Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
Listing a department head as the senior author on every paper from the department regardless of their actual contribution to a given project.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
Listing as an author a senior colleague who designed the analytical framework, critically revised the manuscript, and approved the submitted version.
Editorial commentary
Gift authorship (also 'honorary' or 'guest' authorship) violates ICMJE's authorship criteria, which require substantive contribution to conception/design or data acquisition/analysis/interpretation, drafting or critical revision, final approval, and accountability. It is often given to department heads, grant holders who did not contribute intellectually, or as quid pro quo. CRediT taxonomy and explicit author-statement requirements have reduced but not eliminated the practice.
References
- ICMJE Recommendations on authorship (current edition)
- COPE Discussion Document: Authorship (2019)
Also known as
honorary authorship · guest authorship · courtesy authorship
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
<role vocab="credit"
vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
vocab-term="Gift authorship"
vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/gift-authorship" />{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "DefinedTerm",
"name": "Gift authorship",
"identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/gift-authorship",
"description": "The inclusion as an author of a person who did not meet the substantive authorship criteria, typically as a courtesy, in exchange for resources, or for prestige. An authorship is a gift when removing the named person would not require any change to the manuscript.",
"inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/research-integrity-and-misconduct/",
"url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/gift-authorship",
"sameAs": [
"honorary authorship",
"guest authorship",
"courtesy authorship"
],
"license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}
