Should I request a change to the ‘contribution statement’ in a manuscript being submitted?

[striders02]

Hi all,

I've included some context below but to jump to the question: when applying for summer research positions or residency, do the people evaluating the applicant ever check the contribution statements of the applicant's papers to see what their contributions were? 

As for context: I am fortunate to be an author on a paper that will soon be re-submitted. Currently in the paper's contribution statement, I am listed as having contributed to data extraction. Arguably, I may also be eligible for the category of 'contributed to data analysis,' as I made some figures/tables and did a decent portion of the number-crunching underlying various claims in the Results section.

Personally, I don't care what my listed contributions are and would normally not raise the matter to avoid an awkward fuss. However if these contribution statements are checked when evaluating applicants (such as when I apply to residency) I may politely request for the expanded contribution. 

Does anyone know if these contribution statements are checked during applications? Or have any thoughts about whether I should request a contribution statement change, and if so how to do that etiquette-wise?

Thank you

[IMislove]

I would have thought authorship is as far as they'd go pre-interview because they have a bunch of applicants to assess, but I haven't reviewed CaRMS applications so xD.

[gangliocytoma]

1 hour ago, striders02 said:

Hi all,

I've included some context below but to jump to the question: when applying for summer research positions or residency, do the people evaluating the applicant ever check the contribution statements of the applicant's papers to see what their contributions were? 

As for context: I am fortunate to be an author on a paper that will soon be re-submitted. Currently in the paper's contribution statement, I am listed as having contributed to data extraction. Arguably, I may also be eligible for the category of 'contributed to data analysis,' as I made some figures/tables and did a decent portion of the number-crunching underlying various claims in the Results section.

Personally, I don't care what my listed contributions are and would normally not raise the matter to avoid an awkward fuss. However if these contribution statements are checked when evaluating applicants (such as when I apply to residency) I may politely request for the expanded contribution. 

Does anyone know if these contribution statements are checked during applications? Or have any thoughts about whether I should request a contribution statement change, and if so how to do that etiquette-wise?

Thank you

I feel like they're too busy going through hundreds of applications in detail to worry about something like this.

[PremedToronto]

I don't know how much all of this matters but as an aside, it would be good practice to speak up about your contributions to your projects with your PI. This may happen again in a different project with a different PI, and you should always receive credit where its due. Some conversations might be awkward but I don't think your PI would say no if you did that portion of the project. Awkward conversations are the important ones  cheers

[OMGsoNERVOUS]

I doubt anyone will ever check the authorship contribution statement. Not all journals require an explicit breakdown of each authors’ roles. What’s more important is the authorship order (matters if you’re first or second, beyond that does not matter) - if you think where your name shows up is a fair assessment of your contributions, there’s not much you should worry about.