Authorship on papers is a perennially thorny issue that has pricked or prickled many an academic ego. In a rapidly expanding universe of joint first authors, multiple corresponding authors and shared senior authors, there is a constant need to define new author types to fully capture the complexity and describe the diversity of academic authorships. In a consolidated effort we here introduce and define the following alternative author types, altauthors, analogous to altmetrics:
| Author | Definition |
|---|---|
| Acknowledged author | A person who made important contributions, but whose inclusion in the author list the authors felt would diminish their own importance and therefore placed in the acknowledgements. |
| Adversarial author | Someone that was included in the author list to prevent them from taking the other side in a possible debate. See also: PITA author. Suggested by R. Beavis. |
| Antepenultimate author | Third author from the end, in simple English. Synonym to peripenultimate author, propenultimate author and senior-ish author. |
| Celebrity author | A tangentially associated author whose name was believed by the other authors to help a favorable review, especially in the more prestigious journals, such as Science. Or Prestigious Journal of Science. |
| Co-corresponding author | An authorship given to who that can actually answer questions. Unfortunately, this altauthor is rarely used due to concerns of the importance of the corresponding author. |
| Coffee getter | A fellow who did not contribute materially to the science in the manuscript, but was nice enough to get the other authors coffee on multiple occasions and given their current caffeine addiction it was deemed unwise to leave this author out. |
| Cogwheel author | A junior author such as a summer undergrad or intern whose work was particularly meticulous. Often not informed about their authorship until after publication. Suggested by A. Newsome. |
| Draft dodger | An author, typically in the middle of the author list, who may have had early contributions to the work, but subsequently never commented on any manuscript draft. |
| First first author | The first author of the manuscript, when there are more than one. See also: narcissistic over-achiever. |
| Gentleman author | Similar to gentleman race car driver, i.e. someone who was not an exceptional driver of the project, but helped fund the team. This author likely never set foot in the lab or contributed to the manuscript, but at some stage their (perceived or real) funding or laboratory space was used by at least one of the authors who did the work. Their contribution was not enough to enter the ranks of senior authorships (see below). |
| Gentleperson author | Gender-neutral alternative to gentleman author. This authorship is rarely used as most gentleperson authors are gentleman authors. |
| Last-minute author | An author added late in a manuscript, and not given a real opportunity to read and comment on it. Based on a suggestion by M. Foster. |
| Last senior author | The last senior author standing after a private cagematch to determine who is the true last senior author (see also: Highlander). Never afraid to take full credit for the work, regardless of who had the critical ideas or insight, or did the actual work. Note that if the paper is flagged for scientific misconduct, the last senior author immediately disavows any knowledge about the experiments, analyses or data shown in the paper, instantly blaming an arbitrary former lab member. |
| Non-corresponding author | An author who had to provide their e-mail address during manuscript submission, but who has no intention to answer any questions regarding the paper whatsoever. See also: gentleman author. |
| Penultimate author | Second last and second senior author who lost the cagematch or duel and did not receive the last senior authorship. Can be deeply hurtful to inflated academic egos. |
| Required author | This author likely never looked at the text, but there was a moment in time where they glimpsed a sample or maybe heard tales of the data acquisition. They often learn about “their” paper second hand. But had they not been co-author there would have been plenty of heated meetings and the end of the world would have ensued. |
| Second first author | The second author of the manuscript, who lost the coin toss on who would be the first author. Even if the cadre of first authors agreed to list themselves first on their respective CVs, more established authors will instantly lose their mind and burn their CV on the spot at such authorship sacrilege. See also: second author or first loser. |
| Special author | An author who for some specific reason needed to be on the paper. Perhaps because they needed another publication to fill their PhD requirements or someone felt bad about leaving them off another paper. See also: make-up author. |
| Third first author | The third author of the manuscript, who drew the shortest straw among the three authors who all wanted to be the first author. At some point they all realized first in a list was pointless, but the senior author(s) insisted. See also: third author. |
| Very special author | An exceptional author who is listed on the paper, not because they deserve to be, but because they would throw a tantrum if they were not, and it was easier to calm all the other authors than this one special individual. See also: required author |
| V.S.O.P. | For Very Superior Old Professor. An author who is listed on the paper solely in capacity of their institutional standing and inflated ego. Did not contribute in any meaningful or positive way to the work or paper. See also: gentleman author. |
We expect that these altauthor types are quickly and widely adopted by journals and publishers to more accurately convey and reward each author appropriately, avoiding unnecessary bloodshed, sore toes and bruised egos.
Ben Neely (first shared, penultimate and second last senior author)
Magnus Palmblad (second first, first last and non-corresponding author)
This post is a collaboration with Ben Neely.
This blog post reflects the opnions of the authors only, and not those of any employer or publisher.