At least I was paid for a week's worth of work.

January 27, 2011 4:16 PM

My name is listed in the acknowledgment section of a science protocols book where the authors thank me for assistance and advice. The sections that I wrote ended up being reduced to a few sentences, and I was not listed as an author despite a promise of inclusion. Would it be appropriate to include that on my otherwise skimpy CV, or would that be considered tacky?
posted by halogen to Science & Nature (13 answers total)

Could you legitimately list yourself as something like "researcher" or "research assistant" rather than claiming authorship? That way, it's clear that you contributed, but you're not claiming credit beyond what the authors gave you.
posted by decathecting at 4:21 PM on January 27, 2011 [2 favorites]

Yes, you could legitimately include it in a section on other research activities (e.g., "Research assistance and brief written contribution for [book, publisher, year]". This wouldn't be tacky at all, and is, I think, precisely something you should include on a CV, whether the CV is lacking in other areas or not.
posted by astrochimp at 4:26 PM on January 27, 2011 [3 favorites]

It would make sense to include this as part of a descriptive blurb below a previous job listing, not as a separate line on the CV. I think that is what the previous commenters are suggesting.
posted by grouse at 4:32 PM on January 27, 2011

Since it can't go under your publication section, I would write a short paragraph about it under your research experience or "projects" section. Basically, first sentence is a summary of the project, second sentence is your contribution to it, third sentence reads: "Which led to the publication of a manuscript in Protocols in Enzymology (2010)... [citation]." Anyone who reads your CV will see that you contributed to the paper, but will understand that you could not be, for some reason, listed as an author.

Also: Tacky on the part of the person who cut you out just because your section was trimmed.
posted by Knowyournuts at 4:35 PM on January 27, 2011

I should add: it's unclear from your question whether you hired to write this as an RA, or were you enlisted as a co-author to begin with.

If the former, don't include mention of a brief written contribution (as I advised above), since that might seem to be claiming more than you ought -- it depends on whether you were enlisted as a research assistant or a co-author. In either case, though, I agree with Knowyournuts that it seems quite tacky on the authors' behalf to screw you out of a co-author credit if you put in the requisite work. (I'm not familiar with research/publishing practices in the sciences, however, so I have no idea how common/uncommon this is.)
posted by astrochimp at 4:39 PM on January 27, 2011

Agreeing with decathecting and astrochimp: I'd say include this on your CV, but frame it as a job / work experience / research experience rather than as a publication.

There was similar question a while ago . . . digging through the archives now . . .
posted by Orinda at 4:40 PM on January 27, 2011

Response by poster: No – nobody was paid for the chapter. I was asked by the PI (my manager's boss, and not particularly involved with my project) at my full-time research job to work on it, and I had to put my other projects on hold in order to do so. In that sense, I received my regular salary for a week's worth of not actually doing my regular work.
posted by halogen at 4:44 PM on January 27, 2011

Response by poster: The PI only remembered that he had agreed to write it after he got a call from the editor a week or so before the deadline – otherwise it would have been just something I could have done on the side.
posted by halogen at 4:47 PM on January 27, 2011

Somewhat similar previous question. Not as similar as I remembered, though.
posted by Orinda at 5:03 PM on January 27, 2011

I think the term to use is 'contributor' or 'protocol consultant'.
posted by plinth at 5:08 PM on January 27, 2011

I agree to include it on your CV but put it under your current job along with the other things you've done there. I have something in mine about 'writing research reports suitable for reporting to the FDA' as a task under a job where we were working on a compound that went into phase I, this would be similar. It depends on how much other detail you have there as to how you deal with it exactly, but you should be able to summarise in one sentance or bullet point. Something about 'contributed to the writing of publication name and detail', where someone could then look up that publication and see you're in the acknowledgements (which does usually carry some small amount of meaning, people don't get put in there for no reason).

The process of researching and writing up this information is a useful experience showing desirable skills even though your words didn't end up forming a substantial part of the end result, and it's something you could potentially talk about in an interview too. When you have authorship on publications then it might drop off again but, for now, any experience with the publishing process sets you apart from people who've written nothing and is worth acknowledging.
posted by shelleycat at 5:11 PM on January 27, 2011

I list something just like this on my CV as a "consultancy". Specifically it says "Consultant to Prof. X and Y on the Z project, 2008." Then there's a brief description underneath that says, "Conducted a short research project, the results of which were published in "Important Book That Didn't List Me As Author", 2009." (Obviously IBTDLMAA was listed by its actual name, not like that.)

I figure if anyone contacts Prof X and Y to follow up, they will admit that my findings did form most of the chapter that I didn't get authorship for. Or if someone actually looks at the book, they will see that I am acknowledged.

But no, I don't think you can list this under publications. The only way to do this would be to list the report or whatever that you wrote and gave to the authors as something like:

"Unpublished research report on ...." University name. Date.
posted by lollusc at 5:52 PM on January 27, 2011

I've seen research assistants mention publications they contributed some sort of effort to but were not co-authors on under the relevant project in the Research Projects section of their CVs.
posted by Jacqueline at 11:30 PM on January 27, 2011