Levels of librarian support and how to credit
Much of the work a librarian does to assist researchers falls under their everyday job responsibilities. However, systematic reviews, scoping reviews, and meta-analyses, often require greater librarian involvement and include the librarian as a partner in the research project. When these levels of assistance lead to a published paper, it is appropriate to credit the librarian.
Note: If you would like to have a librarian's involvement as a partner in the project, you should inquire about the librarian's willingness to participate at that level of commitment.
We've compiled some basic guidelines on what to expect from the librarian as uncredited support, or at other levels of support, including the librarian as a co-researcher. The guidelines show how to credit the librarian at these different levels of involvement.
- Uncredited - regular librarian work
- Overview of review process and best practices
- Identifying keywords and databases
- Recommending tools
- Single consultation
- Acknowledgement or Contributor note - regular librarian work but significant support
- Troubleshooting search strategy
- Data management consultation
- More than one consultation
- Authorship (one or more of the following)
- Using search strategy or filter developed by librarian
- Help registering a protocol
- Citation retrieval and management
- Hand searching for articles
- Assisting with paper's methods section
- Section edits