Authorship: Author List on Papers

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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Center for Analysis and Design of Intelligent Agents