Ghostwriters in the sky

Sorry, Frankie Lane

Guambat noted something not quite coincident in the following two story headlines, dealing with the same subject:

Study: Ghostwriting common at top journals

Up to 10 percent of the articles in the most prestigious medical journals were written by unacknowledged, industry-funded ghostwriters. That's the conclusion of a new study released by the editors of The Journal of the American Medical Association.

The data shocked journal editors when it was presented at a professional meeting. "It was very compelling, and I find it quite shocking, to be honest," Ginny Barbour, chief editor of PLoS Medicine, told the New York Times.

Ghost authorship on the wane, but guest authorship still common

The prevalence of so-called "honorary," or guest, authors has not declined significantly in recent years, although the practice of "ghost authorship" may be on the wane. Presenting the results, Joe Wislar, a survey research specialist at the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), said the prevalence of honorary and ghost authors is still a concern.

Wislar and colleagues surveyed the "corresponding" authors of 896 research articles, review articles, and editorial/opinion pieces. Corresponding authors are typically the ones who do the bulk of the writing and research for any given article.

an "honorary" or "guest" author is often something "bestowed as a tribute to a department chair or to the person who acquired funding for the study."

By contrast, a "ghost" author refers to someone who is not named as an author, despite having made substantial contributions to the research or writing of the article.

So, next you shout "author, author" in praise of a work, please be precise as to which one you refer. It could be an important distinction without a difference.