Why it is necessary to add famous people in authorship to get impact factor high while some of them do not even guide? Just to get notified by other researchers I have to put some people who are just FAMOUS and not even helped correcting my writing? Why the area of science is so confusion while I think even single authorship should be honoured in the same way.
Anyone to help?
There are several reasons that famous or well known people garner attention when associated with a publication. Name recognition has a lot to do with it. A lot of people "follow" certain researchers. If they are unfamiliar with a name, they are less likely to read an article by that person. Having a famous or respected person edit or review a paper prior to publication adds legitimacy to the piece. We also tend to stand on the backs of those that came before us. Thus a relatively unknown researcher including one of the founders/experts in the field as part of his paper, however little the actual contribution, leads credence to the research.
thanks for the reply James. i have no issue giving authorship to someone who actually CONTRIBUTE. But in reality, people usually, SHARE authorship where they even dont know what others did in that paper; or simply ask for authorship because officially the person is senior of director of the institute. :(
seems like nasty politics to me.
I understand what you mean. I once worked for a company in which the founder was listed as an author on many reports, even though he did not write, edit, or review them. They also did not list minor writers in the report. That changed when the government agency they had a contract with stipulated that all authors and only authors be credited. Over here we have the saying "riding on the coattails of others".
Dear James, I am just a newcomer in this research world but if the first impression seems to be corrupted in such a way; how would that be anymore interesting for me? I am feeling depressed already.
Ashok, unfortunately it happens in a lot of companies and research facilities. I have known or heard of many people, a lot of them incapable of original thought, taking credit for or stealing an idea. The best that anyone can do is to strive to do one's best and take satisfaction in your work. However, those of us who have been in your situation also learn to email or write ourselves (time/date stamped) our idea so that we can prove a coworker stole it if need be. My wife's coworker took credit for one of her ideas. Wife showed her boss the email that outlined her idea and the coworker was put on notice!
Not until everybody is satisfied standing on their own accomplishments. Unfortunately, that Shangri-La isn't in our future for quite a while. In the United States, at least, there has been talk about the cut-throat corporate and research environments originating in the university graduate programs. This generally is attributed to graduate students vying for choice research topics co-authored by one of their professors and by discussions among grad students where one will steal another's research idea.
I hope you don't get too discouraged. Believe in your work and take pride in it, but take precautions to ensure that nobody can take one of your ideas and make it their own. Eventually, those people get found out, or at least have the scorn of their peers.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Linguistics
- Composition Studies
- Publication