Where do you fall on Author Spectrum?

Abstract

Research publications are the currency to buy promotion for medical doctors and ranking for medical institutions. To win the race, healthcare professionals often fall into unethical practices including buying ready made articles, using fake data, getting their name in co-workers’ publications without making actual contributions, by merely offering to pay their journal fee or using other coercive or manipulative approaches, and offering gift authorship to favor colleagues in the hope of other benefits.The trend of unethical practices in publication is rising as the world continues to increase its race of publications. An analysis of the Public Library of Science (PLOS) journals showed an increase in publications from 200 in 2006 to 30,000 per year now. In Pakistan also the gain in research output is significant, according to a report by Web of Science data analytics in 2018, which showed a 300% growth in the number of publications in Pakistan. However, it is important to assess if this gain is not achieved at the cost of compromising ethics and quality in publications.