How do you determine the order of names on a journal publication?

[ArrogantSurgeon]

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Hello, my question is about what the order of names on a publication signifies.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the first name to appear is that of the main author (the guy/gal who thought of the idea for the paper, did most of the writing, etc).

Now what about the names after that? If for example an article has 6 authors, do you list that names after the lead author depending on how much work each one put into the paper (e.g. author #2 contributed more than author #3, and author #3 contributed more than #4, etc)?

Also, the head of the department at my school has his name last on every single paper published out of that department. Basically, every paper that is published from that department, this guys name appears last on the list of authors for that paper. What does that signify?

 

[Lactic Folly]

That sounds about right.. it varies by discipline though. The first author should have done most of the work, but it could have been the supervisor who suggested the idea. With the rest of the authors, sometimes you'll see asterisks beside a couple of names with a footnote stating that these people contributed equally to the work despite the order in which their names were listed (unavoidable). Usually the last name is the supervisor/senior author.. sounds like the head of the department is using his clout to get his name on a lot of papers.

 

[Neuronix]

First author is the person who did most of the work and who usually wrote most of the paper. Typically, this is a graduate student or post-doc. Last author is the PI (primary investigator) who sponsored (e.g. paid for) the work. Much of the time the ideas and writing in the paper were thought up, guided, and revised by the PI. Sometimes there is variation from this pattern (e.g. a PI going first), but it is rare.

As for the rest of the authors, it's typically who did the most work. For a longer list of authors, sometimes things like knockout mice or viral vectors are obtained from another lab, and this brings with it 2 or 3 names for the paper towards the end. Alot of politics goes into this. Usually, the members of the lab that did the work go into the first couple slots, then come collaborators in whatever order, then the PI or PIs who sponsored the work.

I've never heard of a department head in a basic science department forcing their name last on every paper. I would suspect that this person is only getting his name last on papers out of his lab. Perhaps he has a large lab and is producing alot.

 

[NUcat]

Pretty much what everyone else said. About the department head's name being on every publication, it may be that he is the PI on a large grant that is funding a center or institute within the department. Instead of an R01 type grant for his own lab, the center grant would be supporting people all over the department so he would have some right to have his name on many more papers.

 

[Street Philosopher]

if there are collaborators from different institutions, it can get a little tricky. sometimes what you will have is the main author, a few of the really involved co-workers, then main collaborators from other institutions, then volunteer researchers from main author's lab, and then the dude who does nothing.

 

[tofurious]

There are some journals now that specifically request that you specify what each of the authors did because of the whole authorship inflation issue. The best I can tell, your boss (the PI) is always either the first (if you lose out) or last, and you line up the honorary authors starting from the 2nd last. You try to distinguish the people who did the most in the middle, but typically it's worthless to be 3rd or any higher author.

 

[ERMudPhud]

The head of the department on every paper abuse seems to be much more common in clinical departments. Also, while last author on many basic science papers is the PI who funded, possibly designed, and will likely receive the Nobel for the work, that is not always the case on clinical papers. Sometimes then the PI is first or second and last author is the least important (or the department head)