“If scientists want to convey this information by the way their names are ordered, the method is similar to sending smoke signals, in code, on a dark, windy night,” Rennie says. An unpublished 1995 survey conducted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science—the publisher of Science and Science Careers—found that even editors of clinical journals couldn’t agree on the meaning of author order. In a culture that requires precise communication, the traditional means of communicating author’s contributions is “scarcely scientific,” Rennie says.
The best part?