In academia being an author on a paper is your professional currency with your placement in the author list taken into account.
What if academia operated on credits like filmmaking. You could get experimental design credits, PI credits, data analysis credits, technician credits
What if academia operated on credits like filmmaking. You could get experimental design credits, PI credits, data analysis credits, technician credits
A fourth author on one paper may have been integral to every part of the study while a fourth author on another paper may have played a more minor role. Credits may not work but there's a lot of pressure on scientists to appear at a certain spot in the author list!
I absolutely love discussing the culture of science with scientists and how to improve the current systems of funding, publication and promotion to make them fairer and more efficient. The responses to this idea give me hope that we're moving in the right direction!
