HONORARY AUTHORS, GHOST AUTHORS, AND MEDICAL WRITERS IN PEER-REVIEWED MEDICAL JOURNALS

Annette Flanagin,¹ Stephanie Phillips,² Phil Fontanarosa,¹ Lisa Carey,³ Brian P Pace,¹ George D Lundberg,¹ and Drummond Rennie^1
1JAMA, 515 N State St, Chicago, IL 60610, USA;² Project House, Hackensack, NJ, USA;³ Marymount College, Manhattan, NY, USA

Objective: To determine the prevalence of individuals named as authors of peer-reviewed medical journal articles who have not made substantial contributions to the work (honorary authors); to determine the prevalence of unidentified authors (ghost authors) and unidentified medical writers in peer-reviewed articles; and to identify characteristics of articles and corresponding authors of articles associated with honorary authors, ghost authors, and unidentified medical writers.

Design: A self-administered survey was mailed to 1180 corresponding authors of randomly selected articles published in 1996 in 3 peer-reviewed general medical journals (Annals of Internal Medicine, JAMA, New England Journal of Medicine) and 3 peer-reviewed journals that publish supplements (American Journal of Cardiology, American Journal of Medicine, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology). Data collected regarding the corresponding author included age, profession, academic degree and rank, publication experience, perceived writing skill, responsibility/participation in preparing the article, receipt of financial compensation for the article, and attitudes toward professional medical writers and the need to acknowledge writing assistance. Data collected regarding the article included type (original research, review, opinion), journal, inclusion in journal supplement, and funding source. Data collected regarding authors included number of authors, responsibilities and contributions of each author, acknowledgment of writing assistance, and contributions of unidentified authors and writers. The study was designed with a power of 80% to detect a difference of at least 10% between the 2 groups of journals, with a 2-tailed alpha of 0.05. Responses were handled and data were analyzed in a manner to preserve respondent anonymity.

Results: To date, 812 of 1180 surveys have been completed and returned (overall response rate, 69%). Main outcomes to be presented will include prevalence of honorary authors, ghost authors, and unidentified medical writers, as well as characteristics of authors, articles, and journals associated with honorary authors and ghost authors.

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