Written by Professor Andries G. van Aarde (Editor-in-chief).

The publication of articles by two or more authors is common practice at the HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies. One of the authors, for instance a postgraduate student, will be the co-author, whereas his or her supervisor will act as the 'corresponding author'. The 'corresponding author' is the co-author who is responsible to interact with whom it may concern, HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies’ Editorial Board, the Editor-in-chief, Associate Editor or the Publication Coordinator on behalf of the other author(s).

According to General Regulation G.61 of the University of Pretoria, a Master or Doctoral thesis submitted at the University of Pretoria must lead to the publication of an article. The Faculty of Theology strictly adheres to this regulation. The Regulation reads as follows:

Unless the Senate, on the recommendation of the supervisor, decides otherwise, a student, before or on submission of a dissertation, must submit at least one draft article for publication in a recognized academic journal and in the case of a thesis, must submit proof of submission of an article issued by an accredited journal, to the Head: Student Administration.
The draft or submitted article, as the case may be, should be based on the research that the student has conducted for the dissertation/thesis and be approved by the supervisor if the supervisor is not a co-author.
The supervisor shall be responsible for ensuing that the paper is taken through all the processes of revision and resubmission, as may be necessary. Conferment of the degree may be made subject to compliance with the stipulations of this regulation.

The question that arises is whether co-authorship can be justified from an ethical point of view. This issue is dealt with in an edition of the CSD Bulletin (August 1992, p.19), published by the National Research Foundation of South Africa, the then 'Centre for Science Development'. The article is titled: 'Co-authorship: Where does SA stand?'

The ethical problem with co-authorship is that a supervisor as the 'corresponding author' could unfairly benefit from such collaboration. Academic excellence is judged inter alia by the number of independent, original articles of quality that are published in accredited, recognised journals throughout an academic’s career.

Young researchers, often having done all or most of the work, find themselves in the shadow of the supervisor as the 'senior' and 'corresponding' author. This serious issue requires integrity on the part of editors and researchers in the process of publishing.

Obviously, research findings should be published in order to be made available as a source for further research. The quality of such publication is assured by means of peer-review by specialists and experts in the field. In South Africa, funding for research depends to a large degree on the subsidies universities receive from the Department of Education of the national government for publications in accredited journals. This system requires that staff members of academic departments who perform their duties as study leaders should be credited as 'co-authors' of research articles based on research conducted for the purpose of obtaining a postgraduate degree. Should these research articles be submitted to HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies for publication, the same strict selection procedure and peer-review apply.

The said article in the CSD Bulletin refers to three criteria for co-authorship as proposed by the North American academics, Barry Werner and Mary Beth Nierengarten. The editorial board of the HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies is guided by these criteria. Four additional criteria are added and are listed first:

• The following footnote should appear on the title page: ' "Submitted and accepted as part of the requirements for the MDiv/MTh/PhD/DD degree in … 200?, the Department …, Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, under the guidance of ….” '
• The study leader is mentioned as the second author, though he or she acts as 'corresponding author'.
• The 'corresponding author' will be responsible to approve the galley proofs of the accepted article prior to the final approval by the Editor-in-chief,
• The 'corresponding author' will be responsible for the payment of the article-processing fee charged to authors.
• All co-authors (including the study leader in case of articles based on a thesis or dissertation) make an actual and meaningful contribution to the article.
• Co-authors can participate in drafting and writing the article by taking responsibility for parts of the article, being involved in all levels of writing and by commenting on and finally approving the article in its entirety.
• All co-authors assume full responsibility for the theme and findings, as well as for any shortcomings with respect to argumentation, as well as the use of language and sources.

As part of the selection and publishing process, the Editor-in-chief and Associate Editor of HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies require of authors of co-authored articles to sign a declaration that the above criteria have been met.