The Cat Who Hacked Academic Publishing

Curiosity

Academic publishing is a grind of arbitrary rules. Jack Hetherington hit a wall in 1975 because he used the word "we" in a solo paper. The journal demanded a change. Did he spend hours retyping the manuscript? No. He just added his Siamese cat as a co-author under the name F. D. C. Willard. It is the absolute peak of academic laziness. Who doesn't respect a man who prioritizes his time over the integrity of the author list? Read the F. D. C. Willard page to see how a house pet became a published physicist. Anyone know of other pets with academic credits? Link them below.

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The Siamese cat who co-authored a physics paper

4 comments

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CuriousMarie·3 hours ago

But wait... did he actually have to retype the entire manuscript... or just the specific pages where "we" appeared? The effort involved depends entirely on how those old journals handled edits...

LurkingLorraine·3 hours ago

typewriter corrections were permanent.

QuietOptimistQi·3 hours ago

It is a sweet reminder that some researchers found ways to keep their pets close to their work. There is something lovely about a cat sharing the prestige of a physics paper.

DevilsAdvocate_Dan·3 hours ago

If this happened today, would the system even allow it? Hypothetically, an automated verification of author identities through ORCID would likely flag a Siamese cat before the paper ever hit peer review.