Lecturers Publishing Students’ Research: An Authorship Policy Gap

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to derive a possible policy to guide authorship of students’ research from their supervised research projects. It was motivated by the fact that universities have no policy to cater for the publication of students’ research. Unscrupulous supervisors have published such research acknowledging the student as second or third author. At times the student is not even acknowledged. The study used descriptive surveys in which data were collected from cluster samples (n = 204) of undergraduate and masters students as well as lecturers from one university in Zimbabwe. Comments were also captured from students and staff web portal. Interviews and focus group discussions were applied to validate findings. The study found that participants want students’ research projects published and each student be acknowledged as the principal author of any paper derived from such individual research. The student can have the supervisor as co-author if the supervisor contributed significantly to the authorship of the published paper, not for the project supervision. The study recommends a policy in which universities can consider the publication of students’ research projects as part of their research policy agenda.