Is second or third author better?
It depends on the field and on agreement between authors, but from career perspective it is better if a person has also sometimes been the first author (and in some fields, also published something alone), it does not matter so much if a person has mostly been a second or a third author.
Is 2nd author good?
As you say, being first author is like the holy grail, but being second author on “someone else’s paper” is not bad at all, and while it does not scream “amazing” on a CV, it does bulk up your publication record and shows that you are competent researcher, and contribute to work of publishable standard.
Can there be 3 first authors?
In principle multiple first co-authors are possible. Good research work needs collaborations. Sometimes it happens that, one group contributed to the experimental work and another group investigated the theoretical/ computation aspects of the problem. So, this is not at all a big problem.
Do second author papers matter?
It’s always good to have another paper, even if you are second author. A hiring or review committee may ask you to describe your own contribution to the paper. As long as you can do that honestly and point to some substantive contribution to the paper, it will be to your benefit.
Do middle author papers count?
Even with middle-author publications on the rise, “they count for promotion, but they don’t count as much as first- and last-author publications,” Jackson notes. “Just like book chapters and review articles, they count, but not as much as original research articles.”
Does second author mean anything?
2nd Author: Person who helped out the most, and/or person who mentored the 1st author (e.g.: if 1st author was grad student) the most. Then you got every one after that who contributed, e.g: contributing authors. Last author as some has stated is the guy that got the whole thing started.
How many corresponding authors can a paper have?
Answer: While some journals allow the practice of including two contact authors or corresponding authors, many journals do not. In your case, having two corresponding authors is a requirement for your paper.
Who should be the second author?
1st Author: Person who did most of the work, like write the manuscript, and do most if not all of the experiment. 2nd Author: Person who helped out the most, and/or person who mentored the 1st author (e.g.: if 1st author was grad student) the most.