proper acknowledgment for tech

[V.A. Partridge]

In article <49onoa$7jb at cville-srv.wam.umd.edu> iamab at wam.umd.edu (Amy B) writes:

>I have a question concerning authorship vs acknowledgment for a technician who 
>was paid to write the computer program to analyse data.  He did it under the 
>direction of a statistician who is a 2nd author on the project.  A lot of work 
>was involved, but the technician did not actually design any of the analysis.
...
>Considering that he was paid as a consultant on the project in question, and 
>that he did not contribute ideas to the project, what do you all think about 
>authorship?

My personal opinion is that he should be listed as an author, not because he 
is insecure, but because he was integral to the success of the project -- the 
data analysis could not have been done without him.  And to say that he 
didn't contribute any ideas is to discount the thinking process which is part 
of programming.  He, of course, should do some of the writing.