1.1 Get your authorship position on your paper settled from the outset
The three aforementioned prestigious authorship positions on papers can be shared. An example is shown below for the first or last author.
Jane A Smith, Ali O Khan, Gabriel L Fernandez*, Li X Wang*
*Equal contribution
Some journals will also allow the corresponding authorship to be shared. Click here for one of my own examples (open the link that says ‘Author information’).
Photo by Joshua Ness on Unsplash
Even when the first or last authorship positions on a paper are shared between two or more authors, it’s still the authors who appears first or last in the lineup (the first-first author and the last-last author) who are often perceived by the casual reader as being the person who did the most work or who took responsibility for the work. However, when it comes to applying for competitive schemes where leadership in research is important (such as positions involving research, or for promotions, prizes or research funding), it’s my (Amanda’s) experience that the equal-first or equal-last authorship positions count just as much as the first-first or last-last authorship positions.