Ghostwriting outside scientific publishing
Outside scientific publishing, ghostwriting is judged by other standards: in nonfiction book publishing it is an accepted practice and ghostwriters are in demand, in popular literature the named author decides how far the writer is acknowledged, and in academic study a ghostwritten dissertation or thesis lets the buyer gain a qualification by paying someone else to do the writing.
Nonfiction books written for a named expert
In contrast to the peer-reviewed medical literature, ghostwriting is an accepted practice in nonfiction book publishing, especially in bestsellers. In publishing, ghostwriters are in high demand and proud of what they do, in the account of a health writer who has ghostwritten trade books for doctors under their names: in 2009 one of her closest friends commanded six figures for every book she wrote, and her email signature proclaimed her the co-author and ghostwriter of six New York Times bestsellers, a line the health writer could not imagine a medical writer putting in a signature.
Writing for an author can pay better than writing one's own book, in the experience of two writers who had contributed to more than fifty nonfiction books over fifteen years. One such service is writing a book proposal for an expert on a particular topic: in 2012, for a 50-page proposal that includes the table of contents and some information on potential content, a writer may be able to negotiate a fee of $8,000. If a publisher accepts the proposal and the writer writes the book with the co-author, about five months of work might earn $70,000, much better than the royalties the writer might receive from a book of their own.
Credit for the writer of a popular book
Sir Ernest Shackleton, an Anglo-Irish explorer who led several Antarctic expeditions in the early 1900s, enlisted Edward Saunders, a reporter from New Zealand, to help him write a book. Saunders took Shackleton's journals, listened to his stories and wrote two books, The Heart of the Antarctic and South. South described the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914 to 1917, the Endurance expedition, whose crew survived 497 days in the Antarctic. Shackleton is listed as the only author of both books, and Saunders was given a small acknowledgment in one and is not mentioned in the other. Saunders later wrote of South that he could not truthfully say any chapter was entirely his, his work being complementary to Shackleton's.
Scientific and medical publications and popular literature set different standards for authorship, and the two books show the difference. Under the criteria of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), an author must have made substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content; given final approval of the version to be published; and be accountable for all aspects of the work. Saunders likely met the second, third and fourth criteria, so had the ICMJE criteria and Good Publication Practice been applied, he should have been recognised for his role as a writer but not as an author. But the two books would be considered popular literature, to which those standards would not apply, so the degree of acknowledgment due to Saunders was Shackleton's to determine.
Ghostwritten dissertations and theses
Individuals commonly ask medical writers to ghostwrite PhD dissertations, theses and student papers on outsourcing websites, where writers bid on projects that individuals and organisations advertise, and plenty of writers bid for those jobs. So outsourcing websites play a serious role in allowing people to gain doctorate degrees and university qualifications by paying writers to do the writing.