[Nhcoll-l] [EXTERN] Re: Access and authorship in natural history collections

Mon Feb 2 10:07:40 EST 2026

Hi Luis,

the case I mentioned was real scientific input (i.e. prior determination of faunal remains to species level be sure that requested species are included in the bone rubble and the taxonomic IDs are correct). This is justified, especially if this material is used for stable isotopes or aDNA (because the bones are previously undetermined and unrecognised in the bags with the archaeological material).

Also for tissues MTAs - as in our case - this can be justified. Depending on the contractual conditions the material war originally accessioned under the respective access laws of the Provider Country / Nagoya Protocol. In this case, it can be that co-authorship is a contractual requirement that arises independent of the scientific input.

Of course, the latter raises questions towards agreed principles for co-authorship for publications, and I am not sure if this is the case her, just wanted to mention that such linkages with MTAs for tissue request can occur.

With best wishes
Dirk

Am 02.02.2026 um 15:27 schrieb Luis Ceríaco:
Thank you all for your input.

It is not strange to have curators and collection managers from the different institutions we work with or consult specimens as co-authors. In many cases it makes sense and it is completely legitimate. This can be discussed between the leading author and the staff.
As Dirk said, in some situations there are extra efforts that the staff needs to make to make the collection accessible and that can be recognized by the authors (while not necessarily as authorship). In other situations, when someone cannot physically visit the collection and request the collection manager to, let's say, count the scales of 200 lizards, that most likely can turn into what we envision as a collaboration and thus deserves authorship.
What shocked me the most in this case is that it is written in the official documentation (in this case a MTA for tissues), that a "demand of 50 specimens justify co-authorship" of the local staff.
I'm aware of some curators that "force" themselves into papers that used their collections, but having this into official policy is a whole other situation...

Em seg., 2 de fev. de 2026 às 14:11, Taylor, Sarah <sarah.taylor at uconn.edu<mailto:sarah.taylor at uconn.edu>> escreveu:
I have been offered authorship on publications (which I declined) twice after researcher visits to our herbarium. From the researchers' perspective, the contributions I made to their research (time, expertise on recommending specimens they might want to examine, assistance with equipment, and assistance accessing publications) merited recognition above mention in the acknowledgments section. From my perspective, I didn't offer original ideas, contribute to analysis, or write the resulting papers.

In my experience, asking for authorship in exchange for loans/research visits is definitely NOT common or a new trend. I also think it's likely to be ineffective - every collection I know of, including mine, asks researchers to a) acknowledge the collection in publications and b) send a pdf or, at the least, citation of publications, and the success rate of request (b) is well below 20%. The success rate of request (a) seems higher but I have definitely found peer-reviewed publications that use images of CONN specimens with zero reference to our herbarium anywhere in the paper.

This is an interesting topic and two more replies have come in since I started typing - I'm looking forward to the discussion.

Best,
Sarah

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Sarah Taylor, PhD

Scientific Collections Manager

George Safford Torrey Herbarium (CONN)
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University of Connecticut
75 North Eagleville Road, Unit 3043
Storrs, Connecticut 06269-3043
U.S.A.

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Pronouns: she/her or they/them

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From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu>> on behalf of Scott A Schaefer <schaefer at amnh.org<mailto:schaefer at amnh.org>>
Sent: Monday, February 2, 2026 8:55 AM
To: Luis Ceríaco <luisceriaco at gmail.com<mailto:luisceriaco at gmail.com>>; NHCOLL-new <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>>
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Access and authorship in natural history collections

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This sounds like an egregious abuse of the principal of reciprocity inherent to research use of museum collections and is not something I’ve heard of in my 40+ years of museum work. Whether or not such collections were built and are now maintained by “public money”, the understanding of reciprocity (= you do for me, I do for you) is part of what facilitates research use of museum collections and extends from loan approvals and processing to shipping and packaging. I would hope this example is isolated to some misplaced thinking by uninformed people.

I am also aware of other recent practices that threaten the reciprocity agreement, such as charges levied for permit applications required for both the loan approval and the export. In response, curators and collection managers may be encouraged to avoid such lending practices by refusing to participate— both in borrowing and lending to these institutions.

The community would be served by hearing from others that have been impacted by these practices.

Scott

__________________________________________

Scott A. Schaefer, Ph.D.

Dean of Science for Collections and the

       Public Understanding of Science

Director, Institute for Comparative Genomics

Curator and Professor

American Museum of Natural History<https://amnh.org/>

200 Central Park West

New York, NY 10024-5192 USA

Office: 212-769-5652

Mobile: 215-570-2943

Email: schaefer at amnh.org<mailto:schaefer at amnh.org>

From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu>> on behalf of Luis Ceríaco <luisceriaco at gmail.com<mailto:luisceriaco at gmail.com>>
Date: Monday, February 2, 2026 at 8:23 AM
To: NHCOLL-new <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>>
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Access and authorship in natural history collections

EXTERNAL SENDER

Dear colleagues,

Recently I've learned through a colleague that was requesting access to specimens from a big European natural history institution, that it was expected for him to include staff members for that given institution in the authorship of any research that would come from that access, especially if the access was above a certain number of specimens. This is apparently now part of the official loan/access agreement of that institution.

I was quite shocked. In the last 15 years I've been an active user of natural history collections and had my share of curatorship/collection management work, in different countries and different continents, and I've never encountered such "in-your-face" and abhorrent demand. Collections have been built with public money and are kept through public money (most of the times) - thus they should be seen as a public good, not a way to enrich the CV of staff members.

That got me curious - is this a new trend or I've been really lucky so far?

--
_________________________________________________________
Luis M. P. Ceríaco, Ph.D.,
Commissioner  International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature
Invited Curator of the Herpetological Collections at Museu Nacional de
História Natural e da Ciência, Lisbon, Portugal
CIBIO/InBIO - Research Center in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources
University of Porto, Portugal
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Luis-Ceriaco
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0591-9978
Scopus Author ID: 51260938100
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--
_________________________________________________________
Luis M. P. Ceríaco, Ph.D.,
Commissioner  International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature
Invited Curator of the Herpetological Collections at Museu Nacional de
História Natural e da Ciência, Lisbon, Portugal
CIBIO/InBIO - Research Center in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources
University of Porto, Portugal
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Luis-Ceriaco
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0591-9978
Scopus Author ID: 51260938100
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--
Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversitätswandels
Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany

Stiftung des öffentlichen Rechts;
Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Grüter (Kaufm. Geschäftsführer)
Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn
Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael H. Wappelhorst
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