ESH Publication Policy

1. Purpose

This policy outlines ESH’s approach to authorship, data sharing, and dissemination of outputs resulting from Hackathon activities. It aims to promote transparency, inclusivity, and recognition of all contributors.

2. Core Principles

a. Openness and Transparency

All outputs from ESH events (e.g. code, datasets, preprints, manuscripts) should be made openly available.
We encourage use of open repositories (e.g. GitHub, Zenodo, OSF) and preprint servers (e.g. EcoEvoRxiv, bioRxiv).

b. Recognition of All Contributors

ESH recognises the importance of inclusive authorship practices. All significant contributors—regardless of career stage—should be appropriately credited.
We encourage the CRediT taxonomy to specify individual contributions.

c. Support for Early Career Researchers (ECRs)

ESH commits to providing ECRs with opportunities for prominent authorship roles (e.g. first or co-first authorship), where appropriate.
Mentoring and capacity-building are integral to our publication approach.

d. Collaborative Authorship

Projects developed during ESH events are typically co-produced by teams. Authorship should be based on contribution, not seniority.
Disputes over authorship are to be resolved collaboratively, with reference to ICMJE and COPE authorship guidelines.

e. Encouragement of Non-traditional Outputs

ESH supports outputs beyond traditional journal articles, including R packages, workflows, systematic maps, blog posts, and data visualisations.

3. Preprints and Journals

We encourage rapid dissemination of findings via preprints.
When preparing manuscripts, we prefer submission to open access journals and those that support transparent peer review and reproducible research.

4. Data, Code, and Materials Sharing

All outputs should, wherever possible, comply with FAIR principles: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable.
Code should be open-source (e.g. GPL license) and hosted on collaborative platforms (e.g. GitHub).
Data should be documented clearly and, if ethically appropriate, made publicly available.

5. Acknowledgement of ESH and Hackathon Support

All publications and outputs should acknowledge ESH and the specific Hackathon in which the work was developed.
Example: “This work was initiated during the [Year] Evidence Synthesis Hackathon (ESH), supported by [partners/funders].”

6. Authorship Disputes

In case of disputes, a neutral committee of ESH advisors may be consulted.