Authorship and other credits

Coauthorship of articles and case reports in medical journals is causing serious academic problems. Many persons who are listed as authors do not contribute as authors but rather as clinical investigators, statisticians, or program directors. In effect, a dishonest practice has developed that allows contributors to medical research to receive the honorific title of author when this title is not deserved. To help stop this practice, we urge a shift from the concept of authorship to a more general concept of receiving credit. Persons who contribute to articles as authors should be so credited, but those who contribute as clinical investigators, for example, should receive credit as clinical investigators, not authors. Instead, clinical investigators should receive credit by having their names listed alongside the authors' and by being permitted to list their nonauthorial contributions in their curricula vitae.