Time to kill the scientific “author”?

Controversies over the role of the author in science publishing come in waves. Back in the 1990s and early 2000s the phenomenon of ghost writing was a dominant concern. Aspenberg’s troubling account shows that the problem persists.1 But today, guest authorship, where someone who made little or no contribution to a piece is a named author, is even more pervasive, some experts say. “This includes those who simply insist that they have their name in the article,” explains Elizabeth Wager, former chair of the Committee on Publication Ethics. “It’s a career limiting move not to put the head of department’s …