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For reasons I am not going to delve into, I was given second authorship outside my consent on a couple of conference papers I have absolutely no contributions on.

To resolve this, I have been repeatedly going back-and-forth with ACM to remove me from those, which keeps ending up with the head author very strongly insisting I did contribute, and ACM responding with the written equivalent of shrugging and walking away.

This whole situation is very bizarre and I am sincerely at a loss as to how to even begin approaching this. Plagiarism is complicated enough despite it basically being the most studied academic subject of all times. But how does one even begin to approach it happening in reverse?

Layman
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    Related, possible duplicates: What to do after I was named as co-author on a paper, without my consent?, My name was added to manuscript as co-author without my consent; how to get it removed? – GoodDeeds Apr 11 '21 at 21:49
  • This seems odd for ACM (Association for Computing Machinery). Why does the lead insist that you did contribute? – Buffy Apr 11 '21 at 21:55
  • I'm aware of some journals that now email co-authors and have them verify their involvement before considering the manuscript. That initially struck me as tedious, but situations like this must be common enough to call for that verification. – Brian Hopkins Apr 12 '21 at 02:24
  • @Buffy lead author's motivations fall into the realm of harassment. I disagree on the “how to approach it would depend on the reasons you are not going to delve into” part though. We do not necessarily need to know why someone plagiarizes in order to call out theft – Layman Apr 12 '21 at 03:24
  • I do agree with Dan Romik. Actually the main issues to be solved seem to be those you are not going to delve into. For coauthorship alone, I guess that you can simply insist with the journal. I do not see how they can decide who is coauthor and who's not without screening for it in advance. It should be possible to pretend your name be removed. – Alchimista Apr 12 '21 at 10:58
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    If being listed as a co-author of these papers harms your reputation, then it might amount to defamation, in which case getting a lawyer to write to ACM might make them sit up and take notice; but of course, that will cost money, and doesn't help you if the listing is beneficial or neutral to your reputation. – Daniel Hatton Apr 12 '21 at 12:08
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    @DanielHatton that's the other thing. It could be beneficial to my reputation, which makes the matters worse. I am attributed content I did not create, and not qualified to be responsible for it. Is that not the whole idea behind why plagiarism is the biggest sin one can commit in academia? – Layman Apr 12 '21 at 17:00

1 Answers1

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The head author’s insistence that you contributed is irrelevant. One simply cannot make someone a coauthor without their consent. I suggest that you reply to the chain of emails with something along the following lines:

Dear [ACM editors],

Thank you for your assistance with the issue of the coauthorship of [paper]. My colleague [head author], cc’ed, is being too kind when he says I contributed to the project. Perhaps there is some truth to that; regardless, for personal reasons I do not wish to be made a coauthor, and do not give my consent to be listed as a coauthor of the paper. I make this decision without implying any opinion as to the content of the paper, its quality, or the question of how much I contributed.

Please confirm that you are removing my name from the list of coauthors [optionally, you can add for added pressure if you expect more resistance:] or I will be forced to escalate the matter to the [Editor-in-Chief/Advisory Board/etc].

[head author], thanks for the lively discussion and for your generous suggestion to make me a coauthor. If you wish to mention me in the Acknowledgements section that is totally fine.

Regards,

Layman

Once you expressly state your refusal to be made a coauthor in this way, it’s difficult to imagine them “shrugging and walking away”. My guess is you simply haven’t been assertive enough in your earlier request. Good luck, and do update your question to let us know how things turn out with this curious affair...

Dan Romik
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