Courtesy Authorship in Academic Surgery Publications.

Area of Science:

• Medical Ethics
• Academic Publishing
• Surgical Research

Background:

• Courtesy authorship involves including individuals who do not meet authorship criteria.
• While journals have strict criteria, the prevalence of courtesy authorship remains unknown.
• This practice raises ethical concerns in scientific publications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the prevalence and practices of courtesy authorship in surgical journals.
• To investigate author opinions and pressures related to courtesy authorship.
• To identify differences in courtesy authorship practices between high and low impact factor journals.

Main Methods:

• A survey was conducted among first and senior authors of articles published in 8 surgical journals (high and low impact factor) between 2014-2015.
• The survey assessed the incidence of courtesy authorship, author opinions, and perceived pressures.
• Data were analyzed to compare practices across author ranks and journal impact factors.

Main Results:

• 17.2% of respondents reported adding courtesy authors for surveyed publications; 53.7% had added them previously.
• First authors (20.4%) were more likely to add courtesy authors than senior authors (11.5%).
• Both groups reported pressure to include courtesy authors, with greater external pressure in low impact factor journals.

Conclusions:

• Courtesy authorship is prevalent among both first and senior authors in surgical journals, irrespective of impact factor.
• Discrepancies exist in perceptions, practices, and pressures related to courtesy authorship.
• Understanding these nuances is crucial for developing educational strategies to eradicate this unethical practice.