Photo of the Author in Scientific Literature

Dear all,

Some medical journals print a photo of the author of the article in their journal. Is it suitable for a peer-reviewed journal to do so? What is your opinion?

Hesam Abbasi

The Journal of Tehran Heart Center
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Oh no! We will need a statement on "authorship and photographsmanship" (!) As a member of Editorial Policy Committee, I have tried to provide a light-hearted draft. Hope you don't take it seriously, Bob will not fire me from the Committee, and ICMJE will not sue me for plagiarism!

Just for a change:

Authorship and photographsmanship (!)

A “photographsman” is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive graphic contributions to a published study…..

·         photographsmanship credit should be based on 1) substantial contributions to the paper; 2) having a passport-sized photo belonging to the past six months; and 3) approval of the final photo to be published by family and friends.

·         When a large, multi-center group has conducted the work, the group should pose for a group photo with the first six authors standing in the first row followed by et al!

·         All persons designated as authors should submit a photo, and all those who submit a photo should be an author.

·         Each author should provide written statement that the photo is original and that it has not or will not be submitted to any other journal for publication.

·         Only the corresponding author can submit a color photo.

Photos of Contributors Listed in Acknowledgments…

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January 16, 2006

It has been a tradition for unknown reasons (except that the publishers want to save money for colored photos) that scientific journals do not publish photos of the authors. If we see other types of literature, we find a little more ''respect'' toward the author, and photos of the author may appear on the cover of a periodical. I just want to hear from WAME members (Editors and Publishers alike), what they think about this, given the advantage that researchers may know each other when they meet in conferences one day!

Khalid Al Aboud
Medical Director, King Faisal Hospital
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We used to print a black and white photograph of the author/s, but it was difficult to get photos from all the authors. So we'd end up with articles that had photographs of some of the authors and articles with no photographs. In the end we decided to stop printing photos because it was just an administrative mess and it didn't look professional.

Liselle Viljoen
Managing Editor, Health SA Gesondheid
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The tradition is understandable. It was to keep the personal looks of authors from positively or negatively influencing the readers who were supposed to consider only the scientific merit/demerit of the paper. Morever, scientific papers are often multiauthored, and it becomes so difficult to accomodate 4 or 5 photographs with a 2 to 4 page paper, fighting for space saving that most journals have to do. Not seeing the author sometimes adds to the mystique, and charm, of the author too. Putting a photograph may make a staid scientific journal look like a tabloid, which conservative researchers/journal editors may mentally scoff at.

Having said that, however, I think there is much to commend in bringing in the photograph in even a scientific journal, if space, layout aesthetics, and commercial considerations permit. It helps break the monotony of reading, and may bring some solace in an otherwise intellectual assault that some papers can turn out to be. Some much needed solace, maybe!

At MSM, we insist on a passport-sized photograph of the author. They are happy to oblige. More than happy, I guess.