Multi-authored Papers: Order
New collaborations across scientific disciplines and geographical borders have led to an increase in the number of multi-authored papers in the last few years.
Each paper, in addition to the main sections that include Title, Abstract, Introduction, Methods & Materials, Results, Discussion, Conclusion and References, has a part devoted to introducing the authors of the paper and affiliations.
It is important to know the order of writing the names of the authors in multi-authored papers, since on many occasions, including a Ph.D. interview, the authors will be graded according to the order of their names written in the ISI paper.
Students and young researchers who are just starting out and want to write their own paper may encounter questions regarding this issue:
- Does the order of my name as an author in a paper has any impact on my CV?
- How is rated the contribution of each author in a paper?
- Is the first name in the author list of a paper the same as Lead Author?
- Should we place the name of the thesis or article supervisor at the beginning of the author list?
- Who is the corresponding author?
First Author
Corresponding Author
Generally speaking, the corresponding author is usually the senior author who takes the overall responsibility of the paper in terms of scientific relevance, integration, coordination between the various sections of the paper, structurally, and so on. He/she provides the intellectual input and designs and approves the protocols to be followed in the study.
The corresponding author is responsible for the manuscript correction, proofreading, whole correspondence during the paper submission, handling the revisions and re-submission of revised manuscripts up to the acceptance of the manuscripts. This is the usual practice in most cases.
The corresponding author is responsible for correspondence with the journals, tracking fixes, and making necessary corrections and edits for final approval.
Author Order List
Here we will present some methods to establish author order lists for multi-authored papers:
Contribution
This method is the most common method to list authors in a paper. The author who most substantially worked on the draft article and the underlying research becomes the first author. The others are ranked in descending order of contribution.
Alphabetical List
In cases where authorship order is not determined based on their contribution to a publication, author names are simply listed alphabetically. This is done especially for large group projects.
Co-first Authorship
When two or more authors have worked together equally on a publication, they are listed according to shared co-first authorship order, where additional first authors are noted by an asterisk or other symbol accompanied by an explanatory note.
Co-last Authorship
Like the cases for multiple first authors, the names of last authors in papers that include more than one last author, typographical symbols and footnotes are used for their presentation.
Negotiated Order
Sometimes the authors and those responsible for a project decide to agree on a negotiated convention without sticking on clear practices for designating first and last authors. The list of authors, in this case, can be decided by negotiation.
Rating Author Contribution
Typically, the first person in each research gets the full score of the paper. However, with each new author’s name added, the score given to the first author is reduced.
It should also be noted that the scores given to the first author and the corresponding author are not the same. The first author usually has the highest position among the other authors of an article, and the corresponding author is considered solely responsible for the correspondence. The following table provides a description of multiple author’s scores in different cases:
|
Number of Authors |
Author Score | ||||
|
1st Author |
2nd Author |
3rd Author |
4th Author |
5th Author |
|
|
1 |
100% |
||||
|
2 |
90% |
60% |
|
||
|
3 |
80% |
50% |
50% |
||
|
4 |
70% |
40% | 40% |
40% |
|
| 5 |
60% |
30% |
30% | 30% |
30% |
| More than 5 | 50% |
125% divided among all other authors |
|||
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