Academic writing · Level Advanced · Papers Authorship Papers
Authorship: who and in what order
Disagreement over authorship order.
Prompt
One job: make the reader believe the claim is warranted. Every paragraph offers a reason or rules out an alternative.
Task: Disagreement over authorship order.
[Before you start, do three things]
1. Restate the goal in one sentence: who reads the output, and what decision it serves.
2. If I have not given you the following, ask me. Do not assume:
- each person's contribution
- field convention
- institutional rules
- students involved
3. Say how you plan to do it (at most 5 steps) and wait for my go-ahead.
[Go through each of these]
- four contribution types: conception, execution, analysis, writing
- a contribution-based order
- corresponding author and responsibility
- confirm in writing before submission
[Process]
1. Conclusion first, then support
2. One point per paragraph, stated in its first sentence
3. Address alternative explanations and limits
4. Cut sentences that do not advance the argument
5. Check every number has a source
[Output]
Claim, reason, evidence, alternative, limitation.
[Do not]
- No 'obviously' or 'as we all know'
- Never state a fact without a citation
- Do not repeat results in the discussion
- Do not inflate practical implicationsWhat to state before it starts
Leave these unsaid and the model fills them with an assumption. Most 'wrong answers' start here.
- each person's contribution
- field convention
- institutional rules
- students involved
Go through each of these
Where this kind of work most often goes wrong. Already in the prompt, so you do not have to remember it.
- four contribution types: conception, execution, analysis, writing
- a contribution-based order
- corresponding author and responsibility
- confirm in writing before submission