Abstract
I read with interest the retraction of 3 publications by Sato et al. in the July 12, 2016, issue of Neurology ®.1–3 I was astonished to read a sentence by the retracting author, “that none of the coauthors participated in any misconduct and appeared as authors on an honorary basis only.”1–3 Without an editorial comment about this sentence, an impression is created that appearing “as authors on an honorary basis only” is regarded as acceptable. Maybe the editors thought that this is already clear enough and self-evident for the reader. Unfortunately, honorary authorships are still part of current practice in many academic and nonacademic settings and there are limited options for an editor to avoid that. This situation with Dr. Sato provides a highly didactic example that coauthorship is also coresponsibility for the integrity of the data. Ultimately a lost opportunity to reinforce author guidelines?
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