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A colleague has approached me with a tough situation. I'm unsure how to advise her.

She is a postdoc, and will soon take a month-long planned medical leave. Her adviser, a senior research scientist, has a history of reshuffling authorships of papers of his subordinates during leave, sometimes to make himself first author. She had previously hoped to have the paper in question in submission, but “serendipitously” some last minute data is unavailable. Adding to her suspicion, the adviser has asked her to deliver all drafts and all data analysis code before leaving.

Her question, which stumped me: how can she safeguard her present first-author position? I will meet with her at the end of the week (17th) and share this thread with her.

Some details:

  • This advisor has reshuffled authorship on several previous occasions of which I am aware. He has suffered no disciplinary action from the department in these situations, and has a reputation for working to damage the careers of those that work against him. The unit has a history of turning a blind eye in these situations.

  • There's very little accountability to be had within this unit. Pieces of proof like emails and widely witnessed public statements are unlikely to be actual safeguards.

  • The advisor really does control all the inputs and outputs. This is true even after her return: he may switch authorship at that point over any real or perceived failure.

  • My feeling is the successful path here will involve some clever way to move the power in the situation from his side to her side.

  • Certainly, she is looking for a exit from the lab. A solution will substantially increase the chances she can take this first authorship with her.

  • My sense from our discussion is that early drafts and data analysis already shared, but the most recent ones are not yet. That said, the entire situation seems to suggest a lack of trust on all sides.

  • The distribution of work put into the paper is roughly: 95 % by my colleague, 4 % by another co-author, and 1 % by the supervisor.

EDIT: This has concluded. She used several of the strategies here, documenting extensively. Her adviser remover her from the paper and sent it for publication within 48 hours of her leaving. Upon her recovery, which took somewhat longer than expected, she appealed to the editor and the department. Her adviser ended her postdoc position, citing insufficient funding, and responded to the editor (how I'm unsure). She appealed to the university, which did not intervene. She has had no additional communication from the journal or her old lab. She has left, in some disgust, for an industry job.

Industrademic
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    There is an obvious answer which works perfectly in my field, which is to just sit down and have a conversation about the author order ahead of time. However, this only works if you have decent people in the field. – knzhou Aug 12 '18 at 09:09
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    On a practical level, it sounds like the advisor can't submit without the drafts / data analysis code. – Stuart Golodetz Aug 12 '18 at 13:46
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    This might be one of those cases where someone needs to bite the bullet and get that person fired by going high up. – DonQuiKong Aug 12 '18 at 17:17
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    "Notably, her unit has a history of turning a blind eye in these situations." - I am quite sure that is a violation of a lot of laws and notably a lawyer may have an amazing time making sure she gets a BIG Payout from this and her unit gets utterly devastated. Prior incidents + her would be great. COnsider legal action. – TomTom Aug 13 '18 at 01:43
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    @Tom What laws legislate author order? – Azor Ahai -him- Aug 13 '18 at 15:06
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    @Tom, I'm unaware of any laws related to author order in the US. Certainly, in an industry setting, reassigning the lead of a project during a medical leave would not be something that could be litigated. I'm also unaware of big payouts from abusive postdoc situations in the US. I suspect they would be unsuccessful if they did not rise to the level of physical abuse. – Industrademic Aug 13 '18 at 15:28
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    In some areas, a working paper (unsubmitted form) is allowed to circle around, just to collect ideas, and suggestions to improve on the main body of work. Why don't your friend do that? – An old man in the sea. Aug 13 '18 at 15:28
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    @Anoldmaninthesea, this is a truly interesting idea. She could insist on a round of edits including a number of allies, and we could hold up that round of edits until she returned. That might work... Make it an answer? – Industrademic Aug 13 '18 at 15:32
  • Thanks for explaining, @Industrademic, I wasn't sure if "these situations" was code for a particular pattern of who the abuse was directed towards, or situations in which it had occurred more. If she had any desire to fight it outside of the department (since inside it seems a lost cause), it would seem to require some other angle (such as evidence of protected class discrimination) to forcibly involve an authority capable of action (OIE to start, going beyond if not effective) and (hopefully) protecting her. My sympathies, having been involved in something that did end up going through an OIE – taswyn Aug 13 '18 at 17:30
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    @AzorAhai Depending on the cause for the medical leave, harming someone's career because they are on leave could be descrimination in the UK, which there are laws against. I'm not saying it would be easy to prove, but I think it would at least make it to a tribunal. – Jessica B Aug 14 '18 at 10:47
  • @JessicaB I don't know the UK, but it strikes me as unlikely the courts would consider intervening in a purely academic dispute. – Azor Ahai -him- Aug 14 '18 at 16:28
  • @AzorAhai What do you mean by 'the courts intervening'? If there was a potential case of discrimination, the person being discriminated against can take it to the courts. – Jessica B Aug 14 '18 at 20:45
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    @Industrademic nobody is untouchable. – DonQuiKong Aug 14 '18 at 20:48
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    @AzorAhai Note that it wouldn't be a purely academic dispute, it would be employment law. – Jessica B Aug 14 '18 at 20:51
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    What if, serendipitously, all drafts and data didn't get sent prior to the medical leave? – conjectures Aug 15 '18 at 09:00
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    Ask another question regarding the conclusion. I strongly recommend that she contacts the journal, the dean, professional bodies, ... This should not happen. – user2768 Feb 25 '19 at 16:40
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    @Industrademic chalk one up for another fine upstanding academic... – Solar Mike Feb 25 '19 at 16:52
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    Given that the person in question has moved on to industry, what's the harm in naming the names of dishonest academics so that no future early-career researchers find themselves in your friend's position? – Tiercelet Jun 24 '20 at 13:56

7 Answers7

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I would send an email along the following lines to the supervisor and copied to the person doing the additional piece of work. While not complete protection, this approach provides evidence and also makes it clear that the supervisor should respond if he doesn't intend to wait.

The draft article attached to the email should have a version number and date.

Dear ...

As requested, I have attached the latest draft of our paper, TITLE. It is saved at LOCATION, together with the data and analysis code. Unfortunately, I was unable to submit the draft before taking leave as planned because the data concerning XYZ was not available.

I understand that OTHER-RESEARCHER is intending to complete his/her part of the analysis while I am on leave. I will verify that analysis and integrate it with the existing paper as my first task on my return in a month. I understand that OTHER-RESEARCHER is willing to draft that section of the paper, but as lead author, I want to ensure that it is consistent with the existing message and style of the paper. I would therefore prefer that the analysis is prepared as a separate document and I will integrate it myself.

Assuming that no additional questions are raised by this final analysis, I expect to be able to circulate the complete draft within a week of my return for submission shortly thereafter. As the analysis has already taken NN months, I don't expect this delay to create any difficulties, but please let me know if you are concerned about waiting until my return for the paper to be completed.

Depending on the reason for the medical leave, it may also be appropriate to add a final paragraph:

If there are any questions about this work, I am contactable during my leave at EMAIL

mkennedy
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JenB
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    And if the person in question ignores the email and publishes? – DonQuiKong Aug 12 '18 at 17:15
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    @DonQuiKong If a journal heard that a paper was submitted without approval from all authors, or that an author had been removed, they would not publish it at that point. – Jessica B Aug 12 '18 at 17:37
  • @JessicaB doesn't sound like an optional outcome. – DonQuiKong Aug 12 '18 at 19:13
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    @DonQuiKong The situation is nowhere near optimal, so I don't see that an optimal solution exists. Also, unlike many others here, I believe people should stand up for what's right, not just give in to the bad people to protect themselves. – Jessica B Aug 13 '18 at 05:39
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    @DonQuiKong Sometimes the best option is the option that gets the closest, not the option that fully solves the problem. This solution is about presenting a position, establishing leadership, and providing documentation of that position without having to say to the boss 'I don't trust you'. – JenB Aug 13 '18 at 07:27
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    @DonQuiKong He would likely have to persuade all other researchers to ignore the email too. If he orders them to ignore it at least he can't claim he didn't see the mail and would (hopefully) have to explain his actions against the wishes of the first author. – kapex Aug 13 '18 at 13:55
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    @JessicaB : I wish that were true. I was reviewing a paper about 3 or 4 years ago, and noticed a glaring number of grammatical errors. The first author was a non-native speaker, but 4 of the co-authors were American, British, or Australian. I told the editor I didn't think that the co-authors had read the paper. He refused to believe it. I asked the editor why didn't the paper only had 4 references, and none were to the similar projects that the co-authors did, as there was no explanation of how this project differed from the ones before it. The editor finally said he'd look into it – Joe Aug 13 '18 at 14:44
  • @kapex he's known to reshuffle authorship and nobody has done anything. I don't think anyone else will intervene just because there was an e-mail. – DonQuiKong Aug 13 '18 at 14:50
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    Having evidence is not the end of the conflict, it's preparation for it. If no one else has bothered with this step, previously, it would be reasonable that not much was done. – The Nate Aug 14 '18 at 05:47
  • -1: I'm not convinced this approach is ideal - it doesn't sufficiently protect the OP against someone acting maliciously, and it sets up a potential conflict that the OP is far from guaranteed to win. It's far safer to make sure that the other person can't act badly (e.g. by making sure they don't have the tools to do so) than to give them the opportunity to act badly and say publicly that you expect them not to take advantage of it - if you're dealing with someone who has no shame, they'll inwardly laugh at you and do it anyway. – Stuart Golodetz Aug 14 '18 at 18:23
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It seems like the work dynamic in this place is rather perverse. Let's set that aside, though.

At all costs, this must be "resolved" prior to submission. You don't want the bun fight about authorship to leak onto the review process or, god forbid, post-acceptance or post-publication time frame.

She must protect herself. As an early career researcher, overt action may result in negative consequences in her field. If her senior is petty enough to do things like swap authorship, I shudder to think what the senior fellow can do in retaliation.

I'm not one to advocate a passive-aggressive approach to work, but if there are clear and systematic deficiencies in upholding the most basic of academic mores, what is a junior staff member left to do? There's a phrase in classics that applies here: "Festina lente" or "Make haste slowly".

In the end, she must realise that these options may not work at all. It might be that all her finessing is for naught because her senior has full control of the outputs. I would strongly suggest that she finish up and leave the lab and the institute as soon as she can.

Good luck to her.

Do let us know how this resolves.

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    Why is it so important to keep the fighting private? Surely if this group are so outrageous, others in the field will already be aware of it (or if not it's high time they were)? – Jessica B Aug 12 '18 at 09:07
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    Whistleblowing is costly, both personally and professionally. I'm not prepared to suggest that if the senior is so entrenched as to have the entire institute enthralled. Would you? If so, I'd like to hear your suggestion. –  Aug 12 '18 at 09:40
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    My suggestion would be to make the draft version publicly available now in some form. – Jessica B Aug 12 '18 at 09:45
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    Ahh, good one. Subvert the process. I hadn't thought of that. Very creative. –  Aug 12 '18 at 09:47
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    @JessicaB Self-publishing: that deserves its own answer. – Lawrence Aug 12 '18 at 10:57
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    @JessicaB: I also love the suggestion, but I can also totally see the author order just being changed in the final draft... – user541686 Aug 12 '18 at 11:41
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    Yeah... in a situation where one simply needed to document that the change had happened, having a public draft would be great... but it sounds as though the department in question has a history of being presented with evidence of this behaviour and ignoring it.... – Flyto Aug 12 '18 at 11:51
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    @JessicaB: Could you post that as an answer? – R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE Aug 12 '18 at 13:14
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    Or you talk to al awyer and hand over the whole data bag to him. That is confidential - so no publication - but a sealed envelope with a printout in a safe at a notary totally establishes a historical truth. Notary will testify to the date and content not beung unaltered and then ther esti s "blow up and take paycheck". – TomTom Aug 13 '18 at 01:46
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    There really isn't an answer here at all. OP knows they don't want a fight. OP knows they must protect themselves. Leaving the institute does not solve the present problem. The question is, how to navigate the situation? This provides no answer whatsoever. – J... Aug 13 '18 at 11:36
  • @J... the answer here has been subtly/tentatively expressed, through the "phrase in classics". – Flyto Aug 13 '18 at 12:42
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    @Flyto Yeah, except that’s not how answers here work: answers answer the question. Fully, completely, concisely if possible, but above all else, clearly. How exactly does festina lente apply here? What passive-aggression is St. Inkburg suggesting here? It’s unclear to me, which is deeply problematic when those are the very questions set before us to answer. – KRyan Aug 13 '18 at 15:27
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    I agree with @J... - my particular head-scratcher was the line "she must realise that these options may not work at all" - what options? – Lamar Latrell Aug 14 '18 at 02:51
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My suggestion would be to make the paper available in some form now, to establish the existing authorship. How to do that without causing too much trouble (if that's possible) will depend on the details of the situation.

Some potential ideas:

  • Give a talk about the work, with a copy of the draft to hand
  • Send the paper to an interested colleague in the field (eg PhD supervisor, someone they're applying for a job with..)
  • Provide the draft copy via a personal website
  • Post the paper minus the final data on the arXiv (if in a suitable field), or on a personal website
  • Send the paper with some query to the university research office
Jessica B
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    This can cause huge problems. Publishing something online without the permission of the other authors isn't a good idea. Depending on the journal you want to publish in you might not be allowed to publish it beforehand and most import, why would this prevent changing the order of authors? It's quite common to add or change the order of authors during iterations of a draft or even during revision. –  Aug 12 '18 at 18:00
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    But the talk part where you give copies is kind of interesting, especially because gives you leverage to escalate if things go bad. You'd have witnesses inside the department and might work as a deterrent. – Fábio Dias Aug 12 '18 at 20:04
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    @DSVA Posting on a website is not publishing. In my field it's standard. But I said the details depend. It doesn't necessarily prevent the author order being changed, but it gives a starting point for the argument, whereas the current situation doesn't seem to provide any evidence that the person was first author to start with. – Jessica B Aug 13 '18 at 05:36
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    Of course it's publishing if you put it online for the public to see. Making it available for the public is the definition of publishing. And yes, in some field this is standard, in others journals won't accept the paper any more since it's public knowledge. But even if that's not the problem, making it public without the permission of the other authors can still cause huge problems. –  Aug 13 '18 at 07:18
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    In my opinion, journals that forbid publication as a preprint haven’t understood how scientific progress works and therefore I wouldn’t publish my work in such a journal... – Sebastian Bechtel Aug 13 '18 at 10:39
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    @DSVA : it depends on the journal, really. AGU (used to, I gave up on them years ago) forbids papers that have been presented before, but they had allowed an exception for posters that had been posted using their system (which allowed commenting, etc). Of course, they neglected to mention that they were going to delete the posters and all comments after 6 months. But there are other journals that differentiate between 'pre-print servers' like xarchiv and other types of 'publishing'. Especially because you often get comments/suggestions that improve the final papers. – Joe Aug 13 '18 at 14:50
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How about not giving copies of all the drafts and data analyses...? Just "forget"?

paul garrett
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    while practical, that leaves you at fault. What if the guy uses that as an excuse for retaliation? tricky – Fábio Dias Aug 12 '18 at 20:09
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    +1: "The only copy is on the computer in my flat, and unfortunately I'm now out of town for a month - I guess it'll have to wait till I get back now, sorry." Something like that should do the trick. – Stuart Golodetz Aug 12 '18 at 22:28
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    @StuartGolodetz Good. Seriously, (supposed) ineffable putziness is a great defense for many things. :) – paul garrett Aug 12 '18 at 22:41
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    I rather like this, although it will leave her at fault... I think it's likely he will need the documents/code to make this all work. – Industrademic Aug 13 '18 at 01:10
  • @Industrademic: Exactly :) – Stuart Golodetz Aug 13 '18 at 08:23
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    This. I mean, how harmful can playing dumb be in these kind of situations? As long as she can pretend it was a honest mistake it would be unreasonable to expect long term consequences. In case you want something even more innocuous there must be a way to, for example, create a corrupt compressed file that shows all the desired files, but from which it's impossible to extract them. – user347489 Aug 13 '18 at 10:41
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    Encrypt the files, put them on an usb stick, hand it over on the last day and "forget" to provide the encryption key. – Tschallacka Aug 13 '18 at 11:04
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    This is an interesting line of thought. Knowing her, she will really dislike this option. She is exactly the type of conscientious that truly loathes this type of behavior. That said, it may be the only reasonable path forward. My only real hesitation is that it doesn't switch the locus of power: this advisor still holds that. He may use this failure as justification for further negative action. Also, although I am not aware, there may be legitimate reasons that the work needs to be published in a timely manner. – Industrademic Aug 13 '18 at 15:41
  • @Industrademic, I'd wager that it is essentially impossible to change "who has the power" in such a situation, so I'd doubt that there's a "solution" in that style. – paul garrett Aug 13 '18 at 17:31
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    @Industrademic Another one along these lines that's more plausible than forgot to pass the encryption key is pass off a thumb drive with corrupted versions of the files. It's less likely to come off as a power play. – Myles Aug 13 '18 at 21:52
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    This will burn bridges and should definitely be a last resort but given OP’s description this might be the only viable option, bad as that is. – Konrad Rudolph Aug 15 '18 at 10:01
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The straightforward approach: say what you want.

One option would be for OP's colleague to explicitly bring up the issue of authorship order with her advisor: To tell him that she wants to make sure that it's agreed that she continues to be listed as the first author on the paper, and that since she's going to be on medical leave, she will not be around to discuss this issue if it comes up.

Now, the advisor might dodge, or may explain why he intends to not make her first author, but at least she'll know where she stands. She will just need to get past the timidity, or the fear of appearing greedy or presumptuous by bringing this up.

Notes:

  • I also like @JessicaB's answer in case the direct approach turns sour and OP's colleague feels she's being cheated - but then things will get even more confrontational.
  • I'd like to use this opportunity to advocate against naming authors by order of supposed contribution, and switching to alphabetic naming only. The assignment of credit for the work should not be part of the paper, and these ego battles or mis-/re-arrangements are completely spared in disciplines such as Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science. If someone wants to know who did what - they can ask. If and when your colleague becomes more senior, suggest to her to insist on an alphabetic naming policy.
einpoklum
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    Except it sounds like her advisor will agree to make her first author, and then put themselves first anyway. How does your answer prevent that? – Benubird Aug 13 '18 at 09:22
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    @Benubird: It doesn't sound like that. OP did not indicate the advisor renegs on concrete commitments regarding author order, only that he takes the liberty of rearrangement - supposedly when it was only "understood" who should be first. – einpoklum Aug 13 '18 at 09:29
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    This is also a good approach. The bull by the horns. However, the OP only gives a partial moral portrait of the adviser, with which it's pretty hard to know how effective this idea would be. – user347489 Aug 13 '18 at 10:46
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    He has made this commitment, repeatedly. He has a history of breaking this commitment. – Industrademic Aug 13 '18 at 15:30
  • @Industrademic: 1. You didn't say that in your question. 2. If he has made explicitly, clearly, and in writing (at least in an email) or in a group meeting? Because if he has made it informally in a one-on-one meeting then, well, he hasn't made it at all. If there's no strong record of it, it didn't happen. – einpoklum Aug 13 '18 at 15:32
  • @einpoklum, both, I believe. The problem is, in order for these things to carry any kind of weight there needs to be some kind of honor/accountability. There really is very little accountability in this situation, and notably postdocs have relatively little recourse if their unit is not supportive. Reasons can be found to change the circumstances of any promise, . How does the line go: I have altered the deal. Pray I do not alter it further... – Industrademic Aug 13 '18 at 15:36
  • @Industrademic: If you have it in writing that you are the main or foremost contributer, and your advisor renegs on this, he has all but committed plagiarism, and several ethical and disciplinary offenses within your university. If it's not corrupt, he is liable to lose his position over something like this. – einpoklum Aug 13 '18 at 16:27
  • @einpoklum, and yet these things happen frequently. This forum is full of these issues. Justice relies on the will of the institution to interpret " all but committed plagiarism" in a just manner. There are not courts of appeal, in most cases. – Industrademic Aug 14 '18 at 17:58
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    @Industrademic: That's why graduate researchers need a strong union, to deter the institution for not taking serious action in cases of plagiarism. – einpoklum Aug 14 '18 at 18:23
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There’s not a whole lot you can do to protect against this happening. All you can do is document things in writing and prepare for war if it does happen.

JenB’s answer is a great suggestion for how to start on documenting things. I’d also suggest some language documenting previous discussions as to who is first author.

If it comes to war, you’ll need some allies and to apply for new jobs. Talk to your Ph.D. advisor, to any powerful allies you have, to the chair, and to the local Title IX and/or disability offices. See if anyone is willing to back you up. Try to nail down any documentation about the previous instances. Ultimately you probably have no real recourse, but you can at least see what allies you do have.

Noah Snyder
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    This is something along the line of what I told her. Regardless of her allies, who mainly will be able to get her out, the unit would need to be willing to back their junior people. They are not, and have demonstrated such in the past repeatedly. Really stunning how toothless university systems leave the uninitiated... – Industrademic Aug 13 '18 at 00:52
  • "...you probably have no real recourse..." Not with the job but with the publication one should have a little recourse. Scientific manuscripts usually require the agreement of all authors for publication and author there doesn't mean the names that are printed somewhere but the person that have done the work. The laws would kind of protect such cases of utter arbitrariness although only so little protection is offered there. – NoDataDumpNoContribution Aug 14 '18 at 08:41
  • @Industrademic: Can you please tell us what is this university and what is the journal? How can we stop such things from happening again and again if the identities of the immoral people are almost always covered up? Isn't that also exactly why this advisor could repeatedly do this malice to multiple students? – user21820 Dec 13 '21 at 17:01
  • I have no interest in making one well-funded and perfectly fortified enemy in my field. I also left academia some time ago. After some time away, I do not miss it. Rereading this, I am struck: what a nasty place. The problem is systemic, and life in industry is better. I think academe has been being eaten from inside for some time. Shaming this one university and PI and journal in this small corner of the internet will not help. This is every R1 university. So: no I will not. I don't care. If you can, get out. – Industrademic Dec 16 '21 at 03:50
  • She was pregnant, by the way, and lost the kid. I saw her this Fall. She is OK. She also still has 'wake in the night sweating and screaming' nightmares about this experience. In what other place would this be normal... disgusting. – Industrademic Dec 16 '21 at 04:01
  • @Industrademic: I understand and support staying anonymous in whistle-blowing. However, I noticed that you had said "Now that I don't care I believe I can use this account to speak some truth." on your profile, so I thought you would be fine with revealing where this is. No, many R1 universities are nothing like this. That's why I think it is worthwhile to highlight places that are as disgusting as this. I'm glad that you saw this ex-colleague recently and she is doing ok, and I hope her nightmares gradually fade away. – user21820 Dec 17 '21 at 08:35
  • There is an important difference between speaking truth and attacking successful sociopaths. Here is my truth: I am afraid. – Industrademic Jan 14 '22 at 02:08
2

Well, there's always the Gordian knot solution: Don't take the medical leave and continue working, to the detriment of her health. If she's not on medical leave, the senior researcher can't use her lack of presence to screw her over. Whether that's something she's willing to consider depends on what exactly she's taking the medical leave for, and whether she's willing to take the damage to her health to avoid the damage to her career.

nick012000
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    Upvoted to offset a downvote. Although I wouldn't take this course of action, it's an option I hadn't considered and which might in turn just inspire other solutions. Doesn't deserve a negative score IMO. – Oliphaunt Aug 12 '18 at 22:53
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    Heh. Yup. This is pretty non-negotiable medical leave. She will be taking it. – Industrademic Aug 13 '18 at 00:53
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    I still like this comment. It was my first thought. Of course, it was my privilege to think that way as I have never had a completely nonnegotiable need to take leave. – Industrademic Aug 13 '18 at 15:39
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    Discouraging people from taking leave they need (and are entitled to, without any resulting discrimination) is not really very helpful. I've known many people who would say it is far, far better to keep your health than to stay in academia at all. – Jessica B Aug 13 '18 at 21:08
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    @Jessica B There’s also plenty of people who are willing to make that sort of trade off though, even if they usually work in the trades rather than academia. I figured it was a valid answer. – nick012000 Aug 14 '18 at 07:16
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    @JessicaB Not to mention trading one's health over the authorship of a single paper. – Dmitry Grigoryev Aug 14 '18 at 08:32
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    I'm at loss. Your advice is to not only ignore the problem but to create worse ones. – Eric Duminil Aug 14 '18 at 11:21
  • @JessicaB, those that remain have almost invariably chosen academia over their health at some, or many, points. – Industrademic Aug 14 '18 at 18:00
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    @Industrademic Exactly why nobody further should be led to make that choice. Accepting the awful situation is not the way to make academia better. – Jessica B Aug 14 '18 at 20:50
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    As both an undergrad and grad student, I have worked around the clock and without sleep. Who in academia hasn't devoted long hours to their passion? But one cannot neglect medical issues. The real violation is the deplorable behavior both practiced and accepted by this 'unit'. – ChuckCottrill Aug 14 '18 at 23:17
  • There are planned medical leaves where postponing is not detrimental to health in general. Whether this is an option here is something only OP's colleague can decide, but IMHO it is good to have the general possibility spelled out so they can consider whether or not it is a viable option. Along the same line: sometimes people get offered earlier slots for medical treatments (because someone else has to postpone) ... which would leave no time for handing over things ;-) – cbeleites unhappy with SX Aug 15 '18 at 15:33
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    Many medical issues can't be put off; pregnancy leaves can't, which is why a world where this answer was the only solution would differentially hurt female employees. It may be possible to take the leave but remain involved in the last stages of the project. Combining this and JenB's approach, she could say, "I'm excited to get this out the door and will stay in touch about this even though I'm on leave. The new data should be a helpful but straightforward update--get in touch if it gets complex so we can all plan." This might be a way to be on leave without being forced out of the loop. – cactus_pardner Aug 16 '18 at 18:27
  • Fascinating that this was the correct answer. – Industrademic Feb 28 '19 at 15:23
  • @Industrademic sad to see that this is the accepted answer! – M. Stern Mar 10 '19 at 14:04