Hey,

I'm right slap bang i the middle. I work from home when I'm too lazy to go to the office, and work in the office if I want to get lots done. I work far better in the office as there's too many distractions at home, but I generally spend an equal amount of time working from both locations.

If you work better at home, work from home. I did that while I was doing my data collection as it was easier, and just came into the office for meetings, but now I have to force myself in everyday to get writing up done or I'd just stare out the window at home!!

As long as your supervisors don't expect you to be in the office at all times, I'd say just stick within your comfort zone, and make yourself available when needed.

Hope this helps!!

Thanks for all your advice and support guys. I set up a meeting with my supervisor today and explained my stance on the matter. He will be checking with the editor about reversing the names and if that doesn't happen the paper will be pulled and re-submitted elsewhere. I feel so much better about the situation now!

You guys are ace!

Ok... my story. I'm a 3rd year PhD student in the process of writing up.

I recently submitted a paper to a journal which was rejected on the grounds it didn't fit with that particular journal. After this, my supervisor was approached by a different journal and invited to submit an article for a special edition. My supervisor asked to use my paper, with co-authorship and I agreed because the journal issue would be a special edition, and I want to get my work seen. I did all the research on my own, and wrote the paper alone, and my supervisor edited the paper, so I was not bothered about the co-authorship.

However, my supervisor is insisting on being first author, and when I questioned this, he stated the editor of the journal had asked him to submit and so this required him to be first author. After having the atricle accepted, I again questioned authorship, because I assume that as the paper has been accepted, the order of the authors should not matter to the journal editors. It should be the content that matters. I was again told that the editors require my supervisor to be first author and will not accept the article if he is not first author.

I feel uncomfortable with this, based on the fact that it is my research, and I did all the work preparing the original paper (lit reviews, methods, findings, discussion, etc). Is this a common thing? I didn't think the order of authors for a paper would be an issue for editors.

I don't know what to do. I can either accept that I won't be first author, and allow the paper to go through, or I can pull the paper and try get it published elsewhere, but fear upsetting my supervisor if I decide on this.

We generally have a really good relationship, and I don't want this to change.