Question

I am a Pharmacology Graduate Student. My two fellow graduate students work in different labs. We have agreed to put each other's names on our manuscripts as we discuss each other's work at conferences and this will triple our publishing productivity. Your thoughts?

Answer 1

Final call on authorship and order of author's (1st, 2nd, 3rd etc.) is taken by professor, therefore he won't put your name on his papers unless your contribution is significant. There is also possibility that professor won't even acknowledge your work. I also faced similar situations where my work was not even acknowledged, thought I worked more than ten months continuously with two different professors during graduation. Next time, I discussed about my master project directly to another professor, where I got my first paper during graduation with second authorship (It took around one year) . Please focus on quality (high impact factor journal and try to get first authorship) not quantity. It takes lot of time to publish a paper in good journal, sometime it get rejected. IF you really want to collaborate with your friends then talk to their professors first, otherwise professor won't mention your name.