The friend who was asked to write the paper should be certain that he or she understands everything in the paper completely, and fully agrees. Otherwise there is the danger of taking a flawed position and having it hurt his or her career. I was in this position once, and when I realized that I did not agree with the PI in the research, I had the difficult and embarrassing chore of asking that my name be removed from the paper.
---- Original message ---- >Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2007 09:37:24 -0700 >From: Alicere Bachman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: writing a paper and authorship >To: [email protected] > > One of my friends wants me to post the following question and see what kind > of opinions you may have: > > My friend is teaching in an univeristy. A professor in her department did > some interesting work on biodiversity but the professor cannot write well > enough to put the work into a professional paper. The professor approached > her asking her to write the paper for him and her to be the second author, > although she does not have anything to do with the research work. > > 1. Is this a good collaboration? If it is, many people can ask others to > write papers for them and are still listed as the first authors. > > 2. Is it ethical? (my friend did not do the research; maybe she should not > be a co-author on something she did not do?) > > 3. Should the person writing the paper be the first author? > > > > Alicere > > > > >--------------------------------- >Moody friends. Drama queens. Your life? Nope! - their life, your story. > Play Sims Stories at Yahoo! Games.
