Is it an ethical practice to offer co-authorship on a paper to a graduate student in exchange for proofreading the paper? By proofreading, I mean fixing small grammatical or spelling errors right before manuscript submission, not contributing significant comments to the experimental design or methodology that are later taken into account.
I ask because in my old lab we had several international students and several fluent English speaking grad students, and the fluent English speakers are listed as co-authors on several papers where they have contributed nothing more than small grammar corrections.
Answer
I think this is professionally unethical. Other fields might have different views, but per the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, authorship is based on
- Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
- Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
- Final approval of the version to be published; AND
- Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Since this graduate student has no intellectual stake in the work, this is basically lying. The fact that the student would benefit from a publication (and you, if you are their adviser) makes the conflict of interest all the more apparent.
The appropriate place for such a contribution is in the acknowledgements or not at all.
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