Does being first author matter?
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The first author should be that person who contributed most to the work, including writing of the manuscript. It is common practice to have the senior author appear last, sometimes regardless of his or her contribution. The senior author, like all other authors, should meet all criteria for authorship.
How do you indicate joint first authorship?
Joint first authors can be indicated by the inclusion of the statement ‘X and X contributed equally to this paper’ in the contributorship statement.
Sometimes papers have multiple first authors, in the sense that it is stated explicitly in the paper that “These authors have contributed equally to the work”. But in citations and reference lists this information is often not preserved, and so the paper will, for many purposes, only have one first author.
Are co-first authors listed alphabetically?
No, “A” has no right to require alphabetical ordering. The editor will not care, because how would he even know that “B” was supposed to be a co-first author?
Most of the time, the first author also presents the study during a conference. The corresponding author is often a senior researcher who helps the first author. He/she is responsible for the correspondence during the process of submission. Being the first author is highly valuable.
Should a professor be listed as an author?
Yet in most cases they still claim authorship. By the rules of my own university, my professor shouldn’t be listed as an author on many of my papers, but I still add him because he demands it. My professor is in a position of power, and refusing to do so could limit my own career opportunities.
The other option is for professors to have the guts to allow their group members to publish without them when they haven’t contributed enough to merit authorship. After all, integrity should count for so much more than numbers of papers published.
Can a student be the second author of a research paper?
If the work is mainly of the professor, and the student’s assistance is obtained in say data collection or some drafting, referencing or editing, then the student’s name can be added as the second author.
A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored article that is based primarily on the student’s dissertation or thesis. Faculty advisors discuss publication credit with students as early as feasible and throughout the research and publication process as appropriate.