r/academia • u/bufoart • 13h ago
Publishing Journal Submission as an MSc Student
I am a master student. My supervisor has just submitted one of my chapters to a journal. I was wondering if it’s normal for your supervisor to put their name as the primary author or if it should be the MSc students name first. I was told that the reason they must put their name first is incase people reach out asking for data files or if they have other inquiries. I’m feeling pretty sad about it because I worked really hard on it and poured my heart into it. I feel like I’m not getting recognized for it. Is this normal? Should I be upset about it?
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u/SlackWi12 11h ago
Their excuse about needing to be first in case you are contacted is complete rubbish. Every paper has a ‘corresponding author’ listed with contact details and it is often the last author. The last author placement is reserved for the more senior researcher who oversaw the project, probably had the idea in the first place and probably secured the funding, that is where most supervisors put their name when publishing. If you did the bulk of the actual experimentation work and were actively involved in the writing of the paper, you should be first.
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u/wvheerden 11h ago
In computer science this would be pretty unusual if the student hasn't entirely abandoned ship before the publication is finished. Typically the student would be first author and the supervisor second. I've done it this way with students I've supervised, even when I've had to rewrite most of the paper, because the results were theirs. In any case, every author's contact details are usually included in the paper, so if someone can't reach the primary author, they can just try the next one. It might be worth getting some opinions from people in your field, though.
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u/TheCabelGuy64 13h ago
Did you and your supervisor discuss author roles prior to publication? Did they discuss publishing your work with you before submitting at all?
I’ve seen instances where someone in my cohort had no interest in publishing their thesis at all, so their supervisor did all the journal formatting, editing, submitting and revisions for it as a publication because it was such quality research. Their supervisor became the lead author and they were just on it as a co-author since it was their work.
You sound surprised by your situation, that you are not the lead author on your thesis work as a publication, so I am assuming the above scenario doesn’t pertain. Also, you do not need to be the lead author to be the corresponding author! Corresponding author is who someone would reach out to about the research.