Authorship guidelines from Harvard university
primary author should assure that all authors meet basic standards for authorship and should prepare a concise, written description of their contributions to the work, which has been approved by all authors. This record should remain with the sponsoring department.
Order of AuthorshipMany different ways of determining order of authorship exist across disciplines, research groups, and countries. Examples of authorship policies include descending order of contribution, placing the person who took the lead in writing the manuscript or doing the research first and the most experienced contributor last, and alphabetical or random order. While the significance of a particular order may be understood in a given setting, order of authorship has no generally agreed upon meaning.
https://hms.harvard.edu/about-hms/integrity-academic-medicine/hms-policy/faculty-policies-integrity-science/authorship-guidelines
It depends on your field. In mathematics the order of authors is almost always alphabetical but e.g. in the life sciences it is not true, see e.g. the links below:
http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2010_04_16/caredit.a1000039
http://www.researchgate.net/post/Does_the_order_of_authors_in_an_article_follow_certain_guidelines
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_authorship
https://hms.harvard.edu/about-hms/integrity-academic-medicine/hms-policy/faculty-policies-integrity-science/authorship-guidelines
http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/535/what-does-author-order-indicate
Authorship guidelines from Harvard university
primary author should assure that all authors meet basic standards for authorship and should prepare a concise, written description of their contributions to the work, which has been approved by all authors. This record should remain with the sponsoring department.
Order of AuthorshipMany different ways of determining order of authorship exist across disciplines, research groups, and countries. Examples of authorship policies include descending order of contribution, placing the person who took the lead in writing the manuscript or doing the research first and the most experienced contributor last, and alphabetical or random order. While the significance of a particular order may be understood in a given setting, order of authorship has no generally agreed upon meaning.
https://hms.harvard.edu/about-hms/integrity-academic-medicine/hms-policy/faculty-policies-integrity-science/authorship-guidelines
The order matters greatly for scientists in both academia and industry:
- In many universities, one needs first-authored articles to get promotion for associate and full professor.
- First authored articles are important for young scientists who aren't yet established in independent careers
- In industry, publication records weigh heavily in hiring decisions. Hiring managers take into account their position in the author list.
- First author is the most sought-after position. This in not surprising given the convention of referring to studies by the first named author, e.g. 'Smith et al. r Smith have demonstrated that'.
- The first author is therefore generally held to have made the greatest contribution to research.
See Albert, T., & Wager, E. (2010). How to handle authorship disputes: a guide for new researchers for further info.
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