[Medical publications: real or false authors?]

There has been in the medical literature during the last decade a series of publications about the actual role of the authors in the published articles. The number of honorary authors, giving their name to a publication without a significant contribution to the study, is not negligible, even in prestigious journals. Moreover, the use of ghosts, which are non mentioned authors involved in the analysis or in the manuscript writing, appears to be frequent, particularly in trials sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry.