What to do if a colleague plans to submit the paper you worked on together without your name on it?

Question

I have been working with another postdoc on a paper, here is what happened: I presented a work of mine before it was published (but it is in my thesis and on arxiv) and he decided he will use the same exact model with a slight change. I have talked it out with him and finally with my lab adviser as he was not collaborating, and we decided to send the paper as coauthors after our adviser mediated the issue (though it was bumpy), even sorted out whose name goes first etc.

The methodology belongs to me and the application area is the same (topic), although he has written all the code practically (he said he wanted to learn and build a more modular code etc) I did contribute by writing small scripts but he ended up not using them.

My advisor has asked their collaborating institute whether I could join (the irony that my methodology is stolen but I need a pass to join the project) and they did approve it (I have all exchanges and emails). I spent countless hours discussing and working on the project with him, as he is working on another project I have little clue about the execution but he had to travel often and he made a presentation to the partner institute. I also suspect that my adviser got the patent of the code on his name as I have noticed he took my name out of contacts on github recently. I had not asked to be in the copyrights of his code but he has told me that I was going to be there relating the model. My adviser only wants to please the partner institution I am afraid. I was away for a week and before that my colleague and I saw each other very briefly and all sounded to be on track. He has run over time for the completion of the project so he is not working here anymore technically. Today I get no reply from him on multiple attempts and I learnt that he has removed his computer's hard drive and my adviser is off for vacation for an unknown time.

I suspect that my colleague will try to send off the paper we were supposed to write together without my name on it, I have email exchanges as proof but most relied on my adviser, whom I don't know if I should trust after the copyright issue. What do I do if he sends the paper without my name? Do I write to the editors? His partner institution? Is there a board for this?

Answer 1

I have been working with another postdoc on a paper, here is what happened: I presented a work of mine before it was published (but it is in my thesis and on arxiv) and he decided he will use the same exact model with a slight change

There is a misunderstanding about "publishing": you probably mean that it was not published in a journal/conference, but apparently you did publish your model, which means two things:

• Your authorship on this is established
• Anybody can reuse it, provided they cite your work appropriately

The methodology belongs to me

Not really: yes you are the established author of the methodology, but it is now available for anyone to reuse it, as per the usual academic process (the only exception would be if you patented the work prior to publication).

I have talked it out with him and finally with my lab adviser as he was not collaborating, and we decided to send the paper as coauthors after our adviser mediated the issue (though it was bumpy), even sorted out whose name goes first etc.

This is what gives you a (moral) right to be a co-author for this particular work.

My advisor has asked their collaborating institute whether I could join (the irony that my methodology is stolen but I need a pass to join the project) and they did approve it (I have all exchanges and emails)

Avoid using the word "steal" if you published it: if all that the other author did was reading your thesis/paper, the only requirement is for him to cite the origin of the work.

I also suspect that my adviser got the patent of the code on his name as I have noticed he took my name out of contacts on github recently.

Are you talking about an actual patent? If yes, for what? If this is about your methodology which is already published or about a code publicly available on github (under a particular license maybe?), it's unlikely that a patent would be granted, but IANAL.

Today I get no reply from him on multiple attempts and I learnt that he has removed his computer's hard drive and my adviser is off for vacation for an unknown time

Multiple attempts over how long? If it's only a few days there's no reason to panic, he might be busy. Did you agree on a method to write the paper together, a venue to submit it or a deadline?

I suspect that my colleague will try to send off the paper we were supposed to write together without my name on it, I have email exchanges as proof but most relied on my adviser, whom I don't know if I should trust after the copyright issue. What do I do if he sends the paper without my name? Do I write to the editors? His partner institution? Is there a board for this?

You should rely primarily on your advisor, and if they don't cooperate you should seek support in your institution, e.g. head of department or ombudsman.

Answer 2

There are two issues here, one is that your "colleague" is engaging in plagiarism. This is a big no-no for most if not all journals. Just being accused of plagiarism can end someones academic career. As such, I am surprised anyone would do this so blatantly. If you know which journal the submission might go to, I would contact the editor in chief there and talk to him. With the method being in your thesis and on arxiv, you have a very good starting point in proving that the method belongs to you and the other guy is just a leech. (There are ways around this by properly attributing, but I doubt he does that)

The second issue is one of copyright. If you worked on code and wrote part of it, then your advisor has no right to remove your name. That's tantamount to stealing. And there are some nice fines for that, including jail time in severe cases. I would talk to your advisor about this, explain that it's not ok to remove your name. After that discussion, you should put it into writing and send it to him on paper, so he cannot refute anything later.

If your advisor or colleague are not cooperating in this, I strongly suggest to contact your universities legal department. Most universities do not like their students work being stolen, not even by their own professors.