more fragmented work,indicating that they are responsible for fewer tasks in scientific research,with primary authors shouldering a larger portion of the workload.The analysis of the professional characteristics of the two types of authors shows that main authors and supporting authors have obvious differences in authorship order and contribution ranking based on contribution degree. |
