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If you've ever published a paper, then you know authorship order can lead to tricky situations. The arxiv PDF has both the best and most hilarious solution to t

If you've ever published a paper, then you know authorship order can lead to tricky situations. The arxiv PDF has both the best and most hilarious solution to this problem I've witnessed. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2304.01393.pdf https://arxiv.org/pdf/2304.01393.pdf

kazinator 3y ago
The best solution is to write papers by yourself and have exactly one name on them.
- MathMonkeyMan 3y ago
  The trouble there is that the first paper to be published about some research carries more credibility than any following. So, when scientists collaborate, who publishes first?
  - kazinator 3y ago
    This looks like a non-problem to me. You have one name on the paper, so any ideas in it which are not credited to someone else via some citation are assumed to be that author's original ideas. The three authors can publish three papers, each with their own angle on the subject matter, highlighting their ideas, and citing the ideas from the collaborators. The papers could mutually cite each other, creating a graph, and be published with the same date.
- Paul-Craft 3y ago
  Nah. The best method is to have a standard for the entire discipline. For instance, math papers almost always have the authors listed in alphabetical order. I say "almost always," because, although I've read more math papers than the average bear, and I've never seen one deviate from the alphabetical order protocol, the Math Overflow link below does mention a couple: https://mathoverflow.net/questions/19987/math-paper-authors-order https://mathoverflow.net/questions/19987/math-paper-authors-...
  - kazinator 3y ago
    Don't be the person with a Z last name, if you do most of the work.
    - Paul-Craft 3y ago
      Lol, if that's a joke, it's pretty funny. :-) Also, sorry about being Mr. Joke Explainer below. If not, you're kinda missing the point. All mathematicians know that this is how it works. If they did not already know it going into grad school, at some point, they will find out. That means that department-level processes all more or less take into account that this is done. That might mean that you'd need a few solo or at most 2 author papers to have a good tenure case, but nonetheless, it's accounted for. At the faculty-wide level, math departments do have to communicate this standard to faculty of other disciplines. But, OTOH, it does facilitate a joke I know: at one point, it was widely held that the three best British mathematicians alive were Hardy, Littlewood, and Hardy-Littlewood.
      - kazinator 3y ago
        You might know how it works, and be conditioned by years in in the environment into accepting it, but that may not be how it feels if your name is Zappacosta and most of the ideas in the paper are yours.

kazinator 3y ago

The best solution is to write papers by yourself and have exactly one name on them.

MathMonkeyMan 3y ago
The trouble there is that the first paper to be published about some research carries more credibility than any following. So, when scientists collaborate, who publishes first?
- kazinator 3y ago
  This looks like a non-problem to me. You have one name on the paper, so any ideas in it which are not credited to someone else via some citation are assumed to be that author's original ideas. The three authors can publish three papers, each with their own angle on the subject matter, highlighting their ideas, and citing the ideas from the collaborators. The papers could mutually cite each other, creating a graph, and be published with the same date.
Paul-Craft 3y ago
Nah. The best method is to have a standard for the entire discipline. For instance, math papers almost always have the authors listed in alphabetical order. I say "almost always," because, although I've read more math papers than the average bear, and I've never seen one deviate from the alphabetical order protocol, the Math Overflow link below does mention a couple: https://mathoverflow.net/questions/19987/math-paper-authors-order https://mathoverflow.net/questions/19987/math-paper-authors-...
- kazinator 3y ago
  Don't be the person with a Z last name, if you do most of the work.
  - Paul-Craft 3y ago
    Lol, if that's a joke, it's pretty funny. :-) Also, sorry about being Mr. Joke Explainer below. If not, you're kinda missing the point. All mathematicians know that this is how it works. If they did not already know it going into grad school, at some point, they will find out. That means that department-level processes all more or less take into account that this is done. That might mean that you'd need a few solo or at most 2 author papers to have a good tenure case, but nonetheless, it's accounted for. At the faculty-wide level, math departments do have to communicate this standard to faculty of other disciplines. But, OTOH, it does facilitate a joke I know: at one point, it was widely held that the three best British mathematicians alive were Hardy, Littlewood, and Hardy-Littlewood.
    - kazinator 3y ago
      You might know how it works, and be conditioned by years in in the environment into accepting it, but that may not be how it feels if your name is Zappacosta and most of the ideas in the paper are yours.