The present system of doling out "honorary" authorships has become so accepted that the profession fails to realize the serious ethical question it poses. For what difference is there between a rock group caught lip-syncing its award-winning music and a professor or laboratory director listed as an author of a paper about research he or she did not conduct? The literary profession calls this practice "ghost writing." Scientists must meet a higher standard.
I have no idea who of the several "authors" of a paper in a major journal I've just read actually did the research and wrote the paper.
FORREST M. MIMS III
Editor
Science Probe
Seguin, Texas
