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Message started by tbc on Sep 15^th, 2010, 12:49pm

Title: IEEE Publication Question
Post by tbc on Sep 15^th, 2010, 12:49pm

Hello,

My friend and I designed an novel circuit, which we are trying to get published. We did the design, got the simulation results and wrote the report to be published.

When we submitted the report to our professor to revise and make changes. What he did was, did the revision, redid layout of the circuit and then placed his name as the first author, made me the second author and my friend the final author. This I think was totally unfair and uncalled for.

Throughout the whole circuit design, he did not help one bit. Now he is hogging all the credit. Whats worse is that he removed the acknowledgment section, in which we state that this was a part of our class project and we thanked the university.

So my main question is does it matter in IEEE Publication, whose name comes first? Also, if someone else sees the paper will he think we did less of the work? Thirdly, is there a way I can put in the paper that we contributed more than the professor.

I am really stuck. I do not want to ruin my chances with the professor because he is also my thesis advisor.

Any suggestions would be welcomed.

Regards

Title: Re: IEEE Publication Question
Post by aaron_do on Sep 15^th, 2010, 6:10pm

Hi,

you are not the first one to say that, and you won't be the last either...

Was it the professor's idea? If so, maybe he feels entitled to be the first author (which is fair in a way). From what you described, the professor did not talk with you before/after changing the authorship. This to me is the thing to be worried about. I think authorship is a serious issue, especially for young professors, and he definitely knew what he was doing when he changed the names around.

For the professor, being first author could help determine his annual bonus/promotions etc. I think in the case of a novel circuit design, most people look at the first author as the person who came up with the idea.

good luck with the paper,
Aaron

Title: Re: IEEE Publication Question
Post by vp1953 on Sep 15^th, 2010, 10:04pm

Hi tbc,

Many years ago, I came with a novel idea on frequency hopping systems and shared the idea with my boss who was very impressed with it. I wrote up a disclosure and sent it to my boss to forward it to the attorney. When the attorney sent me the patent application draft, I saw that the order of the names were changed - my boss became the first inventor (though he did not contribute at all to the idea). I was incensed, but decided to talk to him about this - he readily agreed to put my name first (i suspect not to make a big deal out of this as it would make him look bad).

My suggestion would be - be bold and talk to your professor on why you think you should be the first inventor. Offer to make him the first author if he does not think that you should be the first. You can do this politely and respectfully, and thank him profusely for his minor edits!!! (would be a useful skill to learn to deal with the parasitic types at work place)

Be cautious of course if your prof is the totally unreasonable type and keep copies of all emails, different versions of the papers etc (in case it came to an independent evaluation)

Title: Re: IEEE Publication Question
Post by vp1953 on Sep 15^th, 2010, 10:06pm

Hi tbc,

Needless to say that if your professor came up with the idea, he probably deserves to be the first author.

Title: Re: IEEE Publication Question
Post by tbc on Sep 16^th, 2010, 1:36am

Thank You guys for your suggestions,

Yes I talked to the professor. He said that he put his name first because he wanted to be the corresponding author ( I guess that means that if IEEE wants to contact the people who wrote the paper, they will probably correspond to him ).

Is this true? Does the corresponding author need to be first or can we specify separately the person IEEE needs to be contacting. My friend and I do not have any experience in publishing the paper, so I think its best to make him the corresponding author.

Also, it was not his design. It was our design from scratch and like I said he did not help one bit.

Anyway best of luck to all the people who are facing such a problem.

Title: Re: IEEE Publication Question
Post by aaron_do on Sep 16^th, 2010, 4:50am

Hi tbc,

I can't say for sure, but I think any author can be the corresponding author. And that's not the half of it. In fact there is really no big deal about being the corresponding author. There is really nothing to it. Submission is done through email or online, and requires maybe a simple cover letter. If your paper requires revision then you simply need to go over all the points mentioned by the reviewers and address them one by one. I am quite fresh myself, but I have been the corresponding author for all of my papers including the first.

Anyway I hope your paper submission is successful. The first paper is always a good feeling :D

cheers,
Aaron

Title: Re: IEEE Publication Question
Post by Frank Wiedmann on Sep 16^th, 2010, 5:12am

See also http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/authors/publish/publish_requirements.html. The corresponding author does not have to be the first author. It is common practice to list the supervisor as last author (see http://www.fasebj.org/cgi/reprint/23/5/1283.pdf and http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2247376/).

Title: Re: IEEE Publication Question
Post by vp1953 on Sep 16^th, 2010, 3:12pm

Hi tbc,

The only qualification to be a corresponding author is that you should be capable of checking email and read/write english both of which i think you eminently qualify for :-). Beyond this, no experience is needed to be a corresponding author - be sure of course to go through all the points of the reviewer.