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. 2011 Oct 25;343:d6128. doi: 10.1136/bmj.d6128

Prevalence of honorary and ghost authors in a sample of 630 research, review, and editorial articles published in six general medical journals with high impact factors in 2008, by journal and article type

Total* Research Reviews Editorials
Journal
No of articles % (95% CI) of articles No of articles % (95% CI) of articles No of articles % (95% CI) of articles No of articles % (95% CI) of articles
Honorary author (n=545) (n=220) (n=120) (n=205)
Ann Intern Med 9/58 15.5 (8.2 to 27.2) 6/26 23.1 (10.7 to 42.4) 2/23 8.7 (1.3 to 28.0) 1/9 11.1 (0 to 45.7)
JAMA 20/120 16.7 (11.0 to 24.4) 13/54 24.1 (14.5 to 37.1) 5/20 25.0 (10.8 to 47.3) 2/46 4.3 (0.4 to 15.3)
Lancet 24/122 19.7 (13.5 to 27.7) 5/30 16.7 (6.9 to 34.0) 4/24 16.7 (6.1 to 36.5) 15/68 22.1 (13.7 to 33.4)
Nature Med 12/41 29.3 (17.5 to 44.6) 11/27 40.7 (24.5 to 59.3) NA 1/14 7.1 (0 to 33.5)
N Engl J Med 18/147 12.2 7.8 to 18.6) 13/58 24.1 (13.5 to 34.8) 3/36 8.3 (2.1 to 22.6) 2/53 3.8 (0.3 to 13.5)
PLoS Med 13/57 22.8 (13.7 to 35.3) 7/25 32.0 (17.1 to 51.7) 4/17 23.5 (9.1 to 47.8) 2/15 13.3 (2.5 to 39.1)
Total 96/545 17.6 (14.6 to 21.0) 55/220 25.0 (19.7 to 31.1) 18/120 15.0 (9.6 to 22.6) 23/205 11.2 (7.5 to 16.3)
Ghost author (n=622) (n=226) (n=134) (n=262)
Ann Intern Med 3/61 4.9 (1.1 to 14.0) 2/26 7.7 (1.0 to 25.3) 1/25 4.0 (0 to 21.1) 0/10 0 (0 to 24.9)
JAMA 11/140 7.9 (4.3 to 13.7) 8/56 14.3 (7.2 to 26.0) 1/24 4.2 (0 to 21.9) 2/60 3.3 (0.3 to 12.0)
Lancet 11/145 7.6 (4.2 to 13.2) 4/30 13.3 (4.7 to 30.3) 1/28 3.6 (0 to 19.2) 6/87 6.9 (2.9 to 14.5)
Nature Med 1/48 2.1 (0 to 11.9) 1/26 3.8 (0 to 20.5) 0/1 0 0/21 0 (0 to 13.5)
N Engl J Med 18/163 11.0 (7.0 to 16.9) 9/60 15.0 (7.9 to 26.3) 5/39 12.8 (5.1 to 27.2) 4/64 6.3 (2.0 to 15.4)
PLoS Med 5/65 7.7 (3.0 to 17.2) 3/28 10.7 (2.9 to 28.0) 0/17 0 (0 to 16.2) 2/20 10.0 (1.6 to 31.3)
Total 49/622 7.9 (6.0 to 10.3) 27/226 11.9 (8.3 to 16.9) 8/134 6.0 (2.9 to 11.5) 14/262 5.3 (3.1 to 8.8)

*Honorary author analyses are based on 545 articles with usable data; ghost author analyses are based on 622 articles with usable data.

†No review articles were eligible for honorary author analyses in Nature Medicine.