Authorship (being named on the list of authors of a paper) is both a credit to the contributions of research and an endowment of responsibility for the published work. Although international standards indicate author qualifications and required contributions, there are many cases of inappropriate authorship in which those who do not meet the authorship criteria are considered authors, or those who meet the criteria are not identified as such. In particular, honorary authorship, where the heads of department or institution or distinguished researchers are added as authors without having contributed substantially to the research, is often recognised even in prominent international biomedical journals. It seems difficult to reduce authorship misuse because of the structural factors behind it such as severe competition for research funds and hierarchy among researchers. However, as with other research misconduct, inappropriate authorship raises various ethical problems and results in negative consequences as it violates research integrity and undermines not only trust of the researcher concerned but also public trust in the research area or biomedical science itself. It is often used as a means of academic harassment against junior researchers. To promote responsible authorship, it is necessary to educate medical students and researchers to raise awareness of this issue, foster a sound research culture by promoting authorship initiatives at research institutions, and establish regulations on authorship by biomedical journals.
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