Kay has explained nicely.

I have seen one multi-authored (100+) paper on legume phylogeny where author names appeared in alphabetical order. I also know of a 5000+ authored paper in physics but cannot recall how the author sequence was. It becomes problematic when someone else becomes the first or corresponding author with least contribution.

You can personally see that paper on Physics

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277912169_Physics_paper_sets_record_with_more_than_5000_authors#downloadCitation

The first author is usually the person who has made the most significant intellectual contribution to the work, in terms designing the study, acquiring and analyzing data from experiments, and writing the manuscript. The importance of the first author is reflected in the common practice of referring to a paper by the first author’s name e.g. ‘Jones et al. report that…’ 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. For post-doctoral researchers and senior professors, publishing first-authored papers is important for receiving funding and getting promoted or re-hired. Thus, the first name in an author list is the most sought-after position in a scientific publication.

After the first author, the subsequent authors are usually listed as per their contribution to the research, starting with the one who contributed the most to the least. However, sometimes multiple authors may have contributed equally, in which case the order of author names does not matter, and you can inform the journal editor of this. In order to avoid any authorship dispute, it is a good practice to discuss authorship and the order of authors at the beginning of the project itself, and keep a record of each of the contributors involved throughout the project.

Best Regards Nabeel Almuramady

Dear Kay Smarsly ,

Thank you for your attention. Yes, the relative contribution is the most common way to list the authors, but sometimes authors names are listed depending on their scientific degree.

Regards

Nabeel Almuramady

Dear Subir Bandyopadhyay ,

Thank you for your attention. yes sometimes this is happened, but rarely.

Regards,

Nabeel Almuramady

Dear Osama Rahil ,

thank you very much for your reply. I agree with you opinion.

Regards,

Nabeel Almuramady

from first to last the authors should be kept as per their contribution, and nowadays it hardly matters where the position is....

Dear Drlatief Ahmad ,

thank you very much for your reply.

Regards,

Nabeel Almuramady

Osama Rahil plagiarizes again:

His posting has been taken from the following link without any reference:

https://www.editage.com/insights/deciding-the-order-of-authors-on-a-paper

The first author is usually the person who has made the most significant intellectual contribution to the work, in terms designing the study, acquiring and analyzing data from experiments, and writing the manuscript. The importance of the first author is reflected in the common practice of referring to a paper by the first author’s name e.g. ‘Jones et al. report that…’ 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. For post-doctoral researchers and senior professors, publishing first-authored papers is important for receiving funding and getting promoted or re-hired. Thus, the first name in an author list is the most sought-after position in a scientific publication.

After the first author, the subsequent authors are usually listed as per their contribution to the research, starting with the one who contributed the most to the least. However, sometimes multiple authors may have contributed equally, in which case the order of author names does not matter, and you can inform the journal editor of this. In order to avoid any authorship dispute, it is a good practice to discuss authorship and the order of authors at the beginning of the project itself, and keep a record of each of the contributors involved throughout the project.

@Nabeel Almuramady : Therefore, the opinion of Osama Rahil is not of his own.

Hi,

It depends on the discipline. Often, the person who is ranked highest in the institution will put himself as first author, even though the paper is a work of a team.In mathematics, the list of authors is alphabetical. In the R&D departments in the industries it is sometimes checked how much each participants contributed to the project, and the one who contributed most will be mentioned first.

Dear Subir Bandyopadhyay ,

Thank you very much for your note and I hope from all colleagues to give their own opinion or at least refer to the original reference, its just for the copy rights for the author of the original reference. Many thanks again.

Regards,

Nabeel Almuramady

Dear Avishag Gordon ,

Yes, off course, that is mostly what is happening in our institutes.

Regards,

Nabeel Almuramady

See this link too

https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_do_you_understand_by_the_term_Predatory_journals_and_publishers

The sequence comes from the majority of contribution

Dear Mohamed F. Al-Dawody ,

Thank you very much for your reply.

Regards,

Nabeel Almuramady

Most welcome Dr. Nabeel Almuramady

Dear Ahed Khatib ,

Thank you very much for your reply.

Regards,

Nabeel Almuramady

Thank you very much for all RG colleagues reply.

Regards,

Nabeel Almuramady

شكراً جزيلاً على سؤالكم وتواصلكم الكريم

Dear colleagues,

Thank you very much for your replies.

Regards,

interested

It depends on the major idea as well as the contribution of each member in the team work. Regards

In publication of any research article in a Journal, everybody is interested to put their name as first author, since this is a privilege rather than contribution. The corresponding author can be any where and it refers for Journal communication and other researchers to interact mainly to them. The sequence of the names in a multi authored article will be as contribution extended to the research and paper by the person. The first in general will be of author of high contribution and decreasing towards least contribution. The contribution weights of the research paper in particular is decided in this way. A research supervisor who is guiding a person towards Ph.D. or for any other research work, will put his name at the end and the importance or privilege will be given to the student and others in decreasing order of their contributions. It is evident that after reaching a certain stage, a research supervisor does not need papers as first author and encourages and support the student and make him to get credit out of it. Research Supervisor will be happy seeing the student progress. Overall, a research paper without any significant contribution of multi authors the article will not come to a good and excellent shape.

Publishing a paper is an important scientific pursuit, which is the result of dedication and hard work. These days, the need to publish has become a question of survival, for many. In fact, promotion committees and award committees commonly use publication as an ultimate currency to assess the academic value of a researcher. However, the weighting of the contributions is problematic when it comes to multi-authors publication. This source material has a lot to offer in understanding the weighing dilemma.

Clement, T. P. (2014). Authorship Matrix: A Rational Approach to Quantify Individual Contributions and Responsibilities in Multi-Author Scientific Articles. Science and Engineering Ethics, 20(2), 345-361. doi:10.1007/s11948-013-9454-3

Dear Tefera Tadesse ,

Thank you very much for your reply.

Regards,

Dear Pisipaty Srinivas Kishore ,

Thank you very much for your contribution.

Regards,

Contribution percentage is the ideal equation by which authors can be ranked in their manuscript!

Thank you

V/r,

Sadeq AL-Fayyadh, PhD.

University of Baghdad, School of Nursing

Dear Sadeq AL-Fayyadh ,

Thank you very much for your contribution.

Regards,

Interested!