NIH leader suggests committees should settle author disputes

National Institutes of Health receives about a dozen authorship complaints annually, deputy says

Research institutions should set up dedicated committees to resolve authorship disputes and other problems hampering the publication of research papers, a senior leader at the National Institutes of Health has suggested.

In a blog post published last month, Mike Lauer, deputy director for extramural research at the NIH, said the agency receives “around a dozen” complaints every year related to an authorship dispute reported as research misconduct, harassment or discrimination.