Posthumous publication
We acknowledge the unique set of circumstances that will have led to posthumous co-authorship. So, the decision to publish manuscripts in GEUS Bulletin where one or more co-authors are deceased is always decided on a case-by-case basis.
Publishing manuscripts where one or more co-authors has died raises ethical questions for publishers.
A co-author passing away before a manuscript is submitted to a journal raises the following issues:
- A deceased co-author cannot take responsibility for published content.
- A deceased co-author may or may not have warranted co-authorship.
- A deceased co-author may not have agreed with the interpretations and conclusions in the published manuscript.
- A deceased co-author may not have consented to the work being published in a particular journal.
Some of these issues still apply when a co-author passes away after submission but before a manuscript is accepted. However, declining to publish posthumous manuscripts also has ethical implications if important science goes unpublished or where correct co-authorship is denied.
Journal guidelines for authorship state that all who meet the criteria for authorship should be included in the paper as co-authors. For that reason, we have developed a set of guiding principles for authors, reviewers and editors to help them determine when posthumous co-authorship is warranted and how it ought to be presented in manuscripts submitted to GEUS Bulletin.
Guiding principles for posthumous publications
The deceased author meets one or more criteria for authorship as described in the journal guidelines for authorship.
The submitted manuscript states the date of death and includes a short summary of the deceased co-author’s contribution to the current research or manuscript.
The manuscript was submitted within a ‘reasonable’ timeframe after the author passed away, depending on the specific circumstances in each case.
Written confirmation is provided to the journal from the deceased co-author’s last institution or estate to approve their posthumous co-authorship of the submitted manuscript and later the accepted version.
Dedications to deceased colleagues or co-authors
Authors may wish to include a general dedication to a deceased colleague in a scientific paper. They may wish to acknowledge a colleague who made a direct contribution to the current work but did not warrant co-authorship. They may wish to acknowledge a colleague for their contributions to other research by the same team or to the broader scientific community.
Dedications may be made either in acknowledgements or in a separate section titled “Dedication” at the end of the scientific content and before the Acknowledgments.
In printed special issues a dedication can also be included in the colophon for the issue.
