Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

By Philip G. Altbach - The World View. This blog is not about awarding credit for academic work. Rather it concerns assigning author credit to reports that are published by many organizations. My comments relate to the field of higher education, although the situation is common in many areas. Of course, when a person does research or analysis and publishes the work in a journal or a book, he or she is listed as the author. Frequently, when work is done at the request of an organization, government agency, or private firm, and published for public distribution, no author or editor is listed. The situation varies and there seems to be no norm. I am not arguing that organizations are conspiring to withhold recognition — rather, I suspect, longstanding institutional cultures may be responsible. Read more...