Only one of the authors will appear as first author
, in any publication. Every other entry is a secondary entry. However, corresponding authors could be as many as three depending on the multi-disciplinary nature of the article.
Traditionally, co-first authors are indicated by
an asterisk
and the order of the individuals is the decision of the PI. Once the paper is published, it appears in print as follows: co-Author 1*, co-Author 2*, Author 3, and Author 4.
Shared co-first authorship
is defined as two or more authors who have worked together on a publication and contributed equally [8]. This equal contribution is often indicated in the fine print of a published paper or in an investigator’s curriculum vitae [9].
Based on the contributions, the authors are arranged. If two authors
equally contributed
, it needs to be negotiated who goes first. Normally they put a ‘*’ or another sign and in the footnote that ‘these authors contributed equally to the study’.
To avoid ambiguity, when the in-text citations of multiple works with three or more authors shorten to the same form, write out as many names as needed to distinguish the references, and
abbreviate the rest of the names to “et al.” in every citation
. This guidance is the same as in the 6th edition.
The first author should be
that person who contributed most to the work
, including writing of the manuscript. The sequence of authors should be determined by the relative overall contributions to the manuscript. It is common practice to have the senior author appear last, sometimes regardless of his or her contribution …
Both of them are authors no doubt but the difference is that
the author is the one who has developed the idea or concept for a work
while the co-author is a person who is helping the author in writing the work with some contribution. … A co-author is also known as a corresponding author.
The
number of authors is unlimited in principal
. There are publications with dozens if not hundreds of authors in large international multi-institutional projects. But in the last past years more and more journals have limited the number of co-authors. Typically the limitation is six authors.
Traditionally, co-first authors are indicated by
an asterisk
and the order of the individuals is the decision of the PI. Once the paper is published, it appears in print as follows: co-Author 1*, co-Author 2*, Author 3, and Author 4.
A research paper can have
two to five collaborating authors
, and this is considered a normal collaborating group. From six co-authors and up this is already a large team work.
It’s always good to have another paper
, even if you are second author. A hiring or review committee may ask you to describe your own contribution to the paper. As long as you can do that honestly and point to some substantive contribution to the paper, it will be to your benefit.
Only when a work has
six or more authors
should the first in-text citation consist of the first author followed by et al. With five or fewer authors, all the author surnames should be spelled out at first mention.
Yes
. In MLA style, when a work has more than two authors or editors, the works-cited-list entry provides the name of the lead author or editor and et al.
Which name goes first in et al?
The use of “et al.” is the same in both styles. For sources with one, two, or three authors, list all author names in your in-text citations (whether footnotes or author-date). For
sources with four or more authors, use the first name followed by “et al
.”
It depends on the field and on agreement between authors, but from career perspective it is better if a person has also sometimes been the first author (and in some fields, also published something alone), it
does not matter so much
if a person has mostly been a second or a third author.
Yes
, the author order is important. The author order is based on their contribution to the work.
