RE: https://mastodon.social/@docpop/116608515170969849
The dude who's telling on himself by saying it's impossible to actually read the literature you cite in your academic papers is a professor of economics.
Quite on-brand for the field. 😅
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@gedankenstuecke It's not _completely_ impossible to have the situation he describes, to have a very diverse group of co-authors and not be an expert in the part another co-author wrote (or, indeed, not even speak the language), _but_ it is on one hand also not that common to not even be able to check what the other authors wrote and it is on the other hand very telling that he is okay being on a paper where he does not trust his coauthors enough to take responsibility for it.
@HeptaSean I mean, I understand all that. But one could still check if the citations exist at least? And then totally agree with the trust part. Already before you were always "on the hook" as a co-responsible person if you're a co-author! If you want the credit for a paper you also have to be okay with being accountable for the faults for it. But apparently this level of responsibility seems unacceptable for some professors…
@gedankenstuecke In a post further down-thread, he hints at how co-authorship seems to work in his bubble: https://xcancel.com/JimDMiller/status/2055329224056074678
Definitely different than how it worked in the fields I used to be in, where everyone on the paper actually collaborated quite closely (including the professors by the way).
But on the other hand, there are, e.g., also the particle physics papers with hundreds of authors because everyone operating that large research facility should get their part of the credit.
As often, quite different traditions in different academic fields. I tend to think that his thoughts are maybe not _that_ outlandish, but it's still a net positive for me to reinforce that you are responsible for a paper with your name on it no matter what.
@gedankenstuecke na thoughts exactly
