Hi,

My boyfriend is writing up his PhD and also working on a paper that will hopefully be submitted in a few weeks. His supervisor is now sticking three more names on the paper, of people who weren't involved in the work. His reason for this is that this will be reciprocated when the other people publish (in theory).
As this will be my boyfriend's first paper and will obviously be a factor in his success when applying for postdocs, he is concerned that having several authors will diminish his contribution and make the paper 'worth' less, if you see what I mean.
Does anyone have any idea what kind of impact the number of authors has on the credibility of a paper? He will still be first author, but does it really make it look like he didn't do as much of the work, when in fact he did most of it?
Hope someone can reassure me/him!

First author is first author, and it shouldn't diminish your boyfriend's perceived role in things (well, depending on the nature of the work actually being published - you don't want to end up in 'HOW many people did it take to change that lightbulb?!' territory).

BUT

what your bf's supervisor is proposing is highly dishonest. When a paper is submitted all authors have to sign to indicate that they have made a valid contribution. If something like this happens, and the 3 other authors genuinely have made no contribution (worth checking - perhaps they were involved in early study design and have at least proofed the manuscript) then there could be negative implications

Think about it - if everyone did stuff like this then we could all end up with huge long lists of publications and you'd never really know who worked on what. It damages transparency in research and does no-one any favours.

I suggest that your bf diplomatically raises some concern about this with his supervisor and/or one of the other genuine co-authors, and if given the opportunity to get his name on another paper for which he has done no work, declines to participate. You never know when these things can come back and bite you.

Hi JW297,

I just wanted to reiterate what Hazyjane mentioned. Being the first author is important and as such it doesn't matter that much whether there are other co-authors. In fact if some of the co-authors are established researchers from good institutions it could be an advantage, and may make that the paper is easier accepted.

However just adding authors, like Hazyjane indicated, is problematic. I think most journals now require a statement that all authors have been involved in the research, which will be difficult for your boyfriend to claim, as obviously the added ones were not involved at all.

I would also be sceptical about the reciprocal issue. It seems unethical for your boyfriend to accept becoming a co-author of a paper without his contribution. Also, even if he would be able to be involved in such a paper, it is not certain whether these promises are actually kept.

JW297 - HazyJane hit a good point - Every author of the paper needs to stand over the work, so if the names are just being stuck on at the end, well then, there is no hope of this. I would suggest that your bf raises this issue and at least then suggest meeting up with all the other "authors" and get their input. If that was that one of the co-authors was to take editing responsibility, it would be constructive. Also, if your bf is to be stuck on papers he didn't work on, it could come back and bite him on the a$$ if he didn't make any contribution to that work, so the idea of the favour being returned is stoooooopid!
Having a fierce problem with my supervisor - I asked for help on a paper three months ago and even had a second author lined up, but he said no. Now he is using the fact that I don't have publications as a possible stick to throw me out.
Your boyfriend should be somebit compromising but not to the extent where he is being blatantly exploited.

Many thanks for the replies everyone! You've helped clarify the issue greatly! It can be hard to know when in the early stages of academia what is commonly accepted practice and what is stepping over the line. I did think it all seemed a bit fishy and unfair, but all the comments have helped make a much more solid arguement than 'it just doesn't seem right'.

Fingers crossed that the arguements will hold up when it comes to the crunch. Thanks again!