The $α$-Index: A Penalized Authorship-Integrity Framework for Position-Weighted Scientific Contribution

Abstract

Publication and citation indicators commonly assign full credit to every coauthor, obscuring differences in authorship role and potentially rewarding accumulated authorship rather than identifiable intellectual contribution. We propose the $α$-index as a conserved, position-weighted, and penalized authorship-integrity framework. Each publication contributes one unit of credit, allocated across first-author execution, senior-author leadership, and residual middle authorship. Its defining feature is a senior-author responsibility penalty: senior credit decreases as the residual middle-author list expands, expressing the normative principle that leadership credit should be accompanied by responsibility for authorship discipline. The paper formalizes local $α$-credit allocation and the cumulative $α$-index; presents a parameterized family of weight blocks and penalty functions; and compares the framework with fractional, harmonic, and h-$α$-type approaches. Synthetic examples and selected public byline illustrations demonstrate mathematical behavior, including large-team variants. The default values are not empirical constants but transparent, testable hypotheses within a calibratable family. The framework is presented as a methodological and ethical proposal requiring field-specific validation against contribution statements, expert assessments, author surveys, and bibliographic data. It is intended to complement, not replace, peer review, contributor statements, acknowledgements, and citation-based metrics.