<![CDATA[Authorship represents a fundamental currency of academic careers, conferring recognition for intellectual contributions, scientific responsibility, and professional advancement. In the context of increasing “publish or perish” pressures and increasingly complex multidisciplinary collaborations, the number of authors per publication continues to rise, creating greater opportunities for inappropriate authorship practices, including honorary or gift authorship, ghost authorship, and coerced authorship. This narrative review aims to examine the fundamental concepts of authorship, the authorship criteria established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the significance of author order, common forms and prevalence of authorship misuse, the emerging paradigm of contributorship through the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT), and strategies for preventing and resolving authorship disputes. A literature review was conducted using academic literature addressing authorship and publication ethics. The review indicates that, despite the longstanding availability of established authorship criteria, awareness and adherence remain suboptimal across institutions and countries. Consequently, inappropriate authorship practices continue to occur, including within high-impact journals. Strengthening education on publication ethics from the early stages of academic training, establishing explicit institutional policies, discussing authorship roles and expectations at the initiation of research projects, and adopting transparent contributorship frameworks such as CRediT are essential to promote equitable recognition of contributions and uphold integrity in scientific publishing.]]>
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