Abstract

Even though the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) has developed explicit recommendations regarding authorship, the correct declaration of the contribution of each author is not easily accomplished for a variety of reasons. Therefore, authorship disputes have become an increasing problem within the research community, academic institutions, and funding organisms. This chapter will briefly summarize current criteria for authorship, including the importance of its correct declaration; will identify concepts such as “honorary authorship” and “ghost-writing” as well as some emergent subjects, such as patients as co-authors and suboptimal female representation in the author’s list. Additionally, we will discuss some cases of authorship disputes and provide ways of preventing and resolve them.