An official website of the United States government.

This is not the current EPA website. To navigate to the current EPA website, please go to www.epa.gov. This website is historical material reflecting the EPA website as it existed on January 19, 2021. This website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work. More information »

Science Advisor Programs

Authorship Best Practices

The scientific integrity of a final product cannot be assessed without accurate attribution through careful assignment of authorship. The best practices described in this document apply to any EPA work product where authorship is designated, including but not limited to journal articles, reports, presentations, posters, documentation of models or software, communication products, technical support documents, and guidance documents.

This document is intended to provide a set of objective criteria and general standards that can be used to prevent or resolve authorship issues and ensure the appropriate acknowledgment of individual contributions in EPA work products.

Please discuss authorship early and often, beware of common authorship abuses, and report authorship abuses to the Scientific Integrity Official or your Deputy Scientific Integrity Official.

Authorship Best Practices Comments and Inquiries

You may need a PDF reader to view some of the files on this page. See EPA’s About PDF page to learn more.