In response to Murray Saffran’s.article entitled “On Multiple Authorship: Describe The Contribution” (The Scientist, March 20, 1989, page 9), I would like to suggest and appeal to the editors of scientific journals as well as to the NIH and the NSF to make a rule that would apply to both authorship and grant proposals: “Any individual who has been a coauthor on any paper (except that from a multicenter clinical trial) with a principal investigator (author) and co-investigator (co-author) of the grant or manuscript under review, should not review or participate in discussions on that particular grant funding or manuscript publication.”

This will remove not only grants authorships on a large number of manuscripts but will also make the NIH and NSF grant funding fairer.

SUSHIL K. JAN
School of Medicine
LouisianaState University
Medical Center
Shreveport, La.

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