Academics, please. what is teh etiquette for publishing ?

[admylin]

My dh has been a postdoc researcher for nearly 3 years with his present boss and he has been researching some new work on epilepsy and migraine (roughly that's the area of research) and of course the main idea for the subject came from the boss. Now dh has done all the work and wants to publish it but the boss says no, dh should give him the work so far and he will carry on doing some more data based on his patients (as he is also a doctor and dh is 'just' a researcher) then they can publish it in a high impact journal rather than teh slightly lower impact journal that dh could now publish in.

So what is the etiquette here? Does dh have to just leave his work and hope that he even gets a mention as co-author but in a good journal and who knows when, or does he publish as 1st author now before he leaves in September?
It's been 3 years and dh has worked for 3 papers but the boss is 'sitting laying eggs on all of them' as dh puts it.

can he not do both, surely the first paper will be a more research based paper and the second a clinic study, both have merit and are equally publishable.

I'm luck my boss is all for me publishing, if only i could get him to read the blooming things!

Yes, that's the problem though. The research based paper took alot of work and time but the boss thinks if he combines the 2 (clinical and research) he'd get into Brain or even Nature with it. Dh wants to publish in Journal of Neuroscience.

Couldn't the boss still use dh's reults once it's been published as it all took place in his lab and his funding payed for it (the boss) so I'm not sure how much he can say no to dh.

On dh's last postdoc job it was written in the contract - how and when he could publish but this job has nothing in the contract and dh has had a bit of a row with his boss telling him he's selfish not letting a scientist publish as it looks bad if you don't publish for over 3 years. The boss is OK becaus ehe has his career as a doctor too so he's not in such a hurry to publish.

DH works in a similar area and he would argue that the intellectual contribution is the clincher so from what you've written the boss would decide what's published and when. DH would put the postdoc as second author automatically in the circs you describe though.

Oooh, that is very good to know marialuisa. I also thought the boss should have the last word so to speak but dh is very frustrated at not having published in the last 3 years and sort of feels he should atleast get 1 as 1st author.

Doesn't work like that though!

DH is sulking because he's had a paper bounced (from a journal he knew wouldn't take it )today so understand how miserable it can be.

the purpose of publishing is to get as high a rating as you can for the rae so the boss is right to wait for nature or brain as they have a very high score journals like that also want first bite iyswim