Hi friends,

As you know I passed the viva with no correction 2 weeks back. My examiners were very pleased & asked to send the chapters to publish in a journal in which the external is also one of the editors. I have been considering that. Here, my supervisor is now insisting to write jointly. I know it is good for me too to be linked with her but I have some confusions ! What role will she have here? Is the co-authorship fair in whatever I have done? I am in humanities - is it normal to have supervisor as co-author? Which is better - sole authorship or joint? I do not understand how co-authorship fits here? I am confused & cannot decide anything.Please suggest !!! Swetch

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Firstly congratulations on passing your Viva, and with no corrections! Well done!

I always thought it was standard practice in academia to publish work jointly authored with you supervisor? Even if the supervisor didn't actually do anything to contribute.

I co-authored one paper with my supervisor, but he contributed a great deal to the paper. He wouldn't expect it otherwise, I don't think.

Hi Swetch,

Congratulations!

Did your supervisor help you when you wrote your chapter?
If yes, I guess it would be fair to list her as a contributor/editor. I think that if you list her as a co-author, that would mean that your wrote everything together or at least equal parts.
I can't say what is better - solo or joint authorship, because it is important to have both.

Keep me posted!

Thank you all for your suggestions. I am planning to write articles from next week. Indeed, my supervisor was very nice & her suggestions were very important while writing the thesis & I would definitely love to be co-author with her. One thing I am not clear at the moment is whether co-authored articles would be counted while applying researchers or post doc roles. Since I do not have research publications, I am bit worried. Looks like got to have some solo articles as well. Please suggest. Swetch

I am in a science PhD: we always publish as a team. The first author is the person who did the work, last person is the boss. Generally the more authors, the more important the publication.Clearly things work different in your field.

I've heard the record for the number of authors for one paper (in science of course!) is 150...