Korea needs to introduce a “real-name authorship system” to keep senior scholars from putting their names on the academic papers of junior researchers as co-authors, without making any contribution to them, a professor said recently.

Hong Sung-tae홍성태, a publication director at Korean Academy of Medical Sciences대한의학회, made the assertion in his contribution to the academy’s e-newsletter. “I am saying this to root out all kinds of bogus authors, such as ‘honorary author,’ ‘gift author,’ ‘ghost author,’ ‘swap author,’ and ‘theft author,’” Hong said.

Honorary authorship refers to naming a person who had no role in writing the paper as a co-author. Ghost authors, on the other hand, are those who have contributed to research but are excluded from authorship upon thesis publication. Swap authors are those who mutually agree to place one’s name on the other’s paper, even with no actual contributions made to the other paper. Gift authorship occurs when an author allows others to pretend to be co-authors as a gift, while it constitutes theft authorship if an author unilaterally put in others’ names without the latter’s permission.

A scholar calls for introducing a “real-name authorship” system to eradicate the practice of false authorship rooted deeply in Confucian culture. (Academic papers in this photo do not necessarily have relationships with this article)

Hong pointed out that authors and contributors should record their names separately, according to global standards.

The guidelines of International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) state that authors listed on a research paper should have selected research topics, produced considerable intellectual contribution, contributed to direct production of research results, wrote or modified theses, reviewed the final manuscript, and assumed shared responsibility for the entry study.

Only when all these requirements are fulfilled can one be named as an author. If one does not qualify, then it is considered as a form of inappropriate authorship, according to the international committee.

However, authorship violation occurs often, according to Hong, who points out that honorary authorship is the most common and prevalent violation that happens in Korea.

Honorary authorship has been widespread for long in Korea because of the Confucian culture that regards honoring teachers and seniors as a prime virtue, Hong said. He criticized this practice, however, saying, “If we want to compete and contribute to the international society academically, we have come to a point where we must do away with this old tradition. Currently, we are at risk of being laughingstocks if foreign researchers know about these rampant violations in this country.”

To identify the number of real authors on local research papers, researchers at the Journal of Korean Medical Science (JKMS) and Yonsei Medical Journal (YMJ) examined the number of authors in academic papers in the past five years and compared it with the data collected by the U.S.’s Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA).

They found that the average number of authors of a single institution was three times higher than that of the United States. Looking at research papers from single institutions alone revealed that the average number of authors in domestic journals was around six to seven people, while JAMA found 2.2 people for the same.

“Honorary authors are found in the U.S., too, but the rate of occurrence is distinctly lower. As honorary writers become more and more prevalent, publishing ethics become blurred, which could lead to serious ethical problems,” Hong said. “The obscure ethics of the honorary author, who becomes a coauthor without any contribution, is a burden on the principal researcher, and in particular on the first author, who has worked hard.”

Hong suggested that authors should record names of only those who contributed to the research, saying the implementation of this system will strengthen the country’s research infrastructure.

“Because the main problem stems from the Confucian culture, professors and senior professionals should correct this practice and medical research culture. An author should make an intellectual contribution to the content and must be responsible for writing, modifying, reading, and knowing its content and final manuscript. Only such researchers should be recorded as authors.”

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