Dear TheFalliblefiend,

One should always acknowledge the help of other people. Unfortunately co-authorship is in many cases misused for manipulating and misusing other people. I think I can write a thesis on it. ALL authors contributions should be great enough that each should be able to present the contents at a conference and field questions about the paper. Furthermore, you should not use co-authorship to bask in the sun of a super new idea if you did not contribute to this idea. One of my graduate students came up with a stunning good idea, and I told him that this means a solo paper by him; even if I assist.

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