| The currency of Science | The scientific paper appearing in a peer-reviewed publication is the “currency” of science. |
| Date of publication, reception, acceptance | In addition to having a particular date of publication, many journals publish the date a paper was first received by the editors, before the revies and revision process started. |
| Ethics - Misaccreditation (plagiarism) | It is unethical to repeat verbatim from another author without proper accreditation. It is unethical to accredit oneself for work done by others. |
| Conference paper | Typically limited to 8 or 10 pages (given a specific line space, margin, and font size) |
| Conference poster | Offered by some conferences. Typically one A-0 poster with complete information about the work done, yet in an “at a glance” format (for attracting people from across the room). Content has same outline as a standard scientific paper. |
| Conference short paper | Sometimes offered. Sometimes alternative if an interesting paper did not get sufficiently good review to be included in its entirety. |
| Conference position paper | Presents a particular argument; does not include data or results |
| Journal paper | The “big brother” of conference papers – typically also longer and more thorough; higher page limit than conferences (30 or 50 as max - often not nailed down) |
| Books | Books are a good option for material that (1) is solid and should be conveniently collected in one compact reference, (2) requires more space than is typically offered by journals (>50 pages), (3) is of general interest and should be distributed to the general public. |
| Authorlist | Either alphabetical or in order of level of contribution. |
| Alphabetical list | All authors contributed at a similar level (at least in theory). |
| First author | This is the main author of the work described in the paper, that is, the person who: - is the driving force behind the work presented - is the author of the ideas presented in the paper - did most of the work and implementation. Ideally it is also the person who wrote most of the paper. |
| Reality | First author is often a professor who sticks their name on every paper published by a laboratory or department or group. |
| Second author | This is the “second person in command” for the work presented in the paper |
| Third, fourth, fifth, etc. author | Typically a list of people who did some of the work; sometimes these are also people who had a hand in the writing of the paper, but very often they are not (mostly for practical reasons). |
| Extremely long authorship lists | Becoming increasingly common in group projects |
| Last author | Increasingly advisors/professors are putting themselves at the end of the authors' list on papers describing the work of their students. |
| Acknowledgment vs. author? | If a person is not the authors' list (for whatever reason) but contributed something to the work, it is customary to put in a thank-you note in the Acknowledgment section. |
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