Unethical Authorship; How to Avoid?

Unethical authorship is described as academic misconduct, through which a person who has not contributed to the research is included in the research as an author; however, a genuine contributor to the research is excluded from the list of authors of the study.

The International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI) notes that unethical authorship also occurs when the sequence of authors is changed in an unjustified and improper way, removing names of contributors in later publications; using one’s power to add his/her name as the author of the study without any contribution; including an author without his/her permission.

Academic misconduct is used against academic honesty which is a kind of code of conduct to be followed by members of the academic community and is a necessary foundation for all academic institutions.

Unethical Authorship

Every author whose name is on a journal paper is supposed to make a significant contribution to the study. This contribution could be made in different sections of that study or research, including design, research, analysis, acquisition or interpretation of data or writing of a paper.

When your name is referred to as an author or co-author, it means you share responsibility and accountability for the content of your paper.

Unethical authorship refers to a kind of academic misconduct that unjustly names a person to be an author, removes his/her name from the study, or replaces his/her name with the name of other authors who have made little or no contribution to the research or writing of a manuscript. Unethical authorship affects the research environment and coincides with other ethical transgressions.

Unethical authorship practices are widespread nowadays; all who contribute substantially should be listed as authors, and all who are listed as authors should have contributed substantially. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. The scientific community is faced with these unethical practices that need to be addressed very seriously.

The authorship of articles must be honest, reliable, trustworthy and transparent. Otherwise, the reader cannot adequately appraise the paper.

The Council of Scientific Editors (CSE) describes two important kinds of unethical authorships:

Honorary or Gift Authorship

According to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), honorary, gift or guest authorship is the practice of naming an individual who made little or no contribution to a publication as an author. Honorary or gift authors are named as authors but do not contribute in a meaningful way to the advancement of the research study.

They are usually supervisors, chairs, or senior researchers who are listed in a paper’s author section to advance their academic career and compete for research grants and achievements.

Those who make small contributions that would not qualify them as an author should be listed in the acknowledgements with the extent of their contribution clearly stated.

Ghost Authorship

Unlike gust author, a ghost author is a professional writer or a younger researcher who has made a substantial contribution to the research or writing of a manuscript, providing substantial inputs (research and writing) to senior researchers but is not named as an author and do not share authorship.

Ghost authors are those with substantive contributions with apparent conflicts of interest, usually affiliated to pharmaceutical agencies, who deceive the readers by omitting their names from the author bylines.

How to Avoid Unethical Authorship?

According to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), “individuals listed as authors must satisfy all 4 criteria of authorship:

1) Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work;

2) Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content;

3) Final approval of the version to be published;

4) Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.”

Note that to avoid unethical authorship practices, the most important way is to change the way the authors are evaluated, which has to be made based on scientific and cultural differences.

For example, in some academic disciplines, perhaps reducing the score of the first author when other authors’ names are added, may lead to the reduction in his/her motivation for work, if the author works in an interdisciplinary field and is forced to use expert colleagues.

Another point suggested as a solution to avoid unethical authorship practices is paying special attention to education. Researchers need to be aware of what kind of contribution in a research study can be an accurate example of being named as an author and what kind of contribution only needs to be acknowledged. On the other hand, journals and editors are better to carefully review the papers and studies, to avoid easily ignoring violations in the field.