original research *nouveaute's enrecherche Rating authors' contributions tocollaborative research: thePICNICsurvey ofuniversity departments ofpediatrics

Objectives: Todetermine howdepartment chairs inpediatrics rate involvement inmedical research andtodetermine whether faculty deans' offices havewritten criteria forevaluating research activity whenassessing candidates forpromotion ortenure. Design: Cross-sectional mailed survey andtelephone survey. Setting: Canadian faculties ofmedicine. Participants: Chairs ofthe16Canadian university departmnents ofpediatrics anddeans' offices ofthe 16university medical faculties. Mainoutcome measure: Weight assigned bydepartment chairs tocontributions topublished research according toauthor's research role andposition inlist ofauthors andthemethod oflisting authors. Results: Fifteen of16chairs responded. Twelve submitted acompleted survey, twodescribed their institutions' policies andoneresponded that theinstitution hadnopolicy. Eleven reported that faculty members werepermitted orrequested toindicate research roles oncurricula vitae. There wasaconsensus that all orprincipal investigators should belisted asauthors andthat citing theresearch group ascollective author wasinsufficient. Thecontribution offirst authors wasrated highestforarticles inwhich all orprincipal investigators werelisted. Thecontribution ofjoint-principalinvestigators listed asfirst author wasalso given ahighrating. Inthecaseofcollective authorship, thegreatest contribution wascredited totheprincipal investigator ofthegroup. Participation ofprimary investigators inmulticentre research wasrated ashaving higher value than participation insingle-centre research byseven respondents andashaving equal value byfour. Onlyonedean's office hadexplicit written criteria forevaluating authorship. Conclusions: Mostdepartments ofpediatrics andmedical faculty deans' offices inCanadian universities have nocriteria forassessing thetype ofcontribution madetopublished research. Inviewof thetrend tousemulticentre settings forclinical trials, guidelines forweighting investigators' contributions areneeded. Objectifs: Determiner commentlesdirecteurs desdepartements depediatrie evaluent laparticipation adesrecherches medicales etsilescabinets desdoyens desfacultes ontdescriteres ecrits d'evaluation desactivites derecherche lorsqu'ils evaluent descandidats aunepromotion ouala permanence.