That's nonsense. Senior authors may not contribute text to the paper but they will normally be involved in every other way - reading drafts, making recommendati

That's nonsense. Senior authors may not contribute text to the paper but they will normally be involved in every other way - reading drafts, making recommendations, directing the research. I know it's standard on HN to accuse senior academics of exploiting their PhD students and I'm pretty sure there is plenty of that to go around but it is a very rare PhD student that can write a publishable paper without advise and guidance from their advisor. The name gives a hint, even. I'm speaking in this as a recently graduated PhD student btw. I don't have any conflicts of interest (well, not yet, hopefully). It sucks that many students have absolutely rotten relations with their advisors but that's exactly because the student depends so much on the advisor for direction that it's easy for the power differential to be exploited by unscrupulous individuals.