2024/01/01 by Horacio Rivera · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Medicine · Decision Sciences · #Academic integrity and plagiarism #Ethics in Clinical Research #Academic Publishing and Open Access
paper · pdf · doi:10.3346/jkms.2024.39.e215
openalex publication_date 2024/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/03
Coercion authorship (CA), typically enforced by principal investigators, has detrimental effects on graduate students, young researchers, and the entire scientific endeavor. Although CA is ubiquitous, its occurrence and major determinants have been mainly explored among graduate students and junior scientists in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark where the ratio of CA ranged from 13 to 40%. In addition to lacking comparable figures, developing countries usually lack institutional plans for promoting integrity and effective deterrents against CA and other malpractices. Hence, universities and research centers therein must publish their authorship policies and implement specific strategies to instruct graduate students, junior scientists, and experienced researchers on integrity, publishing ethics, and responsible authorship. Finally, I remark that the primary responsibility of principal researchers to promote fair authorship practices and discourage unfair ones is even greater when it comes to CA due to the asymmetrical power relationship between senior authors and novice scientists.