Hi everyone,

I just found out today I'm being named on a paper for some work I did during my masters (around 3 years ago). It'll be my first paper that I'm co-author on so I'm delighted! :) But I do have a couple of questions for people who have more experience in getting their work published...

What's the etiquette for this type of thing? I'm not based in that department anymore so I received an email sent to all co-authors with the final draft of the paper, asking for comments. I don't have any comments to add, so should I just send an email to say thank you for the authorship and that the paper looks great, etc.? I don't want to just ignore the email in case they then don't put my name on the paper!

Also, I didn't have the best relationship with my supervisor from that university so is there any chance he could try to take my name off the paper before it is published? I know that I contributed to this work and the data is in my masters thesis, but even still I'm a bit concerned because I've heard of these things happening in lots of departments. Hopefully I'm worrying unnecessarily, but I thought I'd ask for comments anyway. Any advice would be very much appreciated!

Thanks in advance :)
Tulip

First of all, congrats!

Second, I don't think they will take your name off the paper now, since they've included you already. It's unethical anyway and I'm sure they realise that.

I think you should send the email as you mentioned.

First of all congrats! :) I know how good it feels to get you name on your first publication (also looks great on the CV). The part I quoted is exactly what I would do, in fact I did just that recently on another paper I was co-author of. They won't be expecting you to do much more than that - and you don't have to! Well done :D

Hi TreeofLife and lemon juice,

Thanks very much for your replies. I sent off an email just saying thank you as I mentioned and the first author seemed happy enough. Fingers crossed now that the paper gets accepted without too much hassle :) really appreciate the comments as I didn't want to sound rude or inexperienced when contacting the department!

Cheers,
Tulip

Respond thanking them for including your name on the paper. Also, add you have no comments on the paper to make and you are satisfied with the presentation of the paper as it is. It is up to you whether or not you ask for your institutional affiliation to be your old or current University, but you do need to make clear your wishes on this.

The fact your former University has decided to name you on the paper suggests it's unlikely at the draft for comments stage they will change their minds. Although my relationship with my second post-doc University broke down pretty severely, they still named me on three separate documents. They did demote me from first author, however, on one paper.

Oh, make sure as suggested above that it's listed on your CV. Well done!!!

Ian (Mackem_Beefy)

Thanks Ian! You were right, the paper's now been submitted with my name listed as co-author - it must just be the big cynic in me that was questioning whether they would keep me listed on the paper! I responded to say thanks and to keep my institutional affiliation listed as the old university. And once it's accepted I'll definitely be adding it to the old CV :)

Thanks again!