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Publishing academic papers: a high-stakes name game
The unprecedented focus on published research and grants for career advancement has generated some contested issues related to who gets credit and why.
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Practicing our creative writing, are we? Does computer science fall under science in your view? I can assure you that Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) conferences and journal papers are rarely “…usually two and three pages…” More like 8 to 12+ pages. Broadly similar for most IEEE conferences and journals in the data networking/computer science areas.
There is no solution to the issues raised. In fact there is even greater complexity to the issue of authorship. In Physics we typically build on the work of others within the same group. A student might have developed a particular apparatus, did some experiments, obtained a PhD and moved on. Another student comes in, develops the apparatus further, and performs new experiments. Does the original student get authorship on subsequent papers, even if they left the field many years before? For theorists we can replace the apparatus with a computer program, and have to deal with the same dilemmas. All we can do is ensure that everyone is happy with the proposed authorship. If Heads or Directors impose their will on more junior staff then this is misconduct.
Academics must not give up on publishing scholarly books. See:
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/comment/academics-must-not-give-up-on-monographs-odul-bozkurt-university-of-sussex
Professor Tom O’Donoghue
UWA