‘by No contribution‘ do you mean they contributed nothing to the actual writing of the paper or more substantially they committed nothing to the academic thinking/axion of the paper. If the latter probably no. If it was a minimal yes. perhaps considering mentioning their small contribution as a footnote rather than as a co author

Dear it is not proper to add any person as author of a work he has not contributed to.

‘by No contribution‘ do you mean they contributed nothing to the actual writing of the paper or more substantially they committed nothing to the academic thinking/axion of the paper. If the latter probably no. If it was a minimal yes. perhaps considering mentioning their small contribution as a footnote rather than as a co author

Hello and greetings!

It is a bad one. Let ethics continue to play its role.

Thanks Emmanuel Ifeanyi Obeagu , Stuart B Jennings and Temitayo O. Olaniyan for your thoughts. Great one

No, not ethical but this is reality. Sometimes you have to put it even though they have no contribution at all

No, I think it is not ethical. Very often I saw that the contribution of institution leaders or team leaders was their "responsibility" not their real work.

No!!! This question has already appeared here.

Well, for telling truth - your horse should be fast!

Thanks Werner A. Reus , Mirna Leko-Šimić , Mohammad Ali for your comments

It is not ethical.

I see no reason at all to include someone name while having no contributions in writing up, setting objectives, theoretical approaches or anywhere at all. But if you want to include by being biased of the leadership or any other forces then its a different story and unethical as well.

It is unethical

Most good journals, in their guidelines for authors page, specify very clearly as to what qualifies one to be a (co)author . Unless the contribution is significant, it is unethical to be/keep a co-author. But if some sort of help has been received from a person and it is not significant enough to keep him/her as the co-author, yet has contributed to the betterment of your paper, you must/can acknowledge the person at the end of the manuscript.

It is very unethical to do that.

I think it is a complex issue actually. Maybe someone do not make contribution to eaasy-writing, but he gives effective suggestions or inspirations. So it is hard to measure that.

Thanks Jun Ma , Reuben Tamakloe , George Varghese for your thoughts

Thank you very much Syed Asad Ali Zaidi , Erik Cuevas and Yusuf Khan for your opinions

If an academic has contributed absolutely nothing to a research paper, they should not be a co-author.

Doing so would be fraudulent and unethical, and must not be tolerated.

Such unprofessional behaviour would also make it difficult, if not impossible, to complete with honesty the "Contributions by individual authors" requirement of many journals.

Thanks for your respond. Absolutely right Chia-Lin Chang

Dear Md Azree Othuman Mydin:

It is my pleasure to respond to your important professional and ethical Question.

No, it is not ethical and in the past 55 years of publishing I never did it. Only once, for my first publication my supervisor forced me to put the name of an unknown person who never collaborated with me on the topic I had spent time doing research.

Dear Chia-Lin Chang,

I completely agree with your assertion (in the answer, a day ago) that “If an academic has contributed absolutely nothing to a research paper, they should not be a co-author.”

However, how to prove/discover that a an academic has contributed absolutely nothing to a research paper?

Best regards

Interesting Question

Dear Mr. Mydin,

First of all, I would like to thank you for the sake of this interesting question!

Relying on the academic ethics, I would like to clearly say that: No! At all!

Best wishes,

Ali