Who Should Be An Author?

Abstract

An author is a person who creates a manuscript or paper. He is the one who initiates the process of crafting the document. He is also called a writer, a person who begins the process or plan or an idea. Before venturing into the authorship of biomedical research, one should know if one is entering ‘a sweet fruit of inspiration’ or drifting ‘towards a bitter fruit of the trade’. Stephen Lock has summed up authorship as not being ‘a bread ticket; it is an intellectual responsibility’. Incidence of inappropriate authorship even in Cochrane review has increased.