Your thesis is turning into a paper. Should your supervisor be a co-author, and whose name goes first? Questions about co-authorship with your supervisor are among the most common sources of tension in research supervision, mainly because nobody raises them until the manuscript is almost finished. This guide explains the criteria journals use to decide who is an author, how author order works in different fields, what professional codes say about papers based on student work, and how to agree everything in writing before you start.
This article is part of our guide How to Write a Master’s Thesis by the Mastermind PhD team and relates to our Journal Article support service. Sources last checked: November 2026.
What is co-authorship? Co-authorship means that two or more people are listed as authors of a publication and share credit and responsibility for it. Being an author is not a reward for supervision or funding; under widely used criteria it requires a substantial intellectual contribution, involvement in writing or revising the text, approval of the final version, and accountability for the work.
Who qualifies as an author?
The most widely cited standard comes from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), and many journals outside medicine adopt it. An author must meet all four criteria:
- Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data.
- Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content.
- Final approval of the version to be published.
- Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work.
Contributors who do not meet all four, such as someone who only provided funding, general supervision or language editing, should be acknowledged rather than listed. In practice, a supervisor who shaped the research question, guided the analysis and revised the manuscript meets the criteria; a supervisor who signed forms and read a final draft does not.
How do you describe who did what?
Many journals now ask for a contribution statement using CRediT, the Contributor Roles Taxonomy, approved as an ANSI/NISO standard in 2022. It has 14 roles:
| Group | CRediT roles |
|---|---|
| Planning | Conceptualization, Methodology, Funding acquisition |
| Doing the research | Investigation, Data curation, Formal analysis, Software, Validation, Resources |
| Writing and presenting | Writing (original draft), Writing (review and editing), Visualization |
| Managing | Supervision, Project administration |
Assigning CRediT roles early is a practical way to discuss co-authorship with your supervisor, because it turns a sensitive question (“are you an author?”) into a factual one (“who did each task?”).
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Who should be first author on a paper from your thesis?
The student, in most cases. The American Psychological Association’s Ethics Code (Standard 8.12c) states that, except under exceptional circumstances, a student is listed as principal author on any multiple-authored article that is substantially based on the student’s doctoral dissertation, and that advisors should discuss publication credit with students as early as feasible. The standard mentions doctoral dissertations, but many departments apply the same logic to master’s theses: the person who did most of the work and writing goes first.
Exceptions occur when the paper uses a larger project’s data and the student’s thesis is only one part, or when the supervisor rewrites most of the manuscript after the student leaves. Even then, the reasons should be discussed openly.
How does author order work in different fields?
Author order carries different meanings across disciplines. Tscharntke and colleagues described four common approaches in PLoS Biology (2007):
| Approach | What the order means | Where it is common |
|---|---|---|
| Sequence determines credit | Credit decreases from first to last | Many social sciences |
| First-last-author emphasis | First author did the work; last author led the lab or project | Biomedical and natural sciences |
| Equal contribution | Alphabetical order, no ranking implied | Mathematics, economics, parts of physics |
| Percent contribution indicated | A statement shows each share | Some interdisciplinary journals |
In economics, the American Economic Association allows authors to opt into a randomized order marked with the symbol ⓡ, which shows how strongly alphabetical order is the norm there. If you are moving between fields, ask your supervisor which convention applies to the target journal.
Where does the supervisor usually appear?
In the life and health sciences, the supervisor is typically the last author and often the corresponding author. In many social sciences the supervisor appears second. In alphabetical fields, position says nothing about contribution, which is why a CRediT statement matters there. Agreeing early on co-authorship with your supervisor includes agreeing who will be the corresponding author, the person who handles submission and reviewer correspondence.
What is different for master’s students?
A master’s student usually has less time and less experience with journals than a doctoral candidate, and often leaves the university soon after the thesis is examined. Three consequences follow for co-authorship with your supervisor:
- The supervisor often does more of the writing. Converting a thesis into a paper can take months after graduation. If the supervisor does most of the rewriting, discuss whether order changes, and record the outcome.
- The student may lose access. Agree who keeps the data and files, and make sure you stay on the author correspondence after your university email closes.
- Other contributors may join. A second supervisor, a statistician or a lab member who ran extra analyses may also meet the criteria. Add them through the same written process.
Raising co-authorship with your supervisor at a thesis meeting, rather than by email after submission, also makes the discussion feel like normal research planning.
What are gift and ghost authorship?
- Gift (guest) authorship: listing someone who did not meet the criteria, for example a department head, to gain prestige.
- Ghost authorship: leaving out someone who did meet the criteria, such as a student whose analysis is used without credit.
Both are treated as publication misconduct. COPE’s discussion document on authorship advises journals and institutions to have clear authorship policies and to resolve disputes through the institution. If you feel your contribution is being erased, keep your drafts, data and emails, and raise the issue with the program director or graduate school.
How do you agree co-authorship with your supervisor in writing?
A short written agreement, even an email, prevents most disputes. Cover:
- The working title and target journal.
- The list of authors and their order.
- Each person’s CRediT roles.
- Who is the corresponding author.
- What happens if someone’s contribution changes, for example a new analysis by another researcher.
- The deadline for the first draft and the time each author has to comment.
- What happens if the student leaves before submission, such as a deadline after which the supervisor may lead the paper with the student still first author.
Revisit the agreement when the manuscript changes substantially. Co-authorship with your supervisor should reflect contributions at submission, not intentions from a year earlier.
What if you disagree?
Most disputes over co-authorship with your supervisor come from expectations that were never written down. Start with a calm conversation based on the CRediT roles. If that fails, ask a neutral person, such as the program director or a research integrity adviser, to mediate. Journals generally do not resolve disputes between authors; they expect institutions to do so and may pause the manuscript until all authors agree.
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Frequently asked questions
Does my supervisor automatically become a co-author?
No. Supervision alone does not meet the ICMJE criteria. A supervisor is an author only if they contributed substantially to the research and writing, approved the final version and accept accountability.
Can I publish a paper from my thesis without my supervisor?
Check your university’s rules on intellectual property and data ownership first. If the supervisor made a substantial contribution, leaving them off would be ghost authorship; if not, publishing alone may be acceptable after informing them.
What does “equal contribution” mean next to two names?
It means the authors marked with the symbol contributed equally, usually to the first-author role. It is common in the life sciences when two students share the main work.
Who decides the author order in the end?
The authors decide together. Journals ask all authors to confirm the list at submission, and changes after submission usually need a signed statement from everyone.
Should co-authorship with your supervisor be discussed before data collection?
Yes. Raising it at the proposal stage, when roles are clear and nothing is yet at stake, is easier than negotiating over a finished manuscript.
Sources
- International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors. https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html (accessed November 2026)
- NISO. CRediT: Contributor Roles Taxonomy (ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022). https://credit.niso.org/ (accessed November 2026)
- American Psychological Association. Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, Standard 8.12, Publication Credit. https://www.apa.org/ethics/code (accessed November 2026)
- Tscharntke, T., Hochberg, M. E., Rand, T. A., Resh, V. H., & Krauss, J. (2007). Author sequence and credit for contributions in multiauthored publications. PLoS Biology, 5(1), e18. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0050018
- American Economic Association. Random Author Order. https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/policies/random-author-order (accessed November 2026)
- COPE Council. (2019). COPE discussion document: Authorship (Version 2). Committee on Publication Ethics. https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.3.3
Sources last checked: November 2026. This article is general educational guidance and does not replace your university regulations or your supervisor’s instructions. How we prepare our content.