In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:
Is first authorship, second authorship, etc. important in philosophy? I'm working on some coauthored papers and haven't discussed these issues. Not sure whether this is something I should worry about. For context, I'm on the job market.
Good question. One reader submitted the following reply:
Authorship order does matter. I witnesses it myself. First, those reading your file will make judgments on the basis of the authorship order - where I worked previously, files for promotions and raises were reviewed faculty in various departments, and each person tended to read the file and its content from their disciplinary perspective. Second, it is worth having authorship order conversations with collaborators so you do not get into a conflict later. I have collaborated a number of times - most often it is very clear who is first author, but helps to make it explicit.
For what it's worth, I've also heard that putting a footnote on the first page of a manuscript detailing authors' contributions can be helpful (many science journals actually require something like this at the end of papers). Obviously, this won't show up on a CV, but if each co-author contributed equally, noting that in the paper itself might help.
Do any other readers have any helpful advice or other insights? It might be good to hear how people on search committees think about co-authored papers in general, both with respect to the job-market as well as with tenure and promotion.
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