Authorship may be “gifted” under pressure by the actual authors to a person with no major contribution to the research or writing, as the person is a senior, has an established reputation, or controls grant money.

Without a sound,

Sight or scent,

It creeps down

The pages

Of the manuscript

A gate-crasher,

Eats credits

For starters,

And claims

For dessert

With not even a lick

Of the well prepared

Main course

Outwits

Ethical rules

Through coercion,

Cajoling,

Or a seemingly benign

Kickback

Only to

Stand tall

As an equal

Among owners

Of the craft

Ready to jump

From one to another

Jungle of words

And body of evidence

For a newer claim

If we look closely

Into the tangle of research

There silently, lie the

Footprints of

A bogeyman.