The Vancouver Protocol¹ (www.icmje.org) provides clear criteria for authorship and the acknowledgment of contributions to scientific publications. However, contributors to health surveillance research, who make such research possible by the identification of cases and the provision of clinical data, have questioned the applicability of these criteria.

The International Network of Paediatric Surveillance Units (INoPSU)² (www.inopsu.com) is an international association now including 14 national paediatric surveillance units (PSUs) that conduct active surveillance of a range of uncommon conditions of childhood, including infectious and vaccine preventable …