>Objectives To assess the prevalence of honorary and ghost authors in six leading general medical journals in 2008 and compare this with the prevalence reported by authors of articles published in 1996.>Design Cross sectional survey using a web based questionnaire.>Setting International survey of journal authors.>Participants Sample of corresponding authors of 896 research articles, review articles, and editorial/opinion articles published in six general medical journals with high impact factors in 2008: Annals of Internal Medicine, JAMA, Lancet, Nature Medicine, New England Journal of Medicine, and PLoS Medicine.>Main outcome measures Self reported compliance with International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) criteria for authorship for all authors on the selected articles.>Results A total of 630/896 (70.3%) corresponding authors responded to the survey. The prevalence of articles with honorary authorship or ghost authorship, or both, was 21.0% (95% CI 18.0% to 24.3%), a decrease from 29.2% reported in 1996 (P=0.004). Based on 545 responses on honorary authorship, 96 articles (17.6% (95% CI 14.6% to 21.0%)) had honorary authors (range by journal 12.2% to 29.3%), a non-significant change from 1996 (19.3%; P=0.439). Based on 622 responses on ghost authorship, 49 articles (7.9% (6.0% to 10.3%)) had ghost authors (range by journal 2.1% to 11.0%), a significant decline from 1996 (11.5%; P=0.023). The prevalence of honorary authorship was 25.0% in original research reports, 15.0% in reviews, and 11.2% in editorials, whereas the prevalence of ghost authorship was 11.9% in research articles, 6.0% in reviews, and 5.3% in editorials.>Conclusions Evidence of honorary and ghost authorship in 21% of articles published in major medical journals in 2008 suggests that increased efforts by scientific journals, individual authors, and academic institutions are essential to promote responsibility, accountability, and transparency in authorship, and to maintain integrity in scientific publication.
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机译：>目标：评估2008年六种主要普通医学期刊中名誉和幽灵作者的流行情况，并将其与1996年发表的文章的作者所报告的流行程度进行比较。>设计使用网络问卷进行调查。>设置期刊作者的国际调查。>参与者在6篇综述中发表的896篇研究文章，评论文章和社论/意见文章的相应作者样本2008年影响因子较高的医学期刊：《内科学年鉴》，《美国医学会杂志》，《柳叶刀》，《自然医学》，《新英格兰医学杂志》和《公共科学图书馆》。>主要结局指标：自我报告符合国际医学杂志委员会所选文章中所有作者的编辑标准（ICMJE）。>结果共有630/896（70.3％）位相应的作者对调查做出了回应。具有荣誉作者或鬼笔作者或两者兼有的文章的患病率为21.0％（95％CI 18.0％至24.3％），从1996年的29.2％下降（P = 0.004）。根据545条关于荣誉作者的答复，有96篇文章（17.6％（95％CI为14.6％至21.0％））具有荣誉作者（按期刊的12.2％至29.3％），与1996年相比没有重大变化（19.3％； P = 0.439）。根据622位关于幽灵作者的回复，有49篇文章（7.9％（6.0％至10.3％））有幽灵作者（按期刊的2.1％至11.0％范围），比1996年（11.5％； P = 0.023）显着下降。原始研究报告中的荣誉作者占25.0％，评论中占15.0％，社论中占11.2％，而研究文章中的幽灵作者占11.9％，评论中占6.0％，社论中占5.3％。 >结论在2008年主要医学期刊上发表的文章中，有21％的荣誉和幽灵作者身份的证据表明，科学期刊，个人作者和学术机构加大努力对于促进作者身份的责任感，问责制和透明度至关重要，并保持科学出版物的完整性。
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