I was a co-author in presubmission but corresponding author deleted my authorship in the formal submission without my consent
The supervisor initially submitted a presubmission inquiry to a journal and added my name as a co-author. Later we had contradictions. Two months later for the formal submission, I was surprised that he totally deleted my authorship without informing me, but just acknowledged my technical work in the "Acknowledgement" section.
In the figure list I contributed two subfigures but he re-draw one of them and asks another member to repeat the experiment and use a new figure. I also have other contributions such as preliminary work and experiments-repeating, but not shown in the figure list.
In addition, my grant also contributed to this work, although he did not use any of my figures. My supervisor's logic is that "None of your figures were used and thus you can not be a a coauthor", although half of other co-authors did not contribute to any independent figure.
I have submitted a complaint to the journal but not received the response yet.
My question is that for this journal it has a policy "All the authorship change needs the approval of all authors after submission", but I am not sure whether the presubmission fits to this policy.
Can anyone give me any suggestion or share similar experience with me? Thank you very much
1 Answer
First, you should check if your university or institution has an ombudsman or a research integrity office. While you've already contacted the journal, journals often hesitate to intervene in authorship disputes unless all parties agree, as they usually view this as an internal institutional matter. A neutral third party at your school can help mediate the conversation with your supervisor. Regarding the policy, "after submission" typically refers to the formal manuscript submission, not the presubmission inquiry. This means the journal might not see your previous inclusion as a binding agreement. However, authorship isn't just about who created the final figures; it's about substantial intellectual contribution. If your preliminary work shaped the study's direction or your grant funded the research, you have a strong argument for co-authorship. Gather all your evidence now. Save emails, dated drafts, and records of the experiments you ran. If you have a paper trail showing your contributions and the supervisor's initial acknowledgment of your role, it'll be much harder for them to claim you didn't contribute. Since policies on authorship and disputes can vary by institution and journal, you should verify the current official terms by contacting your school's financial-aid office, the U.S. Department of Education, or StudentAid.gov if this involves grant-related funding rules. Keep your communication professional and documented.
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