To these very useful responses, I add the following from the US: just as too many cooks spoil the broth, too many writers can spoil the style. So a common form of collaboration is for the authors to send one agreed-on party their contributions. That specific party then writes the entire article in his or her style, sending a polished draft back to the others for comments, and so on. But this person--the one who did the actual writing--is always listed first.

In addition, when two people consistently collaborate, they often take turns, so that person A is first for this paper and person B is first for the next.

I believe, even though the lions share goes to the first author, almost all the author's of an article share the equal credit. Especially if the article gets cited by 'n' number of other authors/articles, all the 2 or 3 or 5 or 10 authors those who have worked in that article would share equal credits.

All the authors have the credit of authorship, though most of the credit goes to the first and the corresponding authors. However, in most of the journals especially Wiley, RSC and ACS, there is option for providing whether the authors have contributed equally or not. In the case of Nature publishers it is mandatory to mention what is the contribution of each authors.

However, one should keep in mind that it is the responsibility of each authors to know what exactly is in the paper and also each one will be responsible for any mistakes or success in the paper. So the message in the nutshell is that all the authors are important and is not advisable to get one's name added to some paper where your contribution is negligible.

Generally the 1st author is the person that worked indeed, while the corresponding author is that take the credits! The another ones are coworkers.

publishing is the shared effort of all authors. in some areas the main contributor of the article put his name as first author. In some areas as per my knowledge in science the principal contributor included his name as second author. this depends always the understanding and respect of the co-author. as per my view whether first or second is no matter. this is my personnel opinion and practice

Be on safer side...put your name on both, corresponding as well as first auther...some journal consider the first author as a owner of the aticle

Thanks for the so many comments

To these very useful responses, I add the following from the US: just as too many cooks spoil the broth, too many writers can spoil the style. So a common form of collaboration is for the authors to send one agreed-on party their contributions. That specific party then writes the entire article in his or her style, sending a polished draft back to the others for comments, and so on. But this person--the one who did the actual writing--is always listed first.

In addition, when two people consistently collaborate, they often take turns, so that person A is first for this paper and person B is first for the next.

Union Grants Commission has prepared guidelines to count the points for journal publications. According to its guidelines, the first author and corresponding author share 60% of total points and all other contributors share remaining 40%. In case, if there are two authors, both share equal. The points are decided depending on the nature of publication, whether International or national. However, it is better to follow what Sri Narendra P Singh has said, if you are the real contributor.

Thanks Mr. J Prasad for following my words.

I totally agree with all of you but I would like to know the role of the last author, some quarters hold the view that the last author is the senior most.

the first author will be the actual worker in case his/her guide obliges or so. Otherwise his/her name will be in the end that also shows that he/she is the actual worker and in that case the first author will be the guide. In the same field of specializations of say 1 or 2 decade the other research workers definitely come to know in your publications who is the actual worker. From my view point actual worker must get the credit of individual authorship and he/she must acknowledge their guide/s or helpers that should be suffice.

The first author is the one who will get the academic benefit for other purposes i.e Ph.D. requirements, professional academic requirements.

Try to read this book.

Day, R.A. (1979), How to write and publish a scientific paper, ISI Press, Philadelphia.

Pay for authorship without taking part in research!!! A publishing vulnerability is at the stage!

An author, or group of authors, submits a paper and has it accepted. At that point, they submit a listing to the Russian site, offering additional authorships on the paper for a fee. The tactic exploits a vulnerability in the publishing process that allows authors to add names to manuscripts after acceptance. Such moves should raise a red flag ...!!!

https://retractionwatch.com/2019/07/18/exclusive-russian-site-says-it-has-brokered-authorships-for-more-than-10000-researchers/

For me, I think that the author corresponding to the research or article should be named first name in the order of names when publishing the research or article

Best regards

This document, based on the COPE Discussion Document titled What Constitutes Authorship? resulted from a review of the COPE Forum cases related to authorship, comments from COPE members related to the discussion document, and a desire to move past the stage of discussion to providing practical advice on addressing the most common issues around authorship.

The term authorship can refer to the creator or originator of an idea (eg, the author of the theory of relativity) or the individual or individuals who develop and bring to fruition the product that disseminates intellectual or creative works (eg, the author of a poem or a scholarly article). Authorship conveys significant privileges, responsibilities, and legal rights; in the scholarly arena, it also forms the basis for rewards and career advancement. Various disciplines have norms, guidelines, and rules governing authorship; some of those rules preserve the lineage of ideas or works, assign credit for the conception, implementation and analysis of studies or experiments to validate theory or explain hypotheses, and the actual writing of work to disseminate knowledge. Authors are accountable for following discipline-specific guidelines when they engage in authorship activities; journal editors and publishers are accountable for making author guidelines transparent and appropriate for the medium and genre (scholarly books, journal articles, creative writing). At a minimum, authors should guarantee that they have participated in creating the work as presented and that they have not violated any other author’s legal rights (eg, copyright) in the process...