Does sharing first authorship on a paper carry a penalty? What the research says

3 min read Original article ↗

Study dispels myth that order of names in a paper’s author list dictates perception of success.

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  1. Holly Else

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Who gets to be first? The question of whether a paper should have more than one first author can lead to fraught negotiations. And the discussions can be just as thorny when deciding which of two first authors is named in the very first slot.

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Nature 640, 15-16 (2025)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-00869-8

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 26 March 2025: An earlier version of this article gave an incomplete affiliation for Mohammad Hosseini and misstated his location.

References

  1. Decius, J. & Schilbach, M. Scientometr. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-025-05262-w (2025).

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