Kevin Zollman -Authorship norms and epistemic public goods

Kevin Zollman (Carnegie Mellon University)

The Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh invites you to join us for our Lunch Time Talk. Attend in person at 1117 Cathedral of Learning or visit our live stream on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg.

LTT: Kevin Zollman

Friday, September 13 @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm EDT

Title: Authorship norms and epistemic public goods

Abstract:

Different academic fields have different norms about how authors are listed in published papers.   Some norms are insensitive to the contribution of the authors, listing them in alphabetical order or by seniority.  Other norms represent the relative contributions of the authors by listing those who contributed the most first.  In this paper, we develop a game theoretic model to explore the conditions under which these norms evolve and the consequences they have for collaboration.  We find surprising conclusions about how the distribution of expected contribution affects the evolution of these norms.  In addition, we find that all norms result in some inefficiency: they discourage some productive collaboration. Different norms discourage different types of collaboration. We explore what might be the epistemic consequence of these differences.

Can’t make it in-person? This talk will available online through the following:

Zoom:  https://pitt.zoom.us/s/95385314177

YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg.