Ghostwriting under the microscope

Ghostwriting is frowned upon by academics — unless they are doing it themselves. Sergio Sismondo, who has studied the subject, says professors have been rewarded for such behaviour. Academics, he says, are under pressure to publish as many articles as possible to enhance their standing within their universities.

It’s a practice often shorthanded as “publish or perish.”“The university world is very demanding about research production,” says Sismondo, a philosophy professor at Queen’s University.

The pressure is especially high in medical circles. “So they just keep churning out the articles.” Besides using ghostwriters, academics can add to their publication credits by claiming to be the second, third or even fourth author of a study. Such honorary authorships, as they are known, are often given to department managers or those securing a study’s funding, but have little — if anything — to do with writing the article.

Sismondo became suspicious of academic publishing after reviewing the resumé of a fellow scholar claiming to have published some 800 articles over his career, at a rate of about one a week or so, allowing for time off for vacations.

“That’s just not possible,” he says.