Hello people, the research topic i am working on was my supervisor's idea, though this work is a master's degree work but a lot has gone into it, my supervisor has told me that we will have at least 3 or at most 5 publications in my work. We are solving a heat transfer problem but the matlab code we are using to solve the problem and the rigorous mathematics involved in PDE to ODE conversion were all my sweat. I have noticed that students who had their thesis under my supervisor's supervision in the past have always been second author but i do not want this. What can i do?

Given that the project was your supervisor's idea and presumably you used his lab, then it doesn't seem unreasonable that he be first author. It all depends on the customs and ethics of the discipline.

He came up with a topic, he told me about it and i did all the needful to generate numerous results. I did not use any laboratory, it is just mathematics and coding in the field of thermo-fluid.

He might argue that he was the architect, you were the hod-carrier.

Thanks people, i will stay as second author.I will look into other areas and carry out further research. We have only dealt with a flat plate, i could look into cylinder and sphere and publish as a sole author. Thanks for your contributions.

In my lab, and in most other labs in my biology department, students are generally first author even though the supervisors might have got the funding and designed the experiments. You might not be first author if you don't bother to write up your work and your supervisor does it, or another student that carries on your work does it, but I think that's fair enough.

First authorship is of course the best. But the reality is that it is your supervisor who makes the decision who goes where on the paper. It is his lab after all, everything belongs to him. If you challenge him on this I can't see how you could get away politically unscathed. For me the first authorship just wouldn't be worth the trouble.

You'll get a good master's, second author papers, land a good PhD of your choice. Good decision to stay as second author.

Thanks mountain spring and everyone, i really do appreciate your contributions.