Managing authorship in (socio)linguistic collaborations

Abstract

This article examines the issue of joint authorship in (socio)linguistic publications. On the assumption that research work in the humanities has traditionally been performed on a “lone scholar” basis, discussion of authorship attribution has not dominated conversations in the arts and humanities as compared to the natural, health and engineering sciences. However, considering the increasing occurrence of collaboration in (socio)linguistics and its resultant joint publications, this article considers author trends in the humanities generally and linguistics in particular, who qualifies to be an author and how authorship ordering and assigning should be addressed in both an ethical and a fair manner. Considering the rise of collaborations in sociolinguistic research, varied sources of data used, and the growth of multi-site projects, authorship discussions in arts and humanities disciplines can no longer be muted.