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Anyone know why such a straightforward article has eight authors? What could each of them possibly have contributed? I have noticed in the past that bioscience
by spikels 14y ago
Anyone know why such a straightforward article has eight authors? What could each of them possibly have contributed?
I have noticed in the past that bioscience articles tend to have lots of authors but always thought it was due to their inherent complexity requiring lots of different skills.
Perhaps it is really just a way to get more published papers for more people to help their academic career. This may explain some of the super long CVs these guys often have.
- ams6110 14y agoIt is a way to get more published papers. It's very common for a research lab director or faculty member to be listed as an author on all papers produced by their organizations. But the practice also recognizes people who may have been involved in the production of important data in the paper, even if those people didn't write any part of the paper directly or were acting in a "service provider" capacity and are not part of the larger research project that the paper describes.
- spikels 14y agoMakes sense. I have read many more math, stats and econ papers than bioscience. In there areas there tends to only be a few authors. Often there is an acknowledgement of some helped received either in the paper or at th bottom of the first page. In these areas paper are written by individuals rather than organizations. Bioscience takes much more infrastructure and coordination as well as being much more expensive. Still seems crazy that eight "authors" should get credit for this article.