<p>Idk what section to put this in, but I have some questions regarding publications. My dad just told me that if there are more than 2 authors on a paper, the 3rd one is usually the most important and is usually the professor/boss's name. Is he wrong? That doesn't make sense to me, I always thought 1st was the highest.</p>
<p>Also I have another question, when someone's is done writing the paper. How does the publication process work? Approximately how long will you paper be published (assuming it will be) after it's written? I reason I ask is I have a scholarship deadline and it's a research based scholarship, and I'm currently helping a post doc with his experiment who said he'd put my name on there. He says the experiment will carry on for another 3 weeks and he'll write the report in a few days after the 3 weeks.</p>
Author ordering conventions vary by field. In my field (biological sciences), the first author is the trainee (student or postdoc) who actually did the work, then the last author is the faculty member in whose lab the trainee did the work. People in the middle had other contributions, in descending order.</p>
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This is, again, highly field-specific, and even journal-specific. It is not unusual in my field for papers to take up to a year to be published following initial submission, given time for peer review, revisions, and editorial decisions.</p>
<p>^ To second what molliebatmit said: publishing conventions are highly field specific. In my discipline (mathematics), authors are usually listed alphabetically by last name.</p>
<p>Maybe this explained why. When I talked to the post doc he said he’ll most likely be the first author, the professor will be the 2nd and I will be the 3rd. This is for engineering. My dad is a biologist and he told me that 3rd is usually the most important and said it was the case for publications, I guess he’s wrong.</p>