Q: Authorship for a thesis being submitted to a journal

Thank you for your query.

As we have previously covered, converting PhD thesis into an academic journal article is fairly common; however, this shouldn’t be done lightly. Let’s look at what the roles entail and why changing your position should be done carefully, if at all.

Authorship in theses and journal articles

A thesis should be the work of a single student. They may be assisted by others, most importantly their supervisor, but ultimately their name will be the only one listed as an author.

Therefore, if a PhD thesis were submitted to a journal as an article, it would be logical for the PhD student who authored the thesis to be the lead author, as this reflects their primary contribution to the research and writing. After them, coauthors would be listed. These could include any supervisors or collaborators who contributed significantly to the research.

Can you change authorship order?

Changing authorship order can raise serious questions. After all, if the article contents are the same as those of the thesis, how can the lead authorship change? Did the other co-lead author write the thesis with you? This would mean something unethical has happened.

Shifting the first author to third and then designating them as a co-lead author needs a solid rationale. Authorship order should represent the actual contribution to the work presented in the article. If the thesis work is used as a stepping stone to a broader or more detailed study performed with another author who contributes equally to the final article, then it would be justifiable for them to be listed as a co-lead author.

When is it not okay?

If your article is essentially the same as the thesis, then changing the authorship would mean academic dishonesty. As mentioned before, it shouldn’t be possible to be the lead author of a thesis but not of an article presenting the same research.

It’s also not okay if the article does contain new contributions from your coauthor, but doesn’t change your status as the main contributor.

Authorship should not be a matter of seniority or doing favors—It should be an accurate account of contributions.

Conclusion

If you have significantly changed the manuscript from the thesis version and another author has contributed substantially, changing the authorship in the way you describe may be alright. Otherwise, I would advise against adding another lead author