Academic Authorship

Some people want to be sharks, not only scholars. They think their names should be on the author list, if their students work on a project, though themselves do not; or if their resources are used in research, though themselves have no contribution. They care so much what they can get from what they own, the students, the lab, the fame, the power, more than the excellence of research. By playing this kind of career game, they win more funding, slave more students, exploit other researcher’s work and build their own empire.

There are many implicit rules to enhance this game. A professorship is not only a position to do research, but also a resource to exploit the other’s work by acquiring the authorship.