My name has been included in a paper submitted to a peer-reviewed journal without my consent, however I did not contributed anything to it. The corresponding author, a former colleague of mine, ignores my request to be removed off of the author list. According to the trace of the communications I have received, the paper is under review now. Thus, how can I professionally deal with this case to get my name removed?
Asked
Active
Viewed 4,245 times
22
-
1I do agree with Bryan Krause answer. Butt insist on your colleague, it should work else the situation is indeed bizarre. Be polite, It might be that the other side did not think much and is convinced to make you a favour. Be firm but polite, say you are open for future collaboration, for instance. – Alchimista Oct 03 '19 at 10:49
1 Answers
36
Yes, it is definitely unprofessional and unethical to include someone as an author when they do not agree to be one.
If you have contacted the corresponding author and asked to have your name removed, and they refuse or ignore the request, all you have left to do is contact the editor.
Simply say that you have come to understand that your name was included as an author on a paper submitted by (corresponding author), that you did not participate in the work, and that you would not like your name associated with the publication.
That's it. No need to make further accusations or statements, that should be enough information for the editor to act. If it's a reputable journal, they'll realize how wrong this all is.
Bryan Krause
- 114,149
- 27
- 331
- 420
-
And if it isn't a reputable journal, you can wait for it to be published and then send them a DMCA takedown request. – nick012000 Oct 04 '19 at 01:28
-
10If you didn't contribute to the paper in any way, presumably you don't hold any ownership of the copyright, and therefore have no basis to submit a DMCA takedown request, which would require you to state under penalty of perjury that you are the copyright owner or an authorized representative of the copyright owner. The DMCA is intended to handle copyright issues, not "my name is on this and it shouldn't be." – Zach Lipton Oct 04 '19 at 02:07
-
@ZachLipton If your name's on the paper, though, it's listing you as one of the copyright holders. – nick012000 Oct 04 '19 at 05:30
-
How does the journal verify the identity of the OP? If it's as simple as sending an e-mail, what's to prevent someone from sabotaging researchers by pretending to be them and asking journals to remove them from the author list? – vsz Oct 04 '19 at 06:04
-
@vsv The editor could just send a confirmatory email to the non-author's institutional email address. – Especially Lime Oct 04 '19 at 06:56
-
-
@Sneftel Isn't it? I'm pretty sure that copyright holders are allowed to give their copyright to others, which is what falsely listing someone as an author amounts to, IMO, though I'm not a lawyer. Feel free to ask a Question about it on the Law SE if you want, though. – nick012000 Oct 04 '19 at 08:23
-
At least in Germany, the right to disassociate your name from one of your works is part of the moral rights that are automatically granted as part of creatorship. One would hope that the same right applies even more so to works you didn't even create. – Jörg W Mittag Oct 04 '19 at 09:21
-
@nick012000 Assignment of copyright is done explicitly, not through putting a name on an author list. As Jorg alluded to, you may be thinking of "moral rights", but those cannot be assigned. Moral rights are held by the actual creator of the work, though. If someone's reputation was injured by someone else falsely claiming that the first person authored the work, that would be libel, not copyright violation. – Sneftel Oct 05 '19 at 08:43
-
@JörgWMittag : It's not just about moral rights. In Germany, for being associated with certain political beliefs, you can literally end up in prison. Therefore a method has to exist to prevent someone from being tricked (or faked) into publishing something illegal. – vsz Oct 08 '19 at 04:12