Formal attribution provides a means of recognizing scientific contributions as well as allocating scientific credit. This article examines the processes by which attribution arises and its interaction with market assessments of the relative contributions of members of scientific teams and communities—a topic of interest for the organizational economics of science and in understanding scientific labor markets. We demonstrate that a pioneer or senior scientist’s decision to co-author with a follower or junior scientist depends critically on market attributions as well as the timing of the co-authoring decision. This results in multiple equilibrium outcomes each with different implications for expected quality of research projects. However, we demonstrate that the Pareto efficient organizational regime is for the follower researcher to be granted co-authorship contingent on their own performance without any earlier pre-commitment to formal attribution. We then compare this with the alternative for the pioneer of publishing their contribution and being rewarded through citations. While in some equilibria (especially where co-authoring commitments are possible) there is no advantage to interim publication, in others this can increase expected research quality. (JEL O31; O36)

中文翻译：

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科学归因市场

正式归因提供了一种认可科学贡献和分配科学信用的方法。本文考察了归因产生的过程及其与科学团队和社区成员的相对贡献的市场评估的相互作用——这是科学组织经济学和理解科学劳动力市场感兴趣的话题。我们证明，先驱或资深科学家与追随者或初级科学家合着的决定在很大程度上取决于市场归因以及合着决定的时机。这导致了多种均衡结果，每种结果对研究项目的预期质量都有不同的影响。然而，我们证明了帕累托有效的组织制度是让追随者研究人员根据他们自己的表现获得共同作者身份，而无需提前承诺正式归属。然后，我们将其与先驱者发表他们的贡献并通过引用获得奖励的替代方案进行比较。虽然在某些平衡状态下（尤其是在可以共同撰写承诺的情况下）临时发表没有优势，但在另一些平衡状态下，这可以提高预期的研究质量。(JEL O31; O36) 虽然在某些平衡状态下（尤其是在可以共同撰写承诺的情况下）临时发表没有优势，但在另一些平衡状态下，这可以提高预期的研究质量。(JEL O31; O36) 虽然在某些平衡状态下（尤其是在可以共同撰写承诺的情况下）临时发表没有优势，但在另一些平衡状态下，这可以提高预期的研究质量。(JEL O31; O36)