Issues of Authorship with Undergraduate Research Students To Co - Author or Not to Co - Author

Introduction As we approach 2010, a clearly discernible buzz of excitement and trepidation hovers over national discussions of biology education (1). In 2003, BIO2010 (the National Research Council's treatise on biology education) set the stage for rethinking how biology educators might teach an increasingly content-rich field by putting a greater emphasis on scientific methodology and critical thinking (2). A growing movement to integrate the concept of science as a process into all biology curricula has emerged among educators teaching at community colleges, primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs), and research-tiered universities. A parallel rise in peer-reviewed materials to facilitate this transformation has accompanied this movement (3). However, even before these recent calls sounded and before " how to " depositories of electronic resources appeared, faculty successfully engaged students by mentoring them in their own research.