What is the norm for academic papers and authorship based on your PhD work? Do all your supervisors automatically have a right to authorship? Can you just work with one particular supervisor for a paper? Or would you always have to include everyone? My university regulations are a bit hazy so I wondered what other people's experiences had been??

It depends on subject and supervisors. So far I've had one journal paper published, and I'm the sole author. I've other papers in the pipeline and I'll be the sole author for them too. I'm a humanities student though. In science it's much more normal to have many authors.

I'm a social science student. Even though the guidelines say there is a difference between providing academic support in the form of supervision and actively contributing towards a paper I have a feeling that they will all want to be listed. I have a large supervisory group.
Will it dilute the relevance of the paper on my CV if I am the first author followed by 4 others?

as long as your first author thats all that matters! and reason you have to have the other authors, is because (im assuming) you didnt do everything on your own, you got some help from the others that are listed.

i have had one paper published, and i am the first author. and then my supervisor is last author. supervisors always want to be last, cause its good for THIER cv and career. and then the other authors, are people that actually contributed to my study. such as the statician and the pathologist, or what not.

but i get to be first author, because I did the study and i wrote the paper. and thats all that matters!

first authorship, is excellent , so well done you

Thanks Lara!
I know that been first author is good so I am certainly not taking that for granted.
I think I am just a little dissolutioned with how academia works. There's an element of unfairness about it. But I guess you have to play the game.
Perhaps I'm not cut out for it though....

I'm in the humanities. So far, I've published one book chapter and have co-authored another one with three others. I am the sole author for the book chapter. My supervisor has never expected to be included as co-author on any of my papers nor would I agree. However, an acknowledgement for reviewing and suggestions is appreciated and only right.

Unless they have actually contributed to the gathering of material and writing of the papers, it seems to me almost unethical to demand inclusion as a co-author. But then, that is what I think. Others might feel different

Hi all.. found a good guide on this topic:
http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=562

lol fantastic find of the comic. i'm a big fan of the phd comics!! the one that i really like is when he's trying to write his thesis and his wife keeps asking him how he's getting on. and he keeps procrastinating. classic!