For the second time recently, someone mentioned to me the Hardy-Littlewood rules for collaboration (and on that very site). From what I read about it, they include the following rule:
And, finally, the fourth, and perhaps most important axiom, stated that it was quite indifferent if one of them had not contributed the least bit to the contents of a paper under their common name
How is it ethical to be a co-author of a paper you have “not contributed the least bit to”?
I was flummoxed when I read that, it would be considered a serious breach of ethics in the communities I know. Is that a practice (those “rules”) specific to mathematics? Or are they just not used any more?
Answer
Generally speaking, this practice would not be acceptable under today's ethical standards.
I don't think these rules represented standard practice even in Hardy and Littlewood's day. They wrote them only to govern their own collaboration; I'm not aware that they ever even suggested that anybody else follow them. The rules are notable because they are unusual (and, as mentioned by Anonymous Mathematician, humorously exaggerated).
If your reputation matches that of Hardy and Littlewood, you may find the academic community (and your institution) willing to tolerate idiosyncracies like this. Otherwise, I wouldn't suggest trying it.
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