title: Authorship problems in scholarly journals: considerations for authors, peer reviewers and editors.
abstract: Authorship problems in scholarly journals shake the foundations of research, diminish scientific quality of papers and devalue records of citation tracking services. The 'Publish or Perish' mantra is thought to drive some instances of unfair, honorary authorship, particularly in countries of emerging scientific power. Though causes of honorary, gift, guest and ghost authorship are still ill-defined, it is possible to avoid some of these instances by improving awareness of what constitutes authorship and by adhering to the editorial policies of learned associations. This paper overviews common cases of inappropriate authorship and suggests options to solve related problems by authors, reviewers and editors of scholarly journals.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Research Unit, Departments of Rheumatology and Research and Development, Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust (Teaching Trust of University of Birmingham, UK), Russells Hall Hospital, Dudley DY1 2HQ, UK. a.gasparyan@gmail.com
authors.forename: Armen Yuri
authors.initials: AY
authors.lastname: Gasparyan
authors.forename: Lilit
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ayvazyan
authors.forename: George D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Kitas
mesh_terms: D001319:Authorship; D006801:Humans; D017712:Peer Review, Research; D010506:Periodicals as Topic