Hi,

I would like to hear other people´s opinion regarding the importance of the "corresponding author" in a scientific publication. Is it possible for a PhD student to be first author AND corresponding author or should the advisor play this role?

I´m asking cause, after spending a lot of years in a PhD program, I think I will finally be able to publish something and it was entirely my idea, so I think I deserve to be both first and corresponding author. Is it crazy? Where I work the corresponding author is normally the PhD advisor, that´s why I ask... is it always like this?

Thanks for reading!

Hi,

The weighting of a corresponding author in a scientific publication has EXACTLY the same weighting as the first author. Generally:

The first author is the individual who has conducted the research, contributed to experimental designs and in-part (or less commonly fully) written the manuscript (the same goes for figures).

The corresponding author however is generally the group leader. They would have aided in the experimental design / supervision and general research direction as well as contributing in a big way to the preparation of the manuscript. The corresponding author also submits the paper in the first place and gets all correspondence sent directly to them (I have two first authors from my PhD and the publishers have never directly liaised with me).

If you are first author then it's YOUR paper. It belongs to you hence, "Macia et al"....... Don't be concerned with grabbing both spots, the 1st author is the most important slot in my opinion but either one is good!

Only those people who have had a DIRECT input into the specific manuscript have the right to be put on your paper. My advisor never featured therefore on my papers but it is likely that your supervisor/s will.

I hope this helps!!

Cheers,
Matt.

I have one article published and one being considered after R&R... on both articles I am both first and corresponding author. The other author being my supervisor.

The only input my supervisor had on both articles was to edit and suggest further improvements (which I then went and made myself) so I think it's only right that I'm corresponding author :) (My field is health research)

HTH.

I agree with Noctu,

If your situation is very similar then it would be right to obtain both spots, 1st and corresponding author. This is quite rare for science based papers it seems, but not impossible.

Either slot requires the holder to have put the most substantial effort into the research and preparation of the paper. If this was you then yes go for it but try to avoid any conflict as this will only end up in delaying the publication of the paper. You don't want somebody else to beat you to it!

Thanks!

Thanks to everyone for the answers! :)

My situation is similar to that of Noctu. I work within the health research field and because my supervisor´s role has been limited to providing some funding (I have payed for some things too) I think that I have the right to have both spots as the idea was mine and I designed and ran all the experiments by myself.

I will first write everything, get an idea on how to submit an article for the first time, and only after I have done everything I will suggest him that I would like to be first and corresponding author. I just hope he understands...

Interesting. I'd not given much thought to corresponding author issues yet, as I've not first authored anything.

I'm also in health sciences. I do most of my work with existing clinical datasets. I would therefore expect for any papers relating to that data for the co-author who is responsible for that data to be the corresponding author, as he's a senior clinician and any papers that come out of this work reflect upon his reputation. However, there is one study I am doing completely independently of that data which I came up with my myself and am leading on. I would hope to be corresponding author there because I really do feel it's my work primarily, even though there will be coauthors. Whether that happens is another matter!

Some professors may prefer to be the first author and the corresponding author.
Some universities may prefer the supervisor to be the corresponding author.

Some PhD students may prefer to please their supervisors in exchange for a good letter of recommendation.
By NOT claiming all credits on the paper published, during the interview, could also be impressive.