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Table of Contents: 2017 SEPTEMBER–OCTOBER No. 418

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Equal Contribution for Authors in PubMed

Davidson M. Equal Contribution for Authors in PubMed. NLM Tech Bull. 2017 Sep-Oct;(418):e5.

2017 September 14 [posted]

Journal publishers who submit citation data to PubMed may now indicate equal contribution among authors.

You can view equal contribution among authors in PubMed in two ways:


1. Abstract display format: in the author section (see Figure 1).


equally contributing authors in pubmed abstract display.
Figure 1: Equally contributing authors in author section of PubMed abstract display.

2. XML display format: denoted by the "<EqualContrib>" element (see Figure 2).


equally contributing authors in pubmed xml display.
Figure 2: "<EqualContrib>" element in PubMed XML display.

The data are display only and cannot be searched in PubMed.

For an example of co-equal authorship in PubMed see, Subgroup-specific alternative splicing in medulloblastoma.

For more information, please see PubMed Help and MEDLINE/PubMed XML Element Descriptions and their Attributes.

By Mike Davidson
MEDLARS Managment Section

NLM Technical Bulletin National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health