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In biomedicine, the most common scenario in these days is that the first author usually is the author that wrote the paper and performed a significant amount of the experiments, while the last author is the leader of the group, and usualy, the correspondent author.
Do middle author papers matter?
“They absolutely matter,” says Justin McArthur, director of the Department of Neurology and chair of the Professorial Promotions Committee at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
How much do scholars read?
Respondents read from an average of 39 scholarly readings per month, comprising 22 articles, seven books, and ten other publications. On this basis an annual total could be estimated at 468 readings per year (i.e. 39 X 12).
Can two PhD students publish the same paper as first author?
Publishing a paper as the first author is very crucial for the scientific career of a Ph.D. student. Most Ph.D. programs worldwide require a Ph.D. student to have at least one first-authored paper in order to qualify for a degree. So an authorship dispute would be inevitable if two Ph.D. students were to work on the same project for their degree.
The first author is often who did most work; in biology, some grant programs require >=X papers as first author and >= Y paper as last author (senior author). But some common practices are indeed unfair/unethical.
How to determine the Order of authors on a scientific paper?
The order of authors on a scientific paper needs to be determined after careful deliberation. Prior to deciding the author order, it is important to understand the concept of a first and a corresponding author.
My PhD advisor doesn’t have a single co-authored paper with his advisor. The following answer is based on my experience in the fields of Neuroscience, Biology, and to a lesser extent, Electrical Engineering. This is often an unnecessarily touchy subject amongst graduate students.