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I was applying for a research position in a very well known institute in the world yesterday (infectious disease). I have currently published 4 papers in journals and 1 more has already been accepted. However only 2 papers are actually with my name listed as first author while the rest of the papers are with my name listed somewhere along the author list. The institute requires me to only list papers with my name listed as first author. Does being the first author really matter? To think that they don't even want to look at the papers published with myself as third or fourth author really says something

Coder
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alex
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  • Related: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/2467/what-does-first-authorship-really-mean?rq=1, https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/32013/during-applications-how-can-i-prove-i-was-the-first-author-of-the-papers-that-i?rq=1 – Coder Aug 19 '17 at 19:54
  • I think you answered your own question here with your example. Yes it does matter in many cases, unfortunately. –  Aug 19 '17 at 20:15
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    Of course they look at those papers. Even better for you would be if you have a letter of recommendation written by one of the other authors, who knows how much you contributed to the papers. – GEdgar Aug 19 '17 at 20:18
  • This looks like an interesting proposal. I had never thought of such a thing. Would they certify it? – Coder Aug 19 '17 at 20:26
  • Different fields handle author order in different ways. Some go by input (being first author matters), some go by name (being first author doesn't matter). How is it in your field? Besides that I would say it is a bit odd that they ignore non-first author papers, unless maybe the author list is the same as the list of people working at the department. – Mark Aug 19 '17 at 22:20

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