CITIZEN SCIENCE AND SCIENTIFIC AUTHORSHIP

AN ANALYSIS OF PUBLIC HEALTH JOURNALS

Abstract

Citizen Science is recognized as one of the strands of Open Science that advocates for greater participation of non-academic actors in different or all stages of the research process. In this context, discussions have emerged regarding the possibility that individuals without formal affiliations to higher education or research institutions may be recognized as authors or co-authors of scientific publications. Accordingly, this study aims to analyze the editorial policies of Public Health journals to identify potential restrictions or mechanisms for the inclusion of non-academic actors in scientific authorship. The corpus consists of journals ranked between A1 and A4 in the 2021–2024 Qualis evaluation whose parent area is Public Health. The study is based on a survey of editorial guidelines and a content analysis of recommendations related to authorship and ethical standards. Preliminary findings indicate a broad incorporation of international standards of research integrity, particularly the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), as well as the adoption of contributor role taxonomies. The analysis also reveals that most of the journals examined do not establish explicit restrictions on authorship by individuals without formal academic affiliations. It is concluded that the editorial policies of Public Health journals tend not to constitute formal barriers to the participation of non-academic authors, suggesting a potential openness to Citizen Science practices and broader social participation in the production of health-related knowledge.