Xjyuk

I (as a Ph.D. student) supervised a master project.

In particular, I defined the problem statement and prepared a sketch of the solution, say, the steps which have to be done to achieve the solution. The master student basically paced those steps which were mostly programming implementations. I composed the paper. Now, the paper is ready to be published, and I'm in a dilemma in selecting the first author of the paper.

On the one hand, I feel myself the right one because I solved the critical part of the problem, and the student just implemented what I had already planned. On the other hand, he may want to apply for a graduate position later, and I understand that he would morally expect to be the first author as this paper is his only serious research touch. My supervisor left the issue to myself by stating that my opinion would be his.

We unfortunately didn't set any specific set of expectations beforehand, particularly regarding papers and authorships.

According to a neutral mind, who does deserve more to be the first author?

PS. The field is electrical engineering.

It would, perhaps, be generous of you to do so, but not necessarily wrong. In math and CS, listing authors alphabetically would probably be appropriate with little or no attention to "first" authorship.

But an academic being seen as generous is not a bad thing. Too many questions here are just the opposite, demanding first authorship, sometimes properly and sometimes not. But such generosity is more typical in a professor with an established reputation than in a current grad student.

But a serious consideration would entail looking at whether the student made a significant intellectual contribution to the work. If not, then first authorship is probably overly generous and might set a bad precedent in the mind of that student.

I'm with your professor on this. Your call. But the advice in comments (BrianH) on setting expectations at the start is good - even essential.

I work in an engineering field, and my PhD students often do what you described. In my opinion, you should be the first author because

• you have set the problem;


• you have set the outline of the solution and supervised the student;


• you have composed the paper.

To grant the first authorship to a master student, she usually needs to

• at least contribute to the development some novel ideas;


• take most of the writing burden.