The paper is redacted and John would've been first author. Pretty obvious, especially within his field. Her department would have known the full story, it's ju

The paper is redacted and John would've been first author. Pretty obvious, especially within his field. Her department would have known the full story, it's just she didn't deliver a post-mortem presentation with learnings Also, academia works on references, sure you can get older referees but the referees would be suspicious as well as the person receiving. The reference culture can be career killing if you just worked with someone toxic as you're blind to the references, they assume the worst if your most recent supervisor isn't providing one etc. then even if you're good you have to apply to a lot of jobs and waste a lot of people's time submitting to portals and writing references. The problem is when dishonest and no-skill researchers aren't fired or don't leave like Iddo Drori