[Article] A possible generating algorithm of the Voynich manuscript

[-JKP-]

Sometimes the student does 100% of the work and the professor's name is really only there to help the student get a foot in the door.

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If a professor (or other type of tutor/manager) is co-author of a paper, it means he has reviewed it and he stands behind it.

I agree that it means he has reviewed it and stands behind it. No professor would put their stamp of approval (name) on a paper they didn't feel had merit. But that's not the same as doing the research, analyzing the findings, writing the paper.

I attended three universities and at one of them, a student could put together almost an entire field of study as independent study credits. The professor still had to review and evaluate/grade the work, but sometimes had no other involvement. This was usually in emerging fields in which there were no courses (imagine a subject like robotics, for example, in the days before there were any robotics or some esoteric field of physics before that field has been established as an actual field of study).

I've met a number of students (usually very independent and smart) who did their own research and wrote their own papers without professor involvement, but to get published, they needed another name on the paper with credentials.

I'm not saying this is what always  happens—many professors do research along with grad students, but there are students who do all the work but need an endorsement, and it's not always from someone who was involved in the actual work.


This is why I always try to maintain the order of the names on a paper when citing it. I don't want to take away priority from someone who might have done all the work (or even 80% of the work).