Authorship of Paper (1 Viewer)

[zenger69]

I'm posting for a friend and he has this problem.

Over the holidays he got paid to do work for a professor for research in his field of Diabetes.

He worked hard on figures for a manuscript/paper thing which is about to be published. He put in hundreds of hours whereas his professor only put in about 10 hrs in terms of editing.

The professor has placed his name as chief author on the paper/manuscript. But he should be the first author.

He's writing a letter to the professor to change it. But that doesn't work, where do you think he could take the complain?
I suggested the Dean of Medicine, but he doesn't know?

Does anyone know what he should do ?

 

[Generator]

Of course he wouldn't be the chief investigator in such a relationship as he was working for, not with, the academic. That may not seem fair, but that's the way the system works.

 

[noneother]

thats gotta suck

 

[shannonm]

you kidding us?
the guy wants to be the chief author? lol tell him not to waste his time
tell him if he wants to publish a paper to do the research himself and then hire a kid to compile the figures and crap.

 

[santaslayer]

The professor has not done anything wrong.

 

[LeftrightOut]

He should be happy if he gets any acknowledgement at all.

Did he have the idea for the study? did he get the funding for it? did he devise and manage the testing? did he write up conclusions? does he have more letters after his name than the professor? If any answers are no then that's the reason he is not going to be the main author.

Assistants do the grunt work in academia :uhhuh:

 

[thejosiekiller]

He should be happy if he gets any acknowledgement at all.

Did he have the idea for the study? did he get the funding for it? did he devise and manage the testing? did he write up conclusions? does he have more letters after his name than the professor? If any answers are no then that's the reason he is not going to be the main author.

Assistants do the grunt work in academia :uhhuh:

yeah i mean if you do assisst then you hope to gain some reward and hopefuly the professor does see fit to give him something....

not to find out you have been "stabbed in the back" for improper conduct

 

[shannonm]

he did gain a monetary award..

 

[zenger69]

ok
thanks i'll pass it on to him.

From my understanding he did have a leading role, but it was the professor who recieved the funding. But the professor did nothing in terms of publication of the paper.

But thanks guys.

 

[Lexicographer]

The professor's contribution was his mind. I am assuming he came up with the concept that was being researched, the general paramaters of the research and the liaisons for funding. Your friend sounds like he was employed/acquired/whatever as a lab tech (ie taking measurements, crunching numbers). This it NOT the real part of the research - any monkey can do this. The AUTHORS of an opus are the ones who have to actually interpret the data after it has been collected and processed.

If your friend did THAT, then maybe he could get an author acknowledgement (don't get your hopes up).