The mantra of academia,Publish, or Perish,applies to students, too.

And a West Virginia University doctoral student in the Department of Psychology who has taken on the issue of authorship in joint research projects has received national attention for his efforts.

Brian Ayotte, who does research in WVU ’s Life-Span Developmental Program, made the January 2006 cover of gradPsych magazine for his creation of anauthorship contract,which officially maps out all the responsibilities of researchers involved in a specific project.

The magazine is geared to graduate-student members of the American Psychological Association.

Ayotte said he came up with the idea to resolve the often thorny authorship issues that arise in collaborative researchparticularly when students are part of that collaboration.

One of the biggest misconceptions students have is that time equals authorship,Ayotte said.The time you put into a study is only one factor. You need to have a discussion of authorship extremely early in the research process.

Ayotte’s contract includes a comprehensive checklist of duties in a project, from concept to data collection. After initial discussion, each task is assigned a point valueand those points are then used to decide who is listed as chief author, then co-authors, of the work.

To be recognized in a national magazine for graduate students is truly an honor,Ayotte said,particularly when the issues raised are important and relevant for almost all students.

Ayotte earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in psychology and experimental psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. He currently works with Dr. Jennifer Margrett in the WVU life span program, researching how older adults solve everyday health-related problems.

The life span program and the Department of Psychology are part of WVU ’s Eberly College of Arts and Sciences.

For more information, contact Ayotte at brian.ayotte@mail.wvu.edu . See the article online athttp://gradpsych.apags.org/jan06/cover-prevention.html.