First Author
The first author is usually the primary author of the article and will be the first name on the author list. Please note there may be more than one first author. Co-first authors are listed as equal contributors with an asterisk or a note on the first page of the article. Being named first author is important as this will be the name associated with the article citation the most as every citation format includes at least the first author.
Co-Author
Co-authors are authors that are not marked as the first, corresponding, or senior author.
Corresponding Author
Corresponding author’s contact information is included in the article. The contact information may be within the author list or included separately as a note on the first or last page of the article.
Senior Author
The senior author is often the principal investigator or the lab leader. They are usually the guiding presence for the article. The senior author may be the corresponding author and listed last.
Collaborating or as a member of a research group
Often times an article will list a research or collaboration group as a corporate author in the author list. Sometimes members of the group will be listed separately within the article. If a person’s name does not directly appear in the author list (only within the group member list) then the article should not be included in their personal publication list as they were not a named author of the article.
Please note: On articles where there are several authors the author list order may not be meaningful as they may be listed alphabetical. When this happens generally there will be a note at the end of the article discussing each author’s contribution.