Up for grabs--authors are a dime a dozen: the problem of multiple authors.

AIM

To outline some of the major ethical problems related to multiple authorship.

METHODS

A survey of the literature, data collected over the years, regarding multiple authors, e.g., definition, contribution, ethical behavior and guidelines, and personal experience were the primary inputs.

RESULTS

Despite the efforts of a number of editors' organizations, there still is a major problem in the attribution of authors' credits to those who had nothing to do with the writing.

CONCLUSIONS

The solution to this problem may be found in one of two ways: strict enforcement of standards of authorship by journal editors, i.e., rejection of articles, no matter how good they may appear to be, because they violate these standards, and/or adoption of authorship standards as understood by commercial publishers.