What does position in authorship mean? Help please

[Scrub MD]

I am looking at a paper that has: nameA, nameB, nameC, nameD, nameE

I am interested in NameB. Was this person a significant author?(second author or toward the end)

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[Flopotomist]

The order you see it is 1st author, 2nd author, 3rd author etc etc.

 

[lounatic]

nameB is the second author.... the significance of this author's contribution to the work cannot be concretely determined, though...

 

[maddscientist]

First author wrote the paper. The last(senior) author is usually the person whose lab the research was conducted in. After the first author it goes in decending order by who contributed the most to the paper until you get to the senior author. This is the typical structure for research paper, but there are exceptions and different formats especially if two labs were involved.

 

[BaylorGuy]

I'm agreeing with mad scientist...first author is the one who wrote the paper/came up with the idea of the research/the main contributer to writing, experimenting etc. The very last author is whose lab the research was done in. Then, from first author to last, goes the names of those who contributed the most (this is kind of up to the discretion of the first author...either contribution to most of the writing, or lab experimentation, or research....its no so much concrete, unless you personally know the first author and know how they rank authors).

 

[AxlxA]

If you got second authorship, congrats. It can mean alot to a med school. If you state this in ur app, they will surely ask you about it if you haven't already explained your role.

I think 2nd authors could mean alot, maybe he/she did 20% of the project.

But as my PI said, authorship is only granted to those who have contributed intellectually and all those mindless lab experiments you do mean nothing unless you have proven that your intellect has been part of the progress of the experiments.
of course my PI said this in a nicer and much longer way but that is the meaning i got.

 

[bwells46]

I am looking at a paper that has: nameA, nameB, nameC, nameD, nameE

I am interested in NameB. Was this person a significant author?(second author or toward the end)

Being one of the first three authors on a paper is very important because when the paper is cited, anyone past third author gets converted to et al.

As long as you're in the top three, it can only be good for you.

 

[hardy]

This is the typical structure for research paper, but there are exceptions and different formats especially if two labs were involved.

Actually, it depends on the field. This is the typical structure for biological/medical science. However, in a lot of other fields (physics, mathematics etc) authors are just listed alphabetically wihtout respect to their contribution.

 

[Law2Doc]

Actually, it depends on the field. This is the typical structure for biological/medical science. However, in a lot of other fields (physics, mathematics etc) authors are just listed alphabetically wihtout respect to their contribution.

I've seen this alphabetic ordering too, but it seems to be a rarity for premed type papers, and I'm skeptical that adcoms would be aware of the difference in authorship rankings. In general if you can get 1st authorship as an undergrad that's awesome -- quite rare -- I wouldn't count on it unless you show up with your own research study idea, and then do most of the work and all the writing. If you can get second author that looks really good too -- means you did substantial useful work and probably that the PI liked you (which sort of has an LOR effect). Third is decent as an undergrad but probably not as important professionally down the road - won't help your CV for residency etc. Anything 4th and after is probably just token mention - you were a good team player but didn't do anything that distinguished you on the study. And the last spot is usually the PI or the doctor in charge of the lab with the clout to get the article published in the first place (depending on its scientific importance). That's been my experience.

 

[63768]

on a case report that i'm writing, i'm listed as the first author. on an orthopedics paper that i did the research but none of the writing, i'm listed as the third author. it depends on your PI and how he wants to order it.

 

[bwells46]

on a case report that i'm writing, i'm listed as the first author. on an orthopedics paper that i did the research but none of the writing, i'm listed as the third author. it depends on your PI and how he wants to order it.

Yeah, I'm listed as third author (behind a MD, MPH and a MD, MBA) on a research paper where I did 90% of the work. A lot of it does depend on where the PI decides you should be listed.

 

[Scrub MD]

If you got second authorship, congrats. It can mean alot to a med school. If you state this in ur app, they will surely ask you about it if you haven't already explained your role.

I think 2nd authors could mean alot, maybe he/she did 20% of the project.

But as my PI said, authorship is only granted to those who have contributed intellectually and all those mindless lab experiments you do mean nothing unless you have proven that your intellect has been part of the progress of the experiments.
of course my PI said this in a nicer and much longer way but that is the meaning i got.

It wasn't me who received authorship. I am meeting with a doctor and saw his name listed as the second author and didn't know if he was involved enough to want and talk about it.

Thanks for all the feedback

 

[TheMightyAngus]

It wasn't me who received authorship. I am meeting with a doctor and saw his name listed as the second author and didn't know if he was involved enough to want and talk about it.

Thanks for all the feedback

Many researchers will list under the heading "Key Publications" papers that they've been second-, third-, or evenn eighth-author of. Usually these were breakthrough papers that have appeared multiple times in the literature and are noteworthy. With that said, you can't judge their role by their position as author.