Including someone’s name in a paper to increase the chances of being published, adding someone’s name to a paper based on their seniority level, adding the names of one another on papers to increase their list of publications and adding someone’s name in return for opportunities are all examples of gift authorship. This is a problem that is recognised in academia and research. This is often a result of perverse incentives and high competition, as observed by the “publish or perish” environment, recognised by the scientific community.
The problem particularly affects early career researchers who wish to build a successful and less precarious career. Exchanging favours with established and well-known senior researchers in a particular scientific field is an option to help to build such a career. Such favours often mean including the names of well-known senior researchers in their papers, even if no actual contribution was made. On the one hand, this option works as a slipway for early career researchers to establish their careers. On the other hand, for senior researchers, with very little effort. this is a way to demonstrate they are still active in the field.
There is another side of the coin, called ghost authorship, where authors who have made significant contributions to research or to writing a paper are left out of the authors’ list. To tackle gift and ghost authorship problems in research papers, journals ask research teams to specify the contributing role of each author to a paper. Nevertheless, the problem is far from being solved!
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● What are your views about gift and ghost authorship issues?
● Do you think the high competition environment and the system of perverse incentives promote unethical authorship practices?
● What solutions do you propose to avoid authorship issues?
● Do you believe there should be clear and mandatory authorship policies in higher education and research organisations?
You are welcome to share your views about this case and engage in a discussion with others.