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I submitted a short paper and received a positive review and a negative review. The editor (he) briefly wrote the following things:

  1. He thinks my original result could be mistaken because of XYZ
  2. He presents an alternative theorem (not entirely in mathematical language but with a combination of math and English), which gives a finer result than mine
  3. He presents a sketch of proof
  4. He presents an example
  5. He adds that, if I think he is wrong, and I was right, please revise my manuscript addressing concerns of reviewers and submit again.

I thought I was right, but after working on this topic for a few more months, I find that he is actually correct. So I wrote down his theorem, proofs, and example in details. I am about to submit, but an idea jumps into my head: he should own the copyright, not me. What should I do here?

Background: he is a very smart and cutting-edge researcher in my field, but he does not work on the problems in my direction, so I won't be plagiarizing his papers.

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    $\begingroup$ You could ask him to be a co-author. $\endgroup$
    – Gerry Myerson
    Commented Aug 2, 2022 at 6:53
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    $\begingroup$ If you can, you should ask your advisor for advice. If you can’t, ask the editor if they would like to be a co-author on the revised article. If they say “no” then you should thank them in the acknowledgments. $\endgroup$
    – Sam Nead
    Commented Aug 2, 2022 at 6:54
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    $\begingroup$ As I understand copyright law it does not apply to ideas, but to the expression of ideas in concrete form (music scores, photographs, written work…) So the editor might own the copyright on the email they sent you, but not the copyright on the revised paper. If you extensively and directly quote the email then the revised paper might be called a “derived work” and the editor would have certain claims they could make. $\endgroup$
    – Sam Nead
    Commented Aug 2, 2022 at 6:59
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    $\begingroup$ Copyright is all but irrelevant here. The problem is authorship. You can’t just use his ideas as if they were your own. $\endgroup$
    – Emil Jeřábek
    Commented Aug 2, 2022 at 7:02
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    $\begingroup$ This is the advantage of Timothy Chow's language "propose that you and he be coauthors of the paper" or something like "I would like to submit a new version of the article I submitted, based on your email to me, with you as a coauthor. Would this work for you?" $\endgroup$
    – Will Sawin
    Commented Aug 2, 2022 at 18:21

1 Answer 1

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[Comments combined into a community wiki answer.]

Copyright is the wrong word in this context; the correct word is authorship. A reasonable course of action is to propose to the editor that you and he be coauthors of the paper. If the editor agrees, then the paper would need to be re-submitted to a different journal; it would be a conflict of interest for the editor to accept his own paper for publication. If the editor declines, then the editor's contribution should be formally acknowledged in the paper, and you can proceed with the publication process.

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    $\begingroup$ Right. Re-submit to a different journal to avoid conflict-of-interest stuff. $\endgroup$
    – paul garrett
    Commented Aug 2, 2022 at 16:50
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    $\begingroup$ Or the editor could have someone else in the board handle that submission. This is also a common approach and there is no need to submit to a different venue if the option is available. $\endgroup$
    – Andrés E. Caicedo
    Commented Aug 2, 2022 at 17:25
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    $\begingroup$ @AndrésE.Caicedo Sure, that's common and greatly reduces the conflict of interest, but there still may be some conflict of interest, especially if all editors vote on final decisions. Certainly there's more potential for perception of conflict of interest. $\endgroup$
    – Kimball
    Commented Aug 3, 2022 at 1:56
  • $\begingroup$ @Kimball: Why can't they simply check that that editor's votes did not affect the outcome (i.e. final set of accepted papers), and if so then a consensus has to be reached regarding the final outcome? $\endgroup$
    – user21820
    Commented Aug 3, 2022 at 19:57
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    $\begingroup$ If the editor becomes a coauthor, I think you can trust his judgement on whether submitting the paper to his coeditors would be too much of a conflict of interest for him or not. $\endgroup$
    – Emil Jeřábek
    Commented Aug 5, 2022 at 12:59

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