How to tell med school about being switched from first co-author to second author

[tsqd002]

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Hi,

I had a manuscript accepted for publication upon minor revisions, where I was listed second in the authorship order on the paper. At the time, my PI told me she would put me down as first co-author in the final submission (as the lead author has been out of the lab for 3-4 years and I was in charge of the major revisions/paper reworking we had done since then). I wrote update letters to some med schools, which included me mentioning this pending publication, and stated that I was first co-author—I didn't provide a makeshift citation for the paper with authorship order, but gave the manuscript title for them so they could look the paper up upon publication.

However, when the paper was published recently, I saw that my PI didn’t include this first co-author note. Because I received an interview likely in part on the basis of this publication and my authorship order, I’m thinking that I need to be upfront about this change to this school, even if it's not mentioned in my actual interview next week. What is the most delicate way I can present this change to the admissions committee during an interview so they do not interpret it as being deceitful about the manuscript author order? Mainly, I want to avoid any scenario where I have an acceptance that gets revoked in the future when someone who reads my update letter sees this paper.

 

[syrianconqueror]

Did you check with your PI to make sure that they or the journal didn't leave out the authorship by mistake?

 

[tsqd002]

Did you check with your PI to make sure that they or the journal didn't leave out the authorship by mistake?

No, but they sent the galleys to her which is where she sees the final publication preview, and I think that's usually the point where an author note denoting co-authorship would be listed, so I'm assuming if she was gonna put it in she would have done it at that point.

 

[syrianconqueror]

No, but they sent the galleys to her which is where she sees the final publication preview, and I think that's usually the point where an author note denoting co-authorship would be listed, so I'm assuming if she was gonna put it in she would have done it at that point.

If I was you, I would go check with my PI before I go and start informing med schools that the authorship changed. If your PI told you they would list you as a co-author, and they left it out by mistake, your PI should be able to contact the journal to have them amend the authorship back to first co-author.

Also if you have been in charge of the work for the past 3-4 years, and your PI told you they would list you as co-author, that would mean you deserved it. They wouldn't tell you that if you didn't earn co-authorship.

 

[syrianconqueror]

Also one more thing, did you check on the article whether they had a small note somewhere that listed that the first 2 authors shared equal authorship? You might be listed 2nd in the order of the authors, but they typically leave an asterisk or a note somewhere in the article that denotes equal authorship for the first 2 authors.

 

[PickaGodnPray]

No, but they sent the galleys to her which is where she sees the final publication preview, and I think that's usually the point where an author note denoting co-authorship would be listed, so I'm assuming if she was gonna put it in she would have done it at that point.

The last thing a PI looks at when the final draft of the paper comes in is the authorship. I guarantee they just forgot. Ask your PI and they should take care of it.

 

[morak]

Kind of unrelated to your question, but each time I've gone through the paper publication process, I've had to get every single author to sign off on the funding, conflicts of interest, and authorship list at the submission, revision, and final galley stages. I'm surprised you didn't have to agree to the authorship list when it was at the final galley stage