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Does a PhD student and first author choose the journal or their supervisor?

This is in the case where negotiations have failed. Who should get the final say or keeps this right?

Wrzlprmft
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Rain
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    I feel like this might be a bit of an A/B question. If a student and their supervisor disagree on where to submit the article, there are more significant questions to ask than "who gets to pick?". For example, "who's right?". – georgewatson Oct 24 '17 at 18:26
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    It would seem quite likely that the supervisor has a far better feel for the quality of the paper and likelihood of fit, timely acceptance, and publication with different journals. – Jon Custer Oct 24 '17 at 18:41
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    If negotiations over something this small have failed, that relationship has much bigger issues than where to submit a given paper. – E.P. Oct 24 '17 at 21:52
  • @JonCuster unfortunately not the case this time, and I think it's a conflict of interest. – Rain Oct 24 '17 at 21:58
  • Why is it a 'conflict of interest' in any way? Please edit that into the question. A disagreement perhaps, but where is the conflict of interest? – Jon Custer Oct 25 '17 at 13:35

2 Answers2

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All authors have to agree to the publication of a paper, and any author can veto signing away the copyright. So, keep negotiating :)

Lev Reyzin
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  • Isn't it morally wrong and unethical to control a paper that he/she didn't write, and only has their name because they are the PhD 'supervisor'? Isn't there any kind of protection law or even university policy dictating more rights to a 1st author? – Rain Oct 24 '17 at 17:12
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    @Rain Basically, no. – Buzz Oct 24 '17 at 17:14
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    I realize now how important it is to research into a prospective supervisor before researching a PhD topic. Thanks Lev and Buzz. – Rain Oct 24 '17 at 17:21
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    The first author gets no more rights than any other author (and in some fields, like mine, authors are ordered alphabetically). I would say that it is unethical to put your name on a publication to which you didn't intellectually contribute, but once your name is on it, there are no protections to the first author. – Lev Reyzin Oct 24 '17 at 17:35
  • @LevReyzin: once your name is on it, there are no protections to the first author – Only that the supervisor’s name isn’t on it as long as it isn’t submitted … – Wrzlprmft Oct 24 '17 at 18:02
  • And your supervisor can veto your paycheck and thesis. – user71659 Oct 24 '17 at 18:04
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    @Rain: and only has their name because they are the PhD 'supervisor'? – That’s unethical to begin with. – Wrzlprmft Oct 24 '17 at 18:05
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    Publishing and signing away one's copyright are not nearly the same thing. Sometimes publishers demand that you do the latter in order to publish in their journals, but there are plenty of publishers who don't (or don't, under certain circumstances). – RQM Oct 24 '17 at 19:53
  • @user71659 If you think your advisor would actually do that, you need a new advisor. – JeffE Oct 25 '17 at 00:50
  • @JeffE What makes you think that doesn't happen? And there's always "Sorry, we're low on cash, you'll have to TA next semester." – user71659 Oct 25 '17 at 02:36
  • @user71659 Oh, sure, lots of bad things happen, and there are lots of bad people in academia, just like everywhere else. But you don't need to help them. If you don't trust your advisor to treat you fairly, get out. – JeffE Oct 25 '17 at 13:32
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Things you should consider:

  1. Your supervisor has much more experience in submitting papers than you do. It is considerably more likely that they have a good idea where is best to submit your paper than you do.
  2. Almost all journals will be charging a sum of money for publication. What is the source of this money? Who is in control of it? Most likely, it is money coming from funds controlled by your supervisor and not by you. This gives them greater leverage.
  3. Delay in publication due to squabbles over where to publish are likely to harm you more than your supervisor. They, presumably, have multiple papers to their name and probably multiple students producing papers that they will appear on. This is, also presumably, one of your first papers and one you will need to get published to either graduate or land yourself a good job in academia after your PhD.

All these points count against you. You have the right, of course, to fight for the paper to be submitted to the journal of your preference but you should consider whether this is really a battle worth fighting. In my opinion, it is likely you will be better served by choosing a different hill to die on.

Jack Aidley
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    "Almost all journals will be charging a sum of money for publication" - that's not true, or at the very least is field-dependent. In biology, unless you want to pay for gold open access, most journals are free to publish. – user2390246 Oct 25 '17 at 07:56
  • @user2390246: Which major biology journal does not charge for publication? Open access fees are usually higher but, IME, there are charges regardless. And there are also additional charges for colour figures and so forth to be considered - including, absurdly - on online only journals. – Jack Aidley Oct 25 '17 at 08:16
  • Providing there are no colour figures and the article conforms to length requirements: Nature, Cell, Proc Roy Soc B, PNAS ... – user2390246 Oct 25 '17 at 08:49
  • That's a pretty big 'providing' I would say. – Jack Aidley Oct 25 '17 at 08:57
  • @JackAidley It isn't. Overlength? Put in supplemental, or find a different journal (don't put a full-length paper into a letter). Color? You should make B&W compatible figures anyway because many people will print it out on a B&W printer. – user71659 Oct 25 '17 at 15:25