Re: Ghostwriters!

On Apr 15, 8:27 pm, Towse <s...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
We could ask Queen Chris.tine how many medical papers are written by
someone other than the lead author or anyone near the top of the list of
authors.

Every academic scientist depends for his career on a continuing influx
of grant money. It's not surprising that some are willing to bend
their principles slightly in order to keep the money flowing. Grant
money means prestige, relief from teaching obligations, official
appointments, more slaves/students in the lab, and lots of impressive
equipment. If you bring in enough grant money, the process becomes
self-perpetuating, and you become a Great Man.

Warriors in some civilizations collect scalps or shrunken heads, and
scientists collect publications in their curriculum vitae. It's not
unusual, and even expected, that close associates will put the Great
Man's name on a paper to boost its prestige and improve the likelihood
of its publication. Meanwhile, the Great Man gets another scalp for
his war shirt.

3. Put 1 and 2 together, and a 'scientist' (ghost writer) for a
funding source (drug company) will offer to put the Great Man's name
on a paper. Any uneasiness GM has about letting his name be used goes
away when the next grant comes in. Drug companies need his prestige,
the Great Man needs their money.

This isn't some paranoid notion of how scientific politics work. I
lived in it for the last three decades of my career. Not medical work,
but work for government agencies, large companies, small companies. I
never was a Great Man, but I worked for one as primo capo and
consiglieri most of that time.

Interesting to see if Chris.tine agrees with me.

DB
.

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