Order of authors in a list[edit]
Rules for the order of multiple authors in a list have historically varied significantly between fields of research.[27] Some fields list authors in order of their degree of involvement in the work, with the most active contributors listed first; other fields, such as mathematics or engineering (e.g., control theory), sometimes list them alphabetically.[28][29][30] Historically biologists tended to place a principal investigator (supervisor or lab head) last in an author list whereas organic chemists might have put him or her first.[21] Research articles in high energy physics, where the author lists can number in the tens to hundreds, often list authors alphabetically. In Computer Science in general the principal contributor is the first in the author list. However, the practice of putting the principal investigator last in the author list has increasingly become an accepted standard across most areas in science and engineering.
Although listing authors in order of the involvement in the project seems straightforward, it often leads to conflict. A study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found that more than two-thirds of 919 corresponding authors disagreed with their coauthors regarding contributions of each author.[31]