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What is the best approach for resolving this issue with the help of the supervisory committee, when my main supervisor decided to be the first author on an accepted abstract without my consent?

CrimsonDark
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Student
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    By 'without consent', do you mean submitted without consent of other authors, or wants to become first author without consent of other authors. – semmyk-research Apr 15 '23 at 12:15
  • Are there other authors besides you and your main supervisor? – Nobody Apr 15 '23 at 12:19
  • Not so sure if this might assist. It's for CS: computer science ... https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/89070/162770 – semmyk-research Apr 15 '23 at 12:19
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    @semmyk-research He submitted the abstract on my behalf and he is the corresponding author again. When I shared the abstract with him I sent it myself being the first author. Well, the main supervisor was the second followed by other co-authors. – Student Apr 15 '23 at 12:33
  • @Nobody Yes the are other co-authors and one of my co-author presented at the conference on my behalf which we agreed about. My concern is about the authorship arrangement for my MSc research work. – Student Apr 15 '23 at 12:39
  • What's the field? – Nobody Apr 15 '23 at 12:43
  • @Nobody Field is Animal Science – Student Apr 15 '23 at 12:49
  • Do we assume this is for a program in the US, and do presume it's Masters or is it doctorate. If masters, is is completed (or at tail end of wrapping up). If PhD, what year is it. ... There're lots of dynamics at play and can be at play – semmyk-research Apr 15 '23 at 17:46
  • Did they announce they want to be "first author"? In math it is common to have the authors in alphabetical order even when the primary author is not the first one. In cs it is less common, but maybe depending on the journal it may be the case. It would be good if you add to the question is it looks hostile to you or may be a misunderstanding or mistake, maybe even by the journal editor and not your supervisor. – allo Apr 16 '23 at 18:53

2 Answers2

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From your comment

When I shared the abstract with him I sent it myself being the first author

In my view, ethically, your main supervisor should have at least discuss with you or feedback to you why he sent the abstract with him as first author.
NB: I use the and not your abstract.

he is the corresponding author again

I see nothing wrong with him being the corresponding author. He might be best placed to handle the 'intricacies' of review process.
Nonetheless, he should have engaged or if it's the rule of the lab, made all aware

@first authorship
You'll need to have a non-confrontational session with him. I'll be able to comment further on this when I understand the dynamics further.
What you can do, is possibly initiate a post abstract session.

  • with the abstract accepted and presented, how can we take this further
  • how do we move to developing to a journal article

If he or they are receptive to the idea, the issue of authorship can sneak in as an important topic.

PS: I understand your question's tag is ethics

semmyk-research
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So a few things:

  • The supervisor being the corresponding author is not as big of a problem. The corresponding author doesn't have to be the first author.
  • Changing the order of authors before sending an abstract without talking it over with the other author(s) beforehand is very problematic. Generally, sending anything anywhere without checking with all authors is unethical.
  • Did they actually mean that they would be first author or is it a shared first author type thing? This might be if the prof. feels that you might not have enough experience to do all the required work by yourself and they envision themselves being as involved as you in the process.
  • The point above you absolutely must discuss with your supervisor. And do so in a factual, calm, matter-of-fact manner. It's sleazy if they sent it off without checking and changed the order, yes. But you still should come off as calm and like you're just discussing a normal matter of authorship. Authorship is something that must always be discussed and your supervisor should see it as completely normal and mature that you are doing so. If they say that they want to be the sole first author, you need to immediately establish what they will do and what your role will be. There are guidelines for that but the minutiae need to be debated in each individual case, since no paper or author constellation is exactly the same. As an example: I co-authored a paper with a student who intended to leave after getting her MA. She explicitly stated that she would not be first author because she just wants to hand me the experiment data she ran and then she's done, she will not embed it into a larger frame, nor will she write up anything. She's there to answer any clarification questions but that's it. So she did the majority of work for the actual experiment, while I just supervised the coding. Yet, she chose to step back from first authorship. That's a decision and that decision absolutely must be stated clearly.
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