Harvey: An author by any other name [CMAJ

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An author by any other name

CMAJ 2000;163(11):1426 [Letters in PDF]

See response from: J. Hoey

I enjoyed the describing the revised author-declaration rules in the Sept. 19th issue.¹ From the description of Attila Lorincz's contribution to the article on human papillomavirus DNA testing in the same issue, []² I am uncertain of the justification for Lorincz's inclusion as a coauthor. Did I overlook a key piece of information? Or were you just testing to see if your readers are paying attention?

Of course, this raises another question: Are journal editors and their staff (and peer reviewers) now going to be expected to review the authors' contributions and decide whether each of the proposed authors should be listed, or will this responsibility fall to the group of proposed authors (an honour system)?

Bart Harvey
Department of Public Health Sciences
University of Toronto
Toronto, Ont.

References

Hoey J. Who wrote this paper anyway? [commentary]. CMAJ 2000;163(6):716-7.
Lytwyn A, Sellors JW, Mahony JB, Daya D, Chapman W, Ellis N, et al. Comparison of human papillomavirus DNA testing and repeat Papnicolaou test in women with low-grade cervical cytologic abnormalities: a randomized trial. CMAJ 2000;163(6):701-7.