Measuring dissatisfaction with coauthorship: An empirical approach based on the researchers’ perception

Increasing levels of collaboration constitute one of the characteristics of science. However, the knowledge production system is based on a fundamental discordance: on the one hand, it is cooperative in nature, with links articulated through coauthorships, and on the other, the systems for assigning merit and distributing rewards function on an individual scale. This contradiction can give rise to dysfunction and inappropriate practices.This study analyses researchers’ perceptions about the problems associated with authorship in scientific publications. We make use of a coauthorship dissatisfaction index that measures the degree of dissatisfaction with the author order on the byline, ghost authors, and unjustified authorship. There are differences in this regard according to the branch of knowledge, status in the academic hierarchy, and sex. Using a sample of 2344 university researchers, we observed an overall dissatisfaction rate of 12.4%. The highest rates were in the areas of Health Sciences and Social Sciences, in early-stage career academics, and in women. The cognizant authorities should take steps to regulate authorship, tailoring rules to each area of knowledge, with an eye toward reducing discrimination, gender bias, and abuse of authority.     

Intellectual capital and the firm: some remaining questions and prospects

From the publication of seminal works in the 1990s until now, a great deal of theoretical proposals and empirical evidence has been published on intellectual capital (IC) and the firm. Nevertheless, several problems remain as important impediments to the advancement and consolidation of an ‘Intellectual Capital-based View of the Firm’. Most of these issues have to do with the conceptualization and typology of IC, its measurement, and the limitations of the most common statistical methods. This article highlights the most important of these issues as well as some possible directions for future development.