Category Archives: Science

In my line of work you end up reading a lot of scientific papers. Most of them are dry and horribly worded. A colleague pointed out this great story about scientific writing – How to Write Like a Scientist.

In case you’re not aware, each scientific paper has a list of authors – the people that worked on the research. The order of the names is quiet important. Typically, the lead researcher is last, but sometimes they are the lead author. Occasionally a PhD student is given lead author position to help them get exposure.

It’s all a bit confusing at time. So here is a simple deciphering tool from the above article to help you understand.

• FIRST AUTHOR: Weary graduate student who spent hours doing the work.
• SECOND AUTHOR: Resentful graduate student who thinks he or she spent hours doing the work.
• THIRD AUTHOR: Undergraduate just happy to be named.
• FOURTH AUTHOR: Collaborator no one has ever met whose name is only included for political reasons.
• FIFTH AUTHOR: Postdoctoral fellow who once made a chance remark on the subject.
• SIXTH AUTHOR: For some reason, Vladimir Putin.
• LAST AUTHOR: Principal investigator whose grant funded the project but who hasn’t stood at a lab bench in decades, except for that one weird photo shoot for some kind of pamphlet, and even then it was obvious that he or she didn’t know where to find basic things.