Should I apologise to a professor after a gift authorship attempt, which they refused?

Question

(I am a PhD student) I recently worked on a paper using a computational methodology developed by Professor X and my manuscript was published on a preprint server. My supervisor, Professor Y, is actively seeking collaborations and emailed Professor X to discuss potential opportunities. After reading my manuscript, Professor X was pleased and agreed to discuss further, but did not provide any help or contributions to the paper.

Professor Y then met with Professor X without me to discuss the potential for collaboration. Afterwards, Professor Y informed me that we should list Professor X as a co-author on the final version of my paper. I was not comfortable with this situation but Professor Y quickly shut that by stating that they had already discussed this with Professor X and everything was agreed.

After I emailed Professor X asking about their credentials to be included as a co-author on the paper. Professor X then replied to both Professor Y and me, clearly refusing the gift authorship.

I am wondering if I should email Professor X again to explain my perspective, as my reputation is at stake.

For more context about my circumstances, please refer to my two previous questions.

Answer 1

While I see some merit in the two previous suggestions, I wonder if anything that you might now say would do much to undo the umbrage taken by Prof X.

I understand that you may be afraid of being made the fall-guy by Prof Y to Prof X in this - so unnecessary and so foolish - academic débâcle: he may have already phoned Prof X and lain the blame for all this upon you.

One thing Prof Y can't do is take away your actual achievement in extending the knowledge of this field in your paper.

I have read with great empathy your previous questions. My own PhD situation involved another money and glory addict with even less real achievement than your supervisor.

People like Prof Y carry a stink around with them from the outset of their career so you need not explain anything to Prof X: he knows well enough whose idea this authorship offer thing was thought up by - that was why he ran like hell from it.

You, along with others in your research group, have to keep your human dignity and plough on to the end of this PhD program as best you can.

When it's done, and another job got, it might then be your opportunity to see how others in the group feel about reporting Prof Y's carry-on to senior university management. I feel that reporting him now to the Head of Department or even the Dean of the Faculty would not be effective as he is likely to have already compromised them - the Head through his money generating "research applications" and the Dean through Prof Y's likely cultivation of colleagues across the faculty - making himself more secure against censure.

But it's your own decision what to do later - I could understand your not bothering to report anything to university management and letting it all fall upon them as a just dessert of their poor stewardship.

But for now, just refrain from emailing Prof X and focus on finishing this doctorate.

Answer 2

I would reply with a very simple apology (like "sorry for the confusion") and a statement confirming you understand their request (like "we will not include you as an author").

Do not try to "explain your perspective", your reputation is not "at stake" here, just don't include them as an author and move on.

Answer 3

Personally, I think it would be wise to do so, but without getting into an argument with Y. It might be enough to say that there was a miscommunication and you misunderstood the situation.

Since X has shown interest in collaboration, you could also follow up on that and ask how you might proceed.

I'll guess that Y misrepresented something to you, but you don't need to get into an argument over that. If pressed, say to Y that X told you directly that they don't want authorship here.

Answer 4

Discuss this issue with Prof Y; asking them in private over email or if possible, in person. State that the Prof X has declined the authorship and what should you do. Since they clearly are in contact, it is their responsibility to solve this issue. If Prof X sounds confrontational about this, mention it as well. Keep in mind that Prof Y could very well be busy and missed the tone of the email.

Remember you are doing what you are told, there might be many dynamics you are not aware of. There are cases where this could be unethical behavior; however, there are cases where this could very well be a miscommunication like Prof Y invites Prof X to improve the paper but Prof X rejected with a vague answer which Prof Y takes as a yes. You do not have the complete knowledge to judge and act. Your reputation cannot be tarnished by following requests from your supervisor where there are many unknowns on your part.

In academia, always assume someone has good intentions unless you know the whole story.

Answer 5

The situation appears quite clear so that X can make a close enough guess what actually happened. There is no need to complicate things by going into the details with X.

If you want to reply in a positive way, you could say that you value X's perspective on the authorship issue and that you understand that they think that their contribution so far does not merit authorship, so you will handle it accordingly. You could then say that you are looking forward to future collaboration (if appropriate).

Personally, I think you could also say something like that X's reply honors them in order to express that you appreciate X's academic integrity. It makes sense to acknowledge that X is doing the right thing. If you fear that this implies too much about Y, you would better skip this, of course.

This would result in a reply not longer than three sentences.