Year: 2026
Type: editorial
Abstract: In 1897 Mark Twain sent a cable to the New York Journal after discovering that the newspaper had published his obituary. Twain noted that while the reporting of his illness had been accurate, ‘the report of my death was an exaggeration’.1 In their provocative editorial ‘Death, authorship, and generative AI—a call for commentaries’, Brian Earp et al consider whether the traditional concept of authorship is undergoing a similar disaggregation.2 They distinguish between five authorship functions—composition, ideation, direction, engagement and accountability—and present arguments for and against identifying authorship with each of these roles.2 In this commentary, I will argue that the death of traditional authorship in scientific research is also an exaggeration.
Source: JME Practical Bioethics
Author: David Resnik
Institution: National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
Language: English
Subfield: Safety Research
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7167695281