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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.
by 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 agoDon't be the person with a Z last name, if you do most of the work.
- Paul-Craft 3y agoLol, 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 agoYou 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.