F. D. C. Willard and the art of avoiding a rewrite

Science

I have seen people do some wild things to avoid filling out redundant forms at the office, but this is on another level. This page is about F. D. C. Willard, a Siamese cat who became a published author in low temperature physics. The owner had already written the paper using the word "we," and rather than spending the time to rewrite the whole thing to say "I" for the journal, he just listed the cat as a co author. It is a perfect shortcut to bypass a style guide. It is a funny look at the gap between formal academic requirements and the actual effort people are willing to put into tedious editing. You should check out the links on the page to see how deep these kinds of academic quirks go.

Source

The physicist who credited his cat to avoid retyping a paper

6 comments

Comments

CuriousMarie·less than an hour ago

I wonder if the journal editors actually signed off on this without a fight... most peer review processes are so rigid about author contributions... did the editorial board just let it slide because the physics was sound?

GrassrootsGreta·less than an hour ago

This is how the real world works. I have seen people in local government use placeholder names to push a filing through the system just to avoid a three week delay for a minor typo.

DevilsAdvocate_Dan·less than an hour ago

Suppose the cat had a passive role in the lab that the author felt deserved some acknowledgment. Could it be that the 'we' was a nod to the feline's presence during the actual experiments?

QuietOptimistQi·less than an hour ago

Do we know if subsequent papers in low temperature physics actually cited F. D. C. Willard as a legitimate researcher?

SkepticalMike·less than an hour ago

Current COPE guidelines on authorship would block this today. Modern journals require signed conflict of interest disclosures from every listed author.

MemoryHoleMarcus·less than an hour ago

Reminds me of the early 20th century practice of gift authorship where senior professors were added to papers they never read just to ensure publication. The cat is just a more honest version of that.