Excerpts from a letter to editor of Malaysiakini:
" I am an enrolled post-graduate student at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas).
I was shocked when my supervisor told me that I CANNOT publish journal articles based on my thesis if I do NOT include him as co-author.
In fact he demanded that HE be the MAIN author although I did ALL the work.
I have asked around and was told that this is STANDARD practice in Malaysia.However, when I checked with universities in Singapore, Australia and United Kingdom, I was told there is no such thing. Supervisors CANNOT take credit for their student's work.
I believe Malaysian (academic) supervisors do this because they are NOT capable of doing ORIGINAL research so they want a FREE ride in academic publishing.I hope this matter is exposed and the Higher Education Minister will do something.
This is nothing more than legalise blackmail."
1 comment:
It is normal for supervisors to be coauthors of their students' research (their names come after the main author's name), after all they 'supervised' and funded the research. They could also be the main author at times if the student's work is only part of a bigger picture in the final publication, but when that happens, of course the student will be coauthor as well.
If he did all the work by himself, without any supervision and obtained his own fundings, then surely he could be the only main author of the paper.
~just another graduate student~
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