Honorary Authorship in Biomedical Journals: The Endless Story

Honorary authorship is when a scientist has been listed as a co-author without significant contribution to the manuscript. Although unethical, honorary authorship is on the rise. The motive behind it is different for scientists at different stages of their career. It helps juniors to get more publications and thereby have faster promotions and probably better employment opportunities. For scientists more advanced in their careers, it helps getting more scientific recognition and possible financial gains. Honorary authorship is not without disadvantages. It is probably held responsible for the over inflation in the number of authors per article in different publications. On the individual level, it dilutes the contribution of each author and may ruin the reputation of an honorary author if the data integrity were found questionable after publication.